I'm an Auntie!!!

Hold your squealing and exclamations of surprise, Kira and Zac have not managed to keep you in the dark for the past nine months. As exciting as that might be, I'm pretty sure that a situation would never arise in which I would be allowed to announce the arrival of her child. What you may not know is that Kira is not my only sister. In fact, I have three older sisters, Kira, Britney and Lexy. Well, my sister, Alexis, just had her first baby. And I have decided that I will be the Auntie. Her name is Taylor Evelyn Perry and she is just the cutest little thing with the chubbiest little cheeks! When I sent a congratulatory text to Lexy welcoming the "tiny Perry" to the world she quickly informed me that her child was in no way 'tiny.' Apparently mommy wasn't too fond of the fact that her child decided to take an extra week to beef up for a final weight of 10 lbs. Yipes! Lexy says that when you hold her a certain way she looks like Jabba the Hut (Mean mom) but I think she is just so stinking cute and I love her chipmunk cheeks. If I was a faster runner I would have taken off with the little girl right then and there. Well, that's what I thought until I actually had her in my arms. She still remained the cutest little baby but I quickly realized that although I have many talents, a natural ability to care for children is not one of them.

Little babies are just so cute in all of their tiny-ness that I want to just scoop them up and snuggle them. However, once I actually have a baby in my arms I suddenly become very confused and afraid to move. Actually, I feel a lot like Lenny, from Of Mice and Men. Babies are just so flopsy and fragile, and I'm so clumsy that it seems like a horrible combination. Plus, the second a baby is placed in my arms I hear my mom's voice saying "now, Kayla, you have to be very careful, I'm going to put this baby in your arms and then I don't want you to move." This was good advice when I was five but you would hope by now I would be able to safely hold a child. I'm just not sure though... I've lived in the same house for almost 17 years and I still run into walls and door frames. Obviously I'm not a quick learner and I figure, it's probably best that I do a minimal amount of moving. This approach however, tends to lead to some uncomfortable situations for both myself and the baby as you can see from the pictures below.

No, I really can't explain why I felt it necessary to hold my wrist in that strange position. Maybe I was afraid the sleeping child would randomly roll out of my arms unless I had that extra, rather creepy looking hand, holding her to me...

So, if you ever feel that your little baby doesn't appreciate you as he/she should, just hand him/her over to me for a few minutes of intense awkwardness and your baby will never want to leave your side again. I mean, just look at how content little Taylor is to be with Mommy and Daddy in this picture.

Maybe one day that instinct will kick in and suddenly I will know how to hold a baby but until then I guess I will just have to stick to slightly larger children that are a little more durable...

Congratulations on the ADORABLE daughter Ben and Lexy!