What can I say.. I am really looking forward to this lemon! Sweet instead of sour, pink instead of yellow. I'm talking about a baby! Not my baby, my niece! Why lemon? We nicknamed her this after my sister-in-law told us one day that her size was comparable to a lemon, and it stuck! This will be my first niece, and I am so excited. We were told that we were going to be an Aunt and Uncle on Easter Sunday this past spring. We got to my Mother-in-law's house to eat lunch and we were greeted by family and the dog, Belle. Belle was especially excited to see everyone, she was running around, wagging her tail. We thought she was so cute in her little jersey that said "Big sister '16"... WAIT! Big sister?? What does that mean? "Another puppy" was Luke's first thought. I instantly knew that Luke's sister was pregnant! Wow, what an excited next few months this would be! We loved hearing how big our niece was getting. It was like a game with my Sister-in-law, texting every weekend to see how much she'd grown in just 7 days. We first started calling the baby our "Ni-Nephew" which is a combination of niece and nephew, as we anxiously awaited the news of the baby's gender. When we were finally told that it was a girl, we were thrilled! I knew Luke's heart was toast. He is a big sucker when it comes to babies, especially when they're little girls. And this was his sister's baby! By how excited we have been throughout the whole pregnancy you'd think it was our own child. So for the next nine months our weekends consisted of going home and seeing how big our niece and my sister-in-law's belly have gotten. Laughing and giving gifts (so many gifts! This child is so spoiled!) were very common during our trips. As my sister-in-law's belly grew and she got farther along, she decided to ask Luke to take some pictures. Wow. Have you ever been around two, close siblings when they're doing an activity together that celebrates an important moment in life? That may seem like a strange question, but bare with my as I explain. Practically every picture had genuine smiles. Laughing in between pictures was a given. Poses ended up in jumbled tangles of giggles and lots of camera snapping. Belle wagging her tail and drooling over the treats we were bribing her with. Sure it was warm outside, and we were sweaty, but that sure didn't stop us from making memories while capturing them. In my Mother-in-law's kitchen there is a dry erase board on her counter. Let's just say this became baby central. Since we were all so excited about the first baby in this family, every weekend when the pregnancy was another week along, we would draw whatever fruit or vegetable was most comparable to the baby's size. While the pregnancy was just getting started sometimes there were several fruits drawn on the board at one time. But that ended pretty quickly as the baby grew to be the size of almost the whole board! The last drawing of the Baby's size was a zucchini, and after we realized that the fruit drawings had to stop because of baby Lemon's size, the board became a count down. My Mother-in-law wrote how many days she thought it would be until the baby arrived. We were so hopeful she would come on my husband's birthday, so that they could be birthday buddies. However, Luke's birthday was a few days ago...
We are ready to meet our little family addition! She is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Whether she decides to prepare longer than that, who knows! She sure is keeping everyone in suspense; all we want her to do is steal our hearts.
Even though she is not here yet, we already have so many memories surrounding her. She is already loved, and always will be.
Hurry, Lemon! We can't wait to squeeze you!
