Enter the Age of the Auntie

I know I've been out of 'baby mode' for quite a while now--I was purging Baileys bouncy chairs and baby toys out of the house before she was barely through them, for Pete's sake, but after being baby obsessed for so long and then living in the survival mode that is having two kids 18 months apart, it can understandably take a while for the actual fact to sink in.

This morning I was in the bathroom at Audrey's preschool helping both of the girls wash their hands along side a mother with her 4 year old son and a baby on her hip.  I was pushing the girls along, giving hand washing instructions, trying to get Audrey to class in time and this other mother was doing likewise with her son when I heard her say "I don't know how I'm going to button your pants with one hand".  Without thinking twice I turned to her and offered to hold her baby while she buttoned her kids pants, so she wouldn't have to ask someone else to do it for him or, God forbid, try to spend a half hour instructing the kid how to do it himself while simultaneously trying to find a sanitary surface to put her baby.  And as I handed her little girl back after a few seconds, a sudden realization just slapped me in the face (as so many milestones in my life tend to do): I am no longer a Baby Mama.

I can accomplish most basic daily tasks with both hands.  When one of my kids starts crying, I can talk to them about it instead of trying to figure out what rhythm of body movement and specific altitude will get them to stop.  And although they may not heed my advice or barked orders, they sure as heck can both perfectly understand them.  

Wow.  Why hadn't I thought of that already?

Bailey is turning two in a few weeks.  She's starting to string sentences together and bosses people around almost better than her big sister can.  To top it off, Bailey now only weighs one and a half pounds less than her sister...and she's five inches shorter.  That is 32 pounds of solid Bailey.

I think all signs are pointing at our exodus from the realm of new parenting.  It's kind of coincidental that this particular observation would come today since one of my dearest friends became a Mama today.  Little Andrew Jonathan Creekmore made his entrance into the world this morning and just catapulted his parents into the realm of 'survival parenting', in which one often operates on very little sleep and much chocolate pudding.  It is so easy to accept when those sacrifices are for someone so sweet and warm and squishy.

...not that they don't stay sweet and warm and squishy, they just start to get into trouble and talk back a lot more.

I am ridiculously excited that Andrew (aka Falcon) is here and I have somewhat seriously considered ditching my own children and abandoning John for a few days all so I can hop on a plane across the country and kiss his sweet cheeks.  Enter: the age of the Auntie!

I'm so excited for this transition.  I love my nephews--each and every one of them. And more importantly, I want my girls to be able to know and love them too.  Having a relationship with my cousins was a huge part of my early life and since my cousins have had babies, it has made the expansion of the Pfaff Family feel even more wonderful and meaningful in my adulthood. All of those relationships are rooted in love that was established at a very young age.  So, even though Oliver and Isaac and Luke and now Falcon are far from us, I want the girls to feel the same deep root of kinship.

Needless to say, unless everyone I love suddenly chooses to move to our current location, I think there's going to be some serious pen-pal action in the future.