Highlights from an Aunt Date

Even though this is a short week for me, it has not gotten off to the best start.  So instead of dumping all of my complaints/woes/worries on you, I am going to focus on the positive and tell you about something fun I did recently!

Last week, I planned my study hours so that I would have my afternoon free to spend with my nephews.  Unfortunately, the younger one (Matthew) was feeling under the weather, so it ended up being just Andrew and I - which was still wonderful.  Here are some highlights from the time we spent together!

- Andrew is part of a chess club so I asked him how it was going and said maybe he could teach me how to play some day.  He responded by asking for my email address and said:  "If you send me your email address, I will send you a screen shot of a chess board with instructions on how the pieces all move."  Who is this person and what happened to my 7-year old nephew?  No really - he knows what a screen shot is? And he followed through on this and sent me a file later that day with a voice recording of how the different pieces move.  He may be more technologically savvy at age 7 than his 32 year old aunt is.

- When I asked Andrew what his favorite class was, I was SO happy to hear that it is reading!  When we got to Barnes & Noble, it was fun to watch him pick out a book as he was so excited to get the latest Captain Underpants book!  In fact, he was so excited to read it, he sat down on the ground and started paging through it while I was picking out a book for his brother.

 - After we had picked out a book for his brother, we headed over to the 'big kid' section so I could show him the Happy Potter books.  I can't wait for him to be old enough to read them!

- We finished the afternoon by heading to Cold Stone for some ice cream.  He picked out raspberry yogurt with sprinkles mixed in. 

We had such a fun afternoon together.  I am so sad that these aunt dates will be a thing of a past when I move to Charlotte, but I feel lucky to have had as much one-on-one time with my nephews as I have had during the years I've spent in Minneapolis.  And I know we'll have more aunt dates in the future, it just might be 1-2 years before they happen on a regular basis again.

Introducing...

Greetings and happy Tuesday, everyone.  This is an especially happy week for me as I have some exciting news to share!

I BECAME AN AUNT AGAIN YESTERDAY!   I am proud to introduce Anna Grace!

I just LOVE her name!  She was born yesterday morning, weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz, and is 20" long.  I see lots of her older brother Kolin in her!

So the boy streak has been broken.  I, of course, would have been happy regardless of the sex - bottomline, healthy babies are a blessing!  That said, it's exciting to have a girl!  As a pink lover I am excited to finally be able to shop in the girl section of stores.  I can buy her books like Madeline and Fancy Nancy.  There will be tea parties and visits to the American Girl store in our future, I'm sure.

Being an aunt is a very special role, and I just feel so incredibly blessed to have 5 nephews and a niece - all of which are healthy, beautiful kids that hold such a special place in my heart.

I will get to meet Anna at the end of October when I go to the Chicago area for her baptism!  I absolutely can't wait to hold her in my arms.  For now, I will have to admire photos from afar.

Do you have any nieces or nephews?  Do they live close to you?  I have 2 nephews in the Twin Cities, 2 that live close to my parents, and now 2 in the Chicago area!