Jooj

For those of you who remain ignorant to the glorious bit of news--which probably means that you're not remotely my friend because I've been texting/facebooking/g-mail-statusing it all the time--I am officially a first time aunt. Julia Mae Smith was born July 14th, and she's most definitely the best niece ever. She's all pink and squishy and she located her fingers within ten hours of out-of-the-womb life and apparently thinks them delectable. Alas, I have only been able to visit her once--and alas thricefold, I have yet to hold her since I have a cold--but what a visit it was.

The absolute highlight was watching my little brother Dan hold her. My dear readers who are unfamiliar with Dan should know that he's usually extremely reserved when it comes to people and situations he's not completely familiar with, so we weren't sure exactly how he was going to react to this sort of red, squishy, drooly thing his family was making him hold (considering a new baby is both persons and situations unfamiliar to him). Dan sat in hospital chair that completely dwarfed him, and Dad arranged JuJu carefully in his skinny arms, and Dan sat for about fifteen minutes with a huge grin on his face just giggling.

New favorite memory? I think so. I've taken to just reflecting on it in my spare time to make me smile.

Julia is three days old, and these are the things I know about her so far:

• I want my particular special nickname for her to be Jooj.
• At this point she seems to take after both her parents equally--she's pretty fat (nine pounds! that would be Michael, he was a fat baby), and also tall (21 inches, if I remember correctly, which is all Sarah because Smiths are short). As of yet her face is still working on being unsquishy, so it's hard to tell whether she looks more like a Smith or a Sharp.
• As I have mentioned, she thinks her fingers are delicious.
• She's a genius, as evidenced by the fact that she pooped on Uncle Sean.
• According to the pictures taken of her, she sleeps all the time (as evidenced below--picture courtesy of my sister-in-law's facebook). Clearly Mike's daughter.
• She, who was once the single most anticipated baby on the planet, will now be the single most loved baby on the planet (at least until Michelle and Alex get down to business; then it will probably start being a tie).

I love my little niece so much. I can't wait to visit her again. I also can't wait til I don't have a cold, so I can get started on those extra holding rights.