Every time I see my mom's name pop up on my caller ID my heart bursts just a little and I answer the phone excitedly. "Yeah?!" I say to her in lieu of "hello". I haven't gotten the response I expect just yet, but I know it's just around the corner. My brother, or his new wife rather, is about to have a baby. I've been around babies before, and have never had anything but complete adoration for them, but this baby is different. This is my first niece or nephew (they decided not to find out the sex until D-Day), my parent's first grandchild...the first baby in my our little Hardstark clan. We're all beside ourselves with excitement, obviously.A baby, you guys! Can we give the usual self reflective banter normally found here at The State a rest for a hot minute so I can gush about how fucking excited I am about being an aunt??! Auntie Georgia, fer Christ's sake.
Still, I feel like there is so much riding on this baby because to be completely honest, I'm still on the fence about wanting kids. I mean, forget for a moment the fact that I'm still single as fuck and take EXTREME precautions not to get knocked up, I'm talking about future kids here...way future kids.
Anyway, I adore children, as I mentioned before, and they seem to be quite fond of me, but ya know, they tend to be a little annoying once they get older and, Jesus, they sure are fucking LOUD and OBNOXIOUS and EMOTIONALLY DRAINING at times whereas my cat is very sweet and quiet and pretty ignorable when I want him to be. I'm guessing you can't push a kid off the kitchen table when he tries to force his snout* into your cereal bowl, or lock him in the bathroom when he's being particularly attention-whorey and bitey.
*do kids even have snouts???
Add to this the fact that my big sister is pretty much in the same, if not more anti-kids boat that I am, and yeah, this upcoming baby has a lot riding on his/her tiny little baby head. But really, I have a feeling we're going to spoil this kid rotten. I can't fucking wait.
Are you an aunt or an uncle?? Has it changed your life? Or wait, do you have kids???! Advice/tips/warnings greatly appreciated. Tell me everything Dear Readers, lest I drop this baby and break it, and you only have yourselves to blame.
21 comments:
The most brilliant kid thing I've seen since I became aware of my friends having kids is: teach your baby sign language, because babies can move their hands way before they gain motor control over their own mouths; being able to communicate will cut down on tantrums!
I don't have kids or nieces or nephews. I'm pretty baby-free, actually. Just the way I like it.
Jon is right, the sign language thing is AMAZING with babies. They can communicate! I've never been around babies so they freak me out as well. What does it want? Is it going to shit on me? How do I fix it? Ack. Stressful. I'm just patting myself on the back for maintaining the commitment of my longest relationship (almost 1 year LOL). Never mind a 20 year commitment to Me-Spawn! Eeesh. Congrats to your family!!!!!!!!!!! You'll be an awesome Aunt!
Nieces and nephews are awesome...I have eleven--ELEVEN--of them. You get to be a total grinch about your own uterus, but still cuddle and spoil a kid that you love BUT GET TO GIVE BACK. I also get immense joy from teaching them things their parents don't appreciate, or letting them eat cookies for dinner.
Congrats!
I'm a long-distance uncle to two, but I fully assert my rights as an uncle to get them the best and noisiest toys possible. It gives me great pleasure to know that I'm buying their affection and annoying their parents at the same time. But that takes a while -- with babies, I started out small, Love & Hate scratch mittens, Ramones onesies, 80s and punk lullaby CDs...
http://www.nippazwithattitude.com/mittens.html
http://www.punkrockbaby.com/80sbabycd.html
Good luck, and enjoy!
Gah! Too late for the Wittgenstein onesie!
http://www.custom-kingdom.com/childrens-clothing.html
Gott im Himmel!
I adore my nephew (and niece, although she's more of a baby and less interactive). My nephew especially made me change my mind about not wanting kids myself.
I'm going to become an Aunt for the first time in June and it will be our first Holmes baby. I've only held one baby. One. I feel very unprepared but so excited! Also this helps so my mom will stop asking me when I'm going to have a baby :)
Kids are awesome and I'm not having any!
I have 5 nephews, 2 nieces,
4 great nieces and 1 great nephew.
So excited for you!
Congrats!
~Being Samiantha
Explain, please, these "EXTREME" precautions you take against pregnancy. Vagina dentata? Airbags?
It can go either way. What it did for me was confirm my belief that no one should have kid in their 20's.
I'm the aunt to 6 nieces, 1 nephew - and one more kiddo on the way (let's hope it's a boy for poor Jack's sake!).
I easily say they, each of them in their own way, have changed my life.
And they change your family dynamic completely - something I didn't consider before. It's hard to remember what was so great about family gatherings 8 years ago.
Relish aunt-dom. You will always be cool aunt Georgia . Having a kid will ruin any social life you might have had before, particularly if your group of friends isn't very baby oriented to begin with (think i'm projecting much? haha).
I love my lil' baby dude like nothing i've ever loved in my life. it's a special love and it overwhelms me with how powerful it is. being a mom has completely changed my life (in amazing ways!).
It is also so draining, so exhausting and self sacrificing. There are days that are so totally frustrating i want to put him down and go hide in a closet for awhile.
Sometimes I feel like I've lost my identity as Carla and have simply become "Rhys's mom". It's a lot to swallow. Yet despite all of the ways pregnancy and motherhood has kicked my ass, he is still the best thing i've ever done and i cannot imagine life without him.
It's weird like that. If I had never gotten knocked up and and had kept telling myself I wasn't ready, I don't think I'd ever have been ready.
That shirt is so cute! Can't wait to see the pictures of your little niece/nephew!
Hey! I was in the same boat before May of last year. My baby sister had the first baby of our clan and IT. IS. AWESOME!!!!!! I love my little nephew and yes, we are spoiling and we don't care! Congrats on becoming an Auntie-to-be!!
Aw, this entry came at just the right time. I have 7 nieces and 6 nephews, but I've been an aunt since I was 7 so sometimes I forget how totally amazing it is. Tomorrow I'm driving 6 hours to be with my sister while her oldest daughter is in the hospital with an unknown ailment. All "my kids" are amazing people and feeling a responsibility towards them, a protection over them, is not something I can adequately describe. You'll see. Congratulations! Teenagers aren't as annoying when they're aiming that fire at your siblings, then you can join in and call it bonding.
i have 7 nieces and nephews, a god-daughter and a couple of honorary nieces and nephews. they are the best. they range in age from 18 to 3 months old, and i adore all of them. some of them i am especially close to, and because i don't have kids of my own, i have always been the cool aunt that lives in the city and takes them on adventures (my niece Caroline would tell you the story of when i took her to a bar. . .it was actually just my favorite pizza joint, but silly kid free me didn't realize that it was a 21 and over joint). i also got to use a couple of them as a beard so i could go to an *NSync concert in 2001 and hold on to my dignity.
congratulations!
Don't worry, you're from America. It's your god-given right to lock your kids under the trailer.
My nephew was the first baby and a lot was riding on him too. This aunt got to change the first diaper...and that was the end of my diaper changing career. I love having a nephew and a niece. They always stay cute because they get to go home!
I'm both a terrible uncle and the "cool uncle in New York" because they're in California. I have five nieces and five nephews. One of my nephews is a dick and the rest are really great, smart kids and I miss seeing them grow up. I've often thought I would have kids in the right circumstances but those have proved elusive.
congrats on your impending Auntdom!
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