Grace Angelina

On last Thursday, March 29th, my sister gave birth to a healthy baby girl who they named after my paternal grandmother, Grace. She was seven pounds seven ounces... which means absolutely nothing to me, but people kept repeating her weight as if those are magical numbers. I'll tell you what a magical number is: One. As in I am now the number one uncle on the planet Earth. Eat it, Uncle Ben!!!
Both mother and daughter are fine even though Grace was born with the umbilical cord around her neck (apparently happens in 1 of 5 births! Staggering). She was the most alert baby that most of the staff had ever seen... constantly trying to figure out who these people were and what was going on. She also likes to lick things.
I was granted a grand total of ten minutes with just her and me (at least that's how it felt, as everyone else was making sure my sister was alright). She was upset that her mom wasn't around and then I started stroking her cheek... very softly, very gently, with one pointer-finger. Amazingly, this calmed her down. It was the most spectacular thing ever... so visceral, so immediate. There I was, making another human being feel safe and loved, and having her respond to it with such honesty and instinct. She wasn't being nice to me because I'm funny and nice and make her laugh... she was responding positively because I actually made her feel better. If only all my relationships with women were this easy.
Please keep mother and daughter in your thoughts and prayers... and hope there won't be a war waiting for her when she's 18.


This picture was actually taken with my cell phone. How lame is that? In my defense, my camera decided that, even though I had been charging the battery all day, it was going to die on me after about two seconds... so my phone was the only option I had. Here, my mom holds her new granddaughter... already thinking of ways to spoil this girl. I know a way I'm going to spoil her. Three words: Horse. Riding. Lessons.