Monday, December 20, 2010

Merry Christmas!


Hey Sage,

Merry Christmas! It's your first one! You won't remember much, but we'll all remember it for you! Your Nana and Papa and Uncle S are all coming to spend it with you. I'm sure you'll look super cute in whatever dress Mommy puts you in.

My wishes for you this Christmas are these:

- that you grow up healthy and happy.
- that you and your sister have a wonderful relationship and love each other even through the fighting, which is inevitable!
- that you learn that screaming every night is no fun for anyone.
- that you know how much your Mommy and Daddy love you.
- that you know how much the rest of us love you - A LOT!

I'll miss you this Christmas - I'm going off on a vacation to Puerto Rico with 4 of my friends (someday you'll be jealous that I did that or you'll do it yourself!). I'm coming to see you in January though, in only a few more weeks. I'm really looking forward to meeting you.

Much love, Sageness.

Auntie K

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Those Eyes!


Hey Sage,

Your eyes are enormous. They are so cute!

You will be 8 weeks old tomorrow! Congrats. Doing well.

Now if you can just stop screaming for a few minutes, that'd be awesome.

You did finally learn to take a bottle yesterday, though. That's great news!

More later, lovie!

Love,

Auntie K

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

SMILE!

Hey Sage!

Guess what? Mommy texted me yesterday and this is how it went:

Mommy: Sage is smiling back already!!
Me: No suh! It's gas! :) (Just so you know, "No suh" is a Boston-accented derivative of "No, sir!" and is often evoked by Bostonians of a certain age - not sure the kiddies here still say this - as a general way to say "No way!" or "That can't be!")
Mommy: No really...she is.
Me: That's awesome. Another genius! (This is a reference to the fact that we've been declaring your sister Sonia a genius since she was about your age and started smiling.)

So, girly, you are already setting the bar very high for yourself. If you start smiling at only 5 weeks old, chances are we'll expect you to do other amazing things as well. Are you sure you want to be such an overachiever? You come from a long line of them, so I'm not sure you can help it.

Now, we just wait and see if you are afflicted with the bane of the Adkins existence - the inability to smile on cue. Nana has this problem, I do, your cousin Annabelle does, and your sister Sonia does. Perhaps it will skip you; it skipped your mommy, so there's hope yet.

Love you, your Sageness.

Auntie K

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Too much crying....

Hey Sage,

Mommy is hoping that some new medicine will help your reflux so you can stop crying so badly every night. Poor little girl!

Love you,

Auntie K

Monday, November 15, 2010

This Face

Hey Sage,

This face in the group of photos Mommy just sent was too good to pass up posting.



Love it!

Love you!

Auntie K

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Some Peeps You Should Know About

Hey Sage,

So your Nana and Papa left this past weekend to come back to Massachusetts. They spent lots of time with you in the beginning! You should check out the posts on Sonia's blog about each of them since they are pretty cool people and they love you so much. Nana's is here and Papa's is here.

Then there's our whole crazy family! This picture is of Papa's side of our family at Thanksgiving last year. You'll meet them all soon enough! Everyone lives in Massachusetts or very close by in New Hampshire (except cousin M, who lives way out in Denver and you'll probably meet her first since she sometimes meets up with your family to ski in February!).



And these are your second cousins on your Nana's side. They can't wait to meet you either! They all live in Buffalo, NY.



You also have a ginormous family on your Daddy's side, but I'm only responsible for your Mommy's side, so there you go.

We all love you so much and most of us haven't even met you yet. That's a pretty good way to start your life, I think!

Love,

Auntie K

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Your Birth Announcement

Hey Sage!

This came today via email from your Daddy. I thought it'd be nice to put it here so you always have it. Love, Auntie K

Dear Friends & Family,

Please join us in welcoming Ms. Sage [your middle and last name] to our family. She was born into this world on October 21, 2010 at 10:42 AM. She weighed in at 7 lbs, 3 oz. and measured 20". I am enclosing a photo of her 1 minute after entering our lives.



Mom, Dad, and big-sister Sonia are doing well. Sage is a happy, content baby.

We hope that you will come to visit us in the near future!

With love,
S, S, S, & S

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Mid-Term Elections

Hey Sage,

When your sister was born, it was smack in the middle of the race to the primaries of 2008, one of the most historical elections ever on record. And now here you are, born only 12 days before the 2010 mid-term elections, also very important. I thought you should know what is going on as you begin your life in the world of U.S. politics (from the view point of your VERY liberal, bordering-on-socialist Auntie).

Things are a bit crazy. Barack Obama was elected only 2 short years ago, and everyone's all mad that he's not fixed everything already. And he inherited a big mess. Bush got us into a fake war we never should've been in and spent all our money doing that. He also bailed all the banks out so the global economy wouldn't disintegrate. Our economy is a mess and unemployment is pretty bad. There are a lot of people without enough money and without enough to eat, even. Health care is also a mess. Obama is working on fixing it, but some people are hellbent to call it a failure before it even begins.

So this new group called the Tea Party came along last year. They are basically protesting everything under the sun and want everything to change. They hold rallies and Sarah Palin is their grand poobah. They claim she isn't, but she is. She's an idiot. She used to be Governor of Alaska and then she ran for VP with John McCain in 2008 and lost and then her teenage daughter got pregnant in the middle of all that even though Sarah goes around spouting on about family values. Then she resigned the Governorship before her term was over, I guess to just go around spewing more idiocy to lead up to a presidential run in 2012, which is just scary, amazing and hilarious all at once. And her stupid daughter ended up on Dancing with the Stars. (Our country is a little crazy sometimes.) Click here for a clip as an example of her inability to even make a basic statement of any kind.

That was a big digression. Back to the Tea Party. According to Wikipedia, the greatest thing ever that you should never cite in a paper for school, the movement's primary concerns include, but are not limited to, cutting back the size of government, lowering taxes, reducing wasteful spending, reducing the national debt and federal budget deficit, and adherence to their interpretation of the United States Constitution. They are basically the antithesis of the Obama administration. They aren't a party and they don't have candidates, per se, but they endorse, and it seems to make a big difference.

It's looking like the Republicans are going to take over everything after this election. The Dems have had control in DC for the past two years, and that is likely over. But that happened to Clinton in '94, and since he was willing to cross over and work well with them, he was still re-elected in '96. That could happen again, assuming all goes well with Obama being able to work with them instead of them just making his life miserable as part of their mission in life. Clinton made some concessions that were "middle of the road" back then that have got us in some annoying situations as a result (See Don't Ask Don't Tell for instance). Compromise can be tough. So we're really unsure what will happen in 2012 and whether Obama will even get a chance to really make a difference. Just today, on Facebook, I posted a post about voting, and one of my friends who is British and lives in Copenhagen said this in response: "...and please do the rest of the world a favour and give Barack a chance to actually make a difference. Can't believe how fickle some of the American public are - at least that's the impression we're getting over this side of the Atlantic. Would loved to have seen how GWB or McCain crinkle chips would have coped with the global recession. Wow look at me getting all political and it's only Monday." In other parts of the world, they see that Obama is good for our relationship with other countries, but people here often can't see past the expanse of their back yards, so they don't really understand that.

There are a record number of Governorships up for grabs as well. 37! And it looks right now like Republicans might take more than they have in over 90 years. And since the decennial census was taken this year and those numbers are going to effect lots of things in states, what party a governor is really matters. Luckily, here in MA, it looks like we are going to re-elect our Democrat, but I think partly because the GOP candidate is just not that great. If there was stronger opposition, I'm not sure what would happen. We're known as being very blue, but we had a GOP Governor in Mitt Romney and we gave Ted Kennedy's senate seat to Republican idiot almost on par with S.P. back in January. So you never know. In your state, you have the Republican incumbent running for a third term against the former mayor of your city, Houston, who is a Democrat. It looks like your Governor will stay Governor, and his third term is unprecedented.

So tomorrow is it. We'll all go vote and we'll see what happens. Some people, like your Papa, vote against any incumbent regardless of anything else every time. I personally think (and your Nana thinks) that this is kind of juvenile, since it would be nice to have someone who knows what they are doing around sometimes. But Papa insists that they are all corrupt and should all be voted out every time.

Okay, I guess that's enough. I just thought you should hear some of what's going on in politics when you were born.

Friday, October 29, 2010

I See You!

Hey Sage,

I got some photos of you today. I've been waiting patiently since so much craziness has been going on at your house. You are so pretty! Look:



I'm not really for gender-stereotyped colors, but girl, you look awesome in pink!

Here's you in your hospital bassinet. So peaceful!



And your sister holding you! She loooooooves you.



And finally, the photo in which you look impossibly small, because Papa, who looks impossibly big, is holding you. Look! You're barely as long as his forearm!



You look so much like Sonia did when she was a baby. I wonder how you will grow and change and look different than she does as you get older? It will be really cool to find out!

Love you!

Auntie K

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Too Much Milk!

Hey Sage,

Word on the telephone wires (or not wires, but the wireless satellites) is that your mommy is making so much milk that everyone's having problems. You eating, her being in pain, your Nana who is amazed.

I looked back and saw that when your sister was only 10 days old, I mentioned that your mommy was making so much milk then, too. I'm not sure if this is more or the same or what!

Happy one-week! You've been around for a whole week! That's super exciting. Your sister is warming up to you, too, which is great. That might get tougher before it gets better again, but we'll see. My friend A told me a story yesterday about a friend of hers who had a 2-year-old and then the baby was born. After a few weeks, the 2-year-old announced one day "I just don't think this is working out!" But now they are super-buds. Everyone works through their stuff.

We are still awaiting photos of you. Your daddy's been super busy since you were born. Nana did send one of you yesterday on her phone of Papa holding you. Either you look tiny or Papa looks enormous, depending on how you think about it. But, both those things are true, so maybe it's just the way it is.

Okay, girly. Have a great one-week birthday. Celebrate it by drinking some milk, having a good poop, and sleeping 4 hours at a stretch.

Love,

Auntie K

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Ladybug!



Hey Sage,

Your mom and sister decided that they will call you Ladybug for fun. And today, I saw this little metal ladybug embedded in the floor of the playground at the Frog Pond in Boston. It reminded me of you!

Love,

Auntie K

Friday, October 22, 2010

Day 2

Hey Sage,

I heard you this morning! I called your mom to see how you guys were doing, and you were eating and crying and eating and crying and sucking and crying. I got to hear your powerful lungs for myself over the phone. You sound great!

So your name. We thought it might be Sage. But Mommy totally had me fooled by claiming adamantly that it wasn't going to be Sage after all. I believed her! And then you were born, and we found out this is your name! I, for one, am pretty psyched about it. I think it's gorgeous! It's unique and interesting and pretty.

First of all, in 2006, it was only 415th in popularity in the U.S. Let me tell you, as someone whose name was 25th most popular the year I was born, you are glad about this. You won't graduate from high school with 42 other Sages. I even had 2 other people with the same first and middle name as I in my class in high school! This for sure won't happen to you with a middle name like "Boss"!

Three celebrity kids are named Sage. Sylvester Stallone's son, who was born way back in 1976, Toni Collette's little girl born in 2008, and Tracey Gold's (of Growing Pains fame) son born in 1997. Two boys and a girl. You round that out nicely.

You are also named after a spice! Simon and Garfunkel sing about you. There's an entire album called Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, with a song called Scarborough Fair. Listen here. This is the album cover: Pretty cool!

Also, sage is a way to cleanse and bless your house, a process also known as smudging. You are supposed to carry it through the house letting the smoke fill each room and each corner. Sage is burned in smudging to drive out bad spirits, feelings, or influences, and also to keep bad spirits from entering the area. I know a few people who do this regularly and it not only smells great, but its a great way to keep things pure.

There's a town in Arkansas called Sage too! Cool!

You are lucky to be born into a time when there is an internet page for just about everything. I got all this info from this! Lots of interesting things about your name.

I call your sister Sonia-ita, using the Spanish diminutive ending. Your name doesn't work with that, really. So I did some research on diminutives in other languages. Lots to choose from. I'm between -ele, which is Jewish, and -ina, which is Italian. So it would be Sagele or Sageina. I am going to try them both out and see which I end up liking better.

You've not even been here 24 hours yet, so there's plenty of time to figure this stuff out.

Love you so much already,

Auntie K

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

Hey Sage,

You were born today! October 21, 2010. You are a Libra, the sign of balance. Oh, good. We can always use someone balanced in our family!

It's your first day in the big world. Welcome! We're so glad you are here! And we're so glad to know your name! We've been dying to know for months now. We knew your sister Sonia's name way before she was born, but your Mommy and Daddy kept yours a secret!

Welcome also to your own personal blog, just for you, from me, your Boston Auntie. Sonia has one too. You can look at it here. I figure you should hear all about cool stuff that you did when you were small and visits we have and other things I think you'll like. And then when you get older, you can read these little letters from me to you!

Here's some things you should know. I've been keeping a little list so I wouldn't forget to tell you some things in your first post ever from your Auntie K!

- Your Mommy had orange toenails when you were born. She went and got a pedicure last week so she'd have cute toes for your big debut, and your sister chose the color. Now, you must realize that Mommy put the kibosh on green and on blue before Sonia arrived at orange as a choice. It matches your birthday month - October is Halloween and Halloween is all about orange. The day Mommy went to get them painted, Sonia was at school, and when your mom picked her up, she was squealing with excitement to see Mommy's toes. (Update: Tonight, Mommy told me that she changed her toes! After she went for her regular check up on Tuesday, and found out it looked like you weren't coming soon, she got all annoyed and treated herself to another pedicure (and a manicure!). So her toes are more pink than orange. Your mom doesn't often have polish on her finger nails, though, so your sister was very surprised. She even pointed it out to your dad!)

- You've been sidewinding for a long while. You've been laying sideways in Mommy for a long time and you've been stretching out like crazy, driving your Mommy crazy. You turned around at one point and we thought you were all set to be born, but then you laid sideways again! Your mom read way too much stuff online about all the horrible things that could befall you if labor started while you were still sideways - like you rupturing her uterus or your cord getting stuck in her cervix. Crazy stuff! None of it happened though. You turned head down just like you were supposed to and out you came after only 59 minutes of pushing, which compared to your older sister, was a walk in the park!

- At 7a this morning, I talked to your mom who was 7 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced. That is all good news! She didn't sleep much last night. She stayed up all night waiting for you to work yourself out! Then, at 8:50a, a text came from Nana and she said that your mom was 9 centimeters and her water broke! Everything seemed to be moving along well. And then, at 10:52 your daddy texted us this: "baby born! healthy! call later." It was awesome, especially considering it was only 10 minutes after you were born!

- You are super considerate, girly. You waited for Papa to arrive in Houston to come out. You decided to be born in the morning, when your sister was at school and all was easy. So nice of you! Your Nana will be there tomorrow and when you get home from the hospital, she'll be there waiting for you!

We are all very happy to hear you are here in the big world with us. Enjoy your first day out. As soon as Daddy sends me a photo of you, I'm going to fall head over heels in love with you. I can't wait.

Love,

Auntie K