Introducing the Latest Members of the Family...

Here is my new niece, Brooklyn Lori Elizabeth. Her features are fine, she is dainty and looks like a perfect lady.



Here is Tristan.... I love this picture. He looks so much like the Precious Boy did when he was born, almost EIGHT years ago. I love the family resemblance here, how even though so many years have passed by, our genetics don't seem to change at all.



Here is The Princess, kissing her new baby brother.



I was very distraught to leave the babies and The Princess last Saturday. I have the long weekend off, the whole thing, four whole days, and I was planning on going down South to see Mal for the weekend. But when I left the hospital, and again when I left my brother's house, I felt like weeping for hours on end.

I never get to see my brother's family, in part because of the ridiculous hours I work, and in part because they live so far away. My niece has her first ballet recital this coming Saturday, and I'm going to be on a train to drink my face off?

Of course, I love Mal. I need Mal. I feel empty when Mal is not a regular presence in my life.

But those babies, that toddler...

They are my family, and I need to see them.

So this weekend, instead of drinking my face off down South, I plan to go up to visit the newest members of my family, to smell their perfect, velvety soft baby heads, to hold them in my arms and kiss them and admire them; I plan on watching my niece dance her little heart out; I plan on seeing my brother and their wife and I plan on being happy with my decision.