Bad Days

Dear Sonia,

Yesterday wasn't such a good day for your mom. She has an infection, so she had to go to the doctor and then the pharmacy, and she apparently dinged the bumper of the car. The very bumper on the very car that your mom and dad just spent a bunch of money fixing up!

And, your Papa had to go back to Boston to go back to work! Luckily, your Nana is still there and was able to hang out with you and Simba (and Rudy, too) while your mom took care of herself.

You are 10 days old today. You already had your first doctor's appointment, and you only lost 1 ounce! (And your mom says that ounce was from the gigantic spit-up you did in the car -- all over your adorable go-to-my-first-doctor-appointment-outfit!) You are nursing like a pro, which is a good thing, because apparently your mom is making more milk than she knows what to do with! She's freezing it like crazy. You'll be able to have yummy, nutritious breast milk until you're 5! (Not that you will. That was a joke!)

Anyway, here in Boston, it's raining like crazy today and a water main break messed up all the gas lines downtown this weekend, so lots of the restaurants and bars are closed. There's nowhere to even get lunch! It's probably 75 and sunny at your house in Texas.

Love you,

Auntie K

And now your Papa

Dear Sonia,

Your Papa chose to be called Papa because he loved his own Papa so much. You couldn't be luckier with this one either. (Seriously, you lucked out. Not everyone gets so many great grandparents!) There he is last winter eating a hot dog out at Cobbett's.

Things to really love about your Papa: - He'll always worry about you. - He appreciates the little things in life, like being "on vaaaacaaation" and a good martini. - He skis like a pro! He's a great person to teach you how to drive. - He's fun in the pool! - He cries, at all the right moments. - He really really loves your Nana and your mom, which means the amount he loves you is completely immeasurable. - In your first week of life, he was afraid to pick you up out of fear that he might break you. - He'll show you the stars and the constellations. - His hugs are amazing. - He'll hold your hand and you'll never feel as safe.

There's some good stories about your Papa, too. His corvette was stolen right from his apartment building parking lot with the skis still on top! He used to rub my back every night in my crib as I was going to sleep. He used to do this thing called a "froggie dive" into the pool and your mom loved it. He's had some of the same friends for almost 50 years!

The best part about your Papa is that he just sits amongst the craziness that is our family. He's usually listening and taking it all in (and enjoying a beer or two), but he just doesn't get involved in all the drama that the rest of us do. He provides an unbelievable stability to our family. We get impatient with him sometimes, because he doesn't remember stuff you just told him (or, he does remember it, but just wants to hear it again).

If you ever catch Papa just staring at you, it's because he's trying to figure out how he got so lucky to have a little granddaughter like you.

Again, he's far away from you most of the time, but the time you do have with him will be great. He's not one for email right now, although by the time you are ready to write to him, he'll be hooked, as he claims he's going to learn once he gets to retire sometime soon. He'll take all your school artwork and put it on the wall of fame, just over his desk. (Nana made him clean it up recently, but he still has all these little things up there from your mom, and me and Uncle S. I'm sure it'll be pretty quick and you'll take over all the space!)

My little baby niece, Papa loves you!

Love,

Auntie K

Of the Nanas and the Papas

Dear Sonia,

You should know about your Nana and Papa. Since there's way too much to say about each of them, I'm going to give them each their own post. Let's begin with Nana. That's her hand in the photo, telling someone to wait a minute while she was telling a story in Vermont this past winter.

Oh niece of mine, you are lucky in so many ways! You have a fantastic Nana. She has waited a lot longer than she thought she would to get a grandchild, so she's pretty happy you are here!

Things to love about your Nana:
- she's fun! - she always has an adventure (your mom, Uncle S. and I used to go on "Mummy Adventures" all the time with her) - if you're bored, she'll give you a dustcloth and make you do the dining room, so never say you're bored - if you ask for a creative project, you'll get to do all kinds of stuff! - she's a reader, she'll always read you a book or tell you a great book to read or take you to the library (she's why your mom and I are such amazing readers, too) - she's noisy! - she will teach you how to buy great stuff at a yardsale - she'll teach you how to find a bargain at Marshall's, TJMaxx and a million other places (although, your parents are quite the bargain hunters themselves!) - she can cook! - she throws a great party in the backyard in Chelmsford - she buys great presents - she really really loves all of us.

Nana is the subject of legendary stories. Like the time I was a little baby (your mom wasn't even born yet) and she bundled me up, put me in my car seat, got in the car and drove right through the garage door without putting it up! Or the time she threw up in Papa's glove compartment in his Corvette! Or the time she was mowing the lawn and went right over a hornet's nest and got stung a million times!

Best of all, your Nana listens. She puts herself second and she hunkers down to listen to your big, long, sometimes happy, sometimes woeful story about whatever is going on with you. She doesn't claim to have all the answers (or even one answer sometimes) but she will take the time to listen to you. You can tell her anything. I'm serious. She is my mom, and I told her things that most normal kids never tell their moms. As your Nana, you have even more leeway on that.

I know you live pretty far from Nana, but I don't think that's going to matter all that much. There's planes and Skype and all kinds of ways to make sure that you get to spend great time with her. And you know what? The post office is underrated. Everyone should write more letters (spoken by your Auntie K, who is writing you a blog!).

Enjoy your Nana this next week or so while she's there with you. Of course, you won't remember that she was there from age 1 day - 2 weeks, but she will!

Love,

Auntie K.

Another big primary.

Dear Sonia,

Let's talk about politics for a moment, shall we?

You chose a banner year to come aboard. We have a historic democratic primary going on here in the U.S. A woman and a bi-racial (black & white) man are running against each other. One of them will be our candidate. (I say our because your Auntie K. is a raging liberal left-wing Democrat. It's only gotten stronger as I've aged. But that is a story for another day.)

I am sincerely hoping that when you are my age (in 2043) the very idea that a woman or a person of color could be president is as normal as the sun rising and setting. Right now, though, that is not the case. We live in a time today in which there have only been 2 elected black governors of any state ever (Virginia a while back and now Massachusetts). We live in a time where today, April 22, there is an event at the MA State House about women and wage. Women still earn only $.77 for every dollar men do and today marks the day that women would match their male counterparts 2007 salary (they would have to work through 2007 and up till today in 2008 to match a male salary). We live in a time where race is still a factor in how we feel about other people, without even knowing them.

Back to politics, though. Today is the Pennsylvania primary. Nobody really knew that in a year with the first primary all the way back in early January, we'd be in late April with primaries still mattering and the race still being incredibly close. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could viably be our candidate. The polls this morning are showing Hillary ahead 48% to 41%, but this year, polls have been largely meaningless, with many people having no clue who they will vote for until they actually enter the little booth.

There's been a bunch of brew-ha-ha this year, too. Hillary is Bill Clinton's wife. He was our president from 1992-2000 and he's been shooting off his mouth a bit. Obama's Reverend at his church shot off his mouth about race relations and the state of black people in the U.S. and that set off a whole mess. Obama gave an amazing speech in reaction to that, though, which really helped him a lot. This followed by a statement recently saying that people in small towns cling to religion and guns which, as you can imagine, didn't go over well with the small town livers all over the U.S. (and there are a lot of them). He's now been branded an elitist. Hillary "mispoke" about when she was First Lady and landing in Bosnia where she had to dodge bullets to exit the plane. This apparently never happened. Hillary gets hammered in the media because she can be pretty hardcore in her demeanor and because it's still okay in the U.S. in 2008 to be hard on women. Course, this is just a very quick, un-academic summary of what's been happening.

On the other side, John McCain has been the republican candidate for months now. He's 71 and was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 5 years back in his day. He's a pretty middle-of-the-road republican, which is a good thing, but also a bad thing, because people who aren't die hard dems might vote for him in the end. He's nothing as bad as George Bush, but he's still a republican. I want the White House back!

So, you had the serious misfortune to be born during the presidency of George W. Bush, arguably the worst president we've ever had. (Don't feel bad. I was born during the presidency of Richard Nixon, and he lied and had to resign before we impeached him.) But, you've also been born during arguably the most exciting presidential election we've ever had and the most historical.

Love,

Auntie K.

Boston Sports Happiness!

Dear Sonia,

I don't want to forget to tell you about how great Boston sports was the weekend you were born. On April 19, around the time your mom really started to have a killer time getting you out, the Red Sox beat the Rangers. They beat them again on Sunday night. After not winning a World Series for 86 years due to a horrible curse (which I'll teach you all about), they won in 2004 and again last year in 2007! We have high hopes for them again this year, and they are already number 1 in the American League!

Also on Saturday night, the Bruins beat the Canadiens in Game 6 of the first round of playoffs, sending them back to Montreal for Game 7, which is tonight. Your Uncle S. says the Bruins suck, which I countered with the fact that they are in the playoffs, and he said "Okay, they suck less than they usually suck."

And to round it all out, the Celtics played Game 1 of the first round of NBA playoffs Sunday night and they won too!

Today is Patriot's Day, a Massachusetts holiday which commemorates the Battle of Lexington & Concord in the Revolutionary War. It is also Marathon Monday, the day of the Boston Marathon, arguably the most difficult marathon in the U.S. We have perfect weather for it, cloudy and only about 50ish degrees. Someday you can come here for the Marathon and we'll watch it together. It begins 26 miles outside of the city in Hopkinton and the runners run into Boston. I thought all Marathons were like that until graduate school, when I found out the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. is just run all around the city. I thought that was pretty silly at the time, until I found out it's Boston that's weird!

You may be a Texan, but it's my job to make sure you remain connected to Boston. You should definitely know what happened here on the weekend that you were born. We had a great weekend in sports!

Love,

Auntie K

It wasn't easy!

Dear Sonia,

Well, girl, it wasn't easy, but you're here! Welcome! And happy birthday! April 19, 2008! Quite a historical birthday, considering it was that date that Paul Revere was yelling about on his famous ride the night before! We had plenty of warning about you, too!

Your poor mom. She had to push and push for 2 hours! You kept slipping sideways. And the doctor would right you, and your mom would push and you'd slip sideways again! As a result, you apparently have a huge cone head. You can't tell in your debut photo, though. So all is well.

Your Great Auntie P told me this morning that the women in our family have to work hard for their babies. Apparently! Your birth and mine were both a thing of adventure. I'll tell you the story of my birth one day and we can swap war stories! That'll be fun!

You scared your mom and dad a bit in the delivery room, from what I've heard, but then you cried out and let everyone know you had arrived. I can't believe how cute you are. I mean, I thought maybe you'd be cute, but I wasn't sure. Not all babies are, and another story for another time is how your mom struggled in the looks department when she was tiny. But, Sonia, you are just unbelieveably adorable. Your little round face is so cute and all that hair! You sort of look like an anime character! (Which is cool because Speed Racer is gonna be the big summer movie this year - the year you were born!)

Thank goodness I decided to come to meet you in June instead of waiting for when you come to Boston for Uncle S & Auntie K's wedding in August. What was I thinking? I took one look at your face in the photo daddy sent and fell straight into love with you. I didn't expect to love you this much so quickly. I can't imagine how much your mom and dad must love you.

Well, chick. This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. I think Aunts are just one of the best things around. And you got yourself a kick-ass one, I have to say.

More later, girly, as the week unfolds. You are just shy of 12 hours old. Keep on keepin' on. We love you.

Love,

Auntie K

Your Birth-day

Dear Sonia,

Today is going to be the day (we think)! Your mom, my only sister, went into the hospital last night at 10 to be induced into labor. You were due on Thursday and you weren't looking like you were coming on your own, so the doctors and the hospital and your medical-world parents are taking matters into their own hands. That and the doctor your mom really likes is the one on call today who will deliver you, which is a good thing.

Your grandparents, my parents, arrived in Texas on Thursday from Boston. Your other grandparents live just around the corner, making it easy to have everyone there with you when you arrive.

Right now, it's a little after 10 a.m. in Texas and my mom (your Nana) just called me to tell me that your mom told her that there's still nothing. You aren't making a peep. You are just curled up in your nice warm happy swimming house refusing to come out. And this after months and months of kicking around like a madwoman. You've been moving and grooving and kicking and dancing all over your poor little mom. Three weeks ago, when I came to visit, you were moving so much that I could watch your little hands and legs right through your mom's shirt. Far cry from Christmas, when I had to put my hand on her belly and lay there waiting for you to do something cool.

Your mom just called me! You are so lucky to have been born in a time when cell phones exist and people can stay in touch even when they are in the maternity ward. Apparently, the contractions are getting a little stronger and the nurse is commenting on how sound of a sleeper you are. (This to compensate for dancing around so much when you are awake, I think.) Here's hoping that you sleep as soundly after you arrive.

Your Uncle S., Auntie K, and I are going to be together tonight, out hearing someone's sister's band. I love that all three of your maternal aunts and uncle will be together on the day you are born.

A spring birthday! The best time of the year (here in Boston, anyway). Things are growing, little flowers are popping up all over the place, fresh life, gorgeous sun, and new green! You'll get that every year for your birthday (although, I'm not clear on how that works in TX, but we'll see.)

Well, little girl. I already love you and you aren't even here yet. Best of luck coming out! It's an great world out here. You'll dig it, I think. There's some bad stuff, and some painful stuff now and again, but mostly, it's a big place ready to be explored and lived in and enjoyed. We'll do a lot of that together. See you soon!

Love,

Auntie K