Our new little cousin/niece is finally here and we are all simply smitten with her.

Amelia Hope arrived on MY birthday (I guess it is now OUR birthday), cinco de Mayo, just under the wire at eight minutes before midnight.

We all trekked up to the hospital to officially welcome her yesterday, and Em got to hold a not-even-24-hour-old baby for the first time. I think she kinda liked it.

What am I saying? I know she LOVED it. In fact, she is bordering on infatuation with the new baby. She wants to know when Amelia will be home, when we will get to go see her again, when can she help babysit!

I have to say I was pretty impressed on how natural Em was with the baby, she was completely unfazed as she reached to take Amelia out of Uncle Jeff’s hands. I had to intervene and make sure she sat down first before holding the baby, but then she settled in and both girls were completely content and happy to meet each other.

For me it was incredibly surreal to see MY baby, holding a baby like she was just born to do it. I had a weird little minute where I sort of flash forwarded and imagined 20 years from now and Em holding her own baby.”  (Not that I’m in ANY hurry at all…20 years ought to be good!)

I think it is safe to say we all think Baby Amelia is practically perfect in every way. Welcome to the world, sweet baby. We love you already.

And congrats Aunt JB and Uncle Jeff! We couldn’t be happier that you get to experience parenthood and am most certain you are going to be terrific parents! Just remember the old saying “the days are long, but the years are short.” I know that it already feels overwhelming and a pretty big hill to climb, but before you know it, Amelia will be 10 years old and figuring out how old she has to before she can babysit, too. So as much as you can – enjoy the journey. And for goodness sake…sleep when the baby sleeps!  xoxo