The Blessed Event

My sister had her baby on Saturday, January 13th—two weeks early. She went to the hospital on Friday night, and here I was, oblivious to the whole thing. I’d had a good, solid week out with the monkeys, so I was positively jubilant about taking the weekend off to relax. On Saturday morning I had a lovely breakfast, did some reading, and went on a 10K run. Little did I know. When I finally got online late in the afternoon, my mom instant messaged me to tell me that Michelle had been in labor all night and all day.

I think by the time my nephew finally met this world, I was bouncing along in the back of a truck headed to San Ramon. I’d promised Alvaro that I’d give a talk about my project to some pre-med students doing a field school here. I don’t have any idea what I must have said in the talk; my mind was thousands of miles away. As soon as we got back to the hacienda, my mom and dad called to tell us that the baby had been born, he was healthy, and my sister was doing well.

I still haven’t talked to my sister, but I talked to her husband. He said, “Don’t let that sweet exterior fool you; your sister is tough.” Given my penchant for toughness, he couldn’t have chosen a better compliment. Beauty and sweetness will only get you so far in life: toughness is what its all about.

Now I’m officially an auntie to two nephews (Rob’s brother and wife have a little boy), plus Bryn, plus little Miss C and little Mr. E. When I was growing up, my own Auntie was so cool (and she still is). She had a puppy dog and she lived in a condo that had a swimming pool (which made me think she was always on vacation even though she wasn’t), and she took us to the Dairy Queen. I hope my nephews don’t think of me as the crazy monkey lady who lives far away and they never see. I’ll have to work on that.

Thanks for reading!
Auntie M.