New Nephew

I had my last day watching my niece last week (I've been doing it a couple days a week after my brother-in-law got a new job). My sister just had her second child (a boy), so she's going to be staying home with her kids for a while. I'm partly relieved: it was a little more work watching her (as she was around a year-and-a-half and into everything), at times I had three kids on different schedules in a 2-bedroom apartment and sometimes she just needed to be held--usually when I needed to get things done.

But I'm also going to miss it: I enjoyed the opportunity to connect with my niece, and it helped for Nils to have someone to play with on some of the mornings Anders was at school. Plus, it's cool to see her grow, too.

Of course, Anders is finished with school at the end of the week. And in less than three weeks we'll be moving into our new house. So, things will be busy enough as it is. And they're close enough that we can get together for play dates as the baby gets bigger--and even before then. That's my 5-year old in the picture, reading to his cousins. He held the baby for quite a while; he really likes babies. It's good his new cousin lives nearby.