Garbo

I'm an aunt. As of yesterday. My sister A had her baby - to be named Greta Mae. I'm planning on calling her Garbo, for obvious reasons. I'm an aunt. Hooray! I'm sad I don't have any pictures of her to put up here, but that's probably for the best, since newborns usually look a little squashed and overly pink.

When we first found out A was preganant M-Lite and I got all excited.

M-Lite: We're going to be aunts!
me: Yeah, we'll be able to lift ten times our own body weight.
M-Lite:Aunts, not ants, you fool.
me:Oh, right.

This is the first niece - my parents are now grandparents, which is really weird to me. It's probably not so weird to them though. My mom has been buying toys the last few years. A train set, a little red rocking chair, etc. One day a small kitchen play set appeared in our front entryway.

Dad: What is this doing here?
Mom: Oh, I found that at Goodwill.
Dad: Well, why isn't it still there - what are we doing with it?
Mom: It's for the grandkids.
Dad: We don't have any grandkids.
Mom: But we will.

Or at least that's how I tell it as happening. Anyway, my mom is flying to Idaho on Saturday to see A and the baby and help out for a few days. M-Lite and I will probably go sometime in March to visit, seeing as how we only live a few hours away. However, in April or May, A, B, and baby Garbo are moving to Pennsylvania, which means that I probably won't be seeing this kid for a long while. This is a shame really, because I will be an excellent aunt.

I told my coworkers that I was an aunt now, and they said something about me being able to spoil my niece. I cried out in horror, saying that nothing could be farther from the truth. Let me speak plainly - I do not believe in coddling children - working at a preschool for almost 4 years has taught me that. Should children be looked after? Fed and diapered? By all means yes. However, it is wrong when people go to the extremes trying to make their children happy. A pony? Trips to the Bahamas? Personalized baby stationary? Trombone lessons? A Power Wheels convertible? This is madness I say! Give them some masking tape to play with. Better yet, some blocks - you can make anything you want out of blocks. What ever happened to playing peek-a-boo or having a pet rock? My children are getting nothing but rocks to play with - rocks and whatever else they can find in the backyard.

Okay. I'm done ranting about parents who want the best for their children, because I didn't mean to get off on this tangent.

In other news, there's a Happy Pirates show tonight. Hooray for pillaging. Shows always make me nervous, but I do better at shows than in practice, which is a good thing, to say the least. If these people weren't getting in free I'd be tempted to give them a refund. Also, I became a pirate last January, so it's been over a year now since I signed my soul away. I'm glad. Krebscout and I joined at the same time, and I wasn't sure at first whether I wanted to join or not. I was scared then. I'm still scared now. I guess that's half the fun.