There's nothing like seeing your kids play with your brother's newborn.
They're a full-fledged generation now. The next wave of our family.
The trip was hell – both kids got carsick (TB several times), traffic was insane, and apparently nobody in the greater District of Columbia owns a snow shovel. Whomever designed the street layout around DC needs to be severely beaten about the head and face.
But it was worth it.
Little One was even cuter than in her pictures. She has that new-baby smell, and that way of burrowing in your neck when you hold her. She loves to be held facing outward, so she can see the world. She's also got a pretty good left jab. The Boy was especially taken with her. (The Girl was more interested in the cats.) We got some great pictures of the three kids together.
Having done the new-parent thing recently enough to remember, my group stayed in a hotel. Asking badly sleep-deprived new parents to host an entire brood for a weekend would be cruel and unusual. (I also had visions of a crying baby waking TG, who would then wake TB, and so on, in a domino effect of sleep deprivation.) It was lovely to feel like a real grownup, shepherding my kids to see their new cousin.
Talking to my brother father-to-father was different, too. He gets it now. He understood before, but he gets it now.
We're the grownup table now. The kids' table is starting to fill out.
I know this isn't really news to anyone else, but there's something just a little clarifying about seeing the next generation of the family smiling at you on the couch, laughing at fart noises.
