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

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

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

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

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