More babies?!

More babies. Yup, more babies.

I can remember the moment last spring when Emily sent us the email with a photo attachment… of a ultrasound. The wino listserve (yes, our emails have a name) blew up with excitement and joy. And here it is, less than a year later and one of my best friends is a mother to a sweet little girl named Claire Louise.

Claire was born on January 13th, and this last weekend she got to meet all her wino aunties. Pam flew down from Boston, Shelby from Chicago. Jess drove down from Charlottesville 2 days before her PhD dissertation, and I drove over from Winston. Jenny opened her condo up to us in Raleigh, and on Saturday we rang the doorbell of Emily’s house to meet our precious niece.

The winos' best friendship was cemented our senior year in college (2003) and we’ve traveled back and forth across the country two or three times a year for vacations together, bachelorette parties and showers, weddings, celebrating graduations, running races together, and of course, our wine country mecca last March. There was no question in our mind that when our first wino niece made her grand entrance, there would be a road trip to meet her.

She is absolute perfection. And her momma? Calm and peaceful like she has been doing this her whole life, instead of just 3 weeks. (And her daddy? Eager and proud to show us every picture and video that she’s starred in since her arrival in this world.) The love in that little living room was something else.

With Auntie Shelbs

With Auntie Pam

It’s a different thing, when your besties start having kids. I’ve already done the mental math to determine that her Wake Forest graduation will be in 2033. Maybe we’ll have a winning football team by then. I’m wondering if we’ll all be the crazy old ladies dancing at her wedding, while she rolls her eyes, embarrassed at her mom’s friends. (Yes, of course we will.) I can’t wait to see her grow up and see what traits of her momma’s she will inherit. If she’s lucky, it’ll be the ones that make her as wonderful a friend as her mom is. Although it wouldn’t hurt if she inherits the ability to make the most amazing lemon poppy seed bread ever. That one would serve her well, too.

Hi, sweet Claire. Welcome to the world, little girl.