Penelope

Usually when you receive a phone call at 4:44 in the morning, it's a bad thing. But when the phone started ringing Monday morning I wasn't worried. I could have answered it as I was already awake, but it was Scott's cell phone that was ringing and it was on his side of the bed so I let him get it.

"Hello?"

"Okay. You want us to come over then?"

"Alright, we'll be over."

"What did Matt say?" I asked my husband sleepily as we both got up and started to get dressed. "Cassy's in labour," was his reply in a tired 'that-should-have-been-obvious' tone of voice. I had guessed as much, but wanted to make sure I was right and that a complication in my sister-in-law's pregnancy hadn't been the reason for the middle-of-the-night phone call. We had told Matt and Cassy previously that we would watch their 3-year-old son Porter if Cassy went into labour in the middle of the night, so we drove to their house in downtown DC as quickly as we could. Matt greeted us at the door dressed in khaki slacks and a dressy blue shirt. He thanked us for coming over and gave us instructions for getting Porter up in an hour and a half and taking him to school. After about 15 minutes Matt and Cassy were both ready, grabbed their bags, and left for the hospital. I laid down and set my alarm for 6:20 in case I fell asleep. I did. I awoke just before Porter did, walking out to the kitchen and discovering that my husband had gotten up before me and was already eating breakfast. Porter came out of his room coughing like crazy, realized that Scott and I weren't his parents, and ran back to his room. I gave him about a minute to wake up, and then went to check on him.

"Hi, Porter. Are you almost ready to get up and go to school?" This elicited a very enthusiastic, "Uh-huh!" from him as he sat up quickly. He assured me that even though he had been coughing, he wasn't sick and could definitely go to school. Porter loves school. As I patted the bed next to me and realized it was slightly damp, Porter said, "Well, I just woke up and had a good-morning pee in my bed." I asked him if he wanted to change his underwear before he got dressed, to which he replied, "No, not today! I meant I did that a different day." Uh-huh.

Scott and I fed Porter breakfast, during which he told us that the leather armchair in the living room was made out of wood and cow-skin and that Fidel Castro was from Cuba (This child is 3!!! How does he know this stuff?). While Porter got dressed (putting his shorts on backwards, which I didn't realize until about 8:00 pm that evening) and had Scott help him put his socks and shoes on, I washed the dishes and and listened to Porter try and convince me that the Red Sox definitely weren't from Boston. After Porter was dressed and ready for school, he jumped on Scott and started wrestling him to the couch ("roughing up" is what Porter calls it). When I was finished with the dishes, the 3 of us left Matt and Cassy's house and drove to Porter's school (getting lost on the way). After dropping Porter off at school, Scott and I went to the hospital to see how Cassy was coming along. She was close, so we waited outside for awhile until Matt came out grinning and announced to us the birth of his daughter (whom everyone has been calling "Penelope" for the duration of Cassy's pregnancy). When Cassy had gone into labour that morning, Matt predicted Penelope would be born by 9:00. She was born at 9:01. Too bad, Matt. You were so close. :)

Penelope couldn't be seen or held yet, as she hadn't been weighed or measured or any of that other "official" stuff, so Scott and I left the hospital and promised to return that afternoon. We spent the day 'accomplishing stuff' - Scott studied on campus, while I did the grocery shopping and cleaned the house. After dinner we went back to the hospital to visit Penelope. She's adorable! She's tiny - 7 lbs 1 oz., with a decent amount of hair on her head and very emotive facial expressions. Since her family lives in the same city as I do, I can visit and spoil her often. I am absolutely thrilled to have another niece (I didn't have any nieces or nephews before I got married 5 weeks ago, so this is still very new and exciting to me). Penelope is the first whom, from the day of her birth, I can point to and say, "That's my niece! Isn't she adorable?"

I'm gonna be a great aunt.