Arrival

I received big news this morning from my brother, who has been at the hospital with his wife since Friday evening. Sometime around 6:30 a.m.* he and his wife became parents to a tiny (5 lbs. 6 oz.), beautiful (see below) baby girl. Welcome to the world, Elliott Isabella!**

This is big news for me, too, because it means I am a now a first-time aunt. My first nephew is also on the way, via my little sister, and several of my friends know how excited I've been. They don't all fully comprehend the excitement, given that most of them have already been aunts or uncles many times over. Next-generation children have been a long time coming in our family.

Now that my aunthood is has moved from pending to present, I've become aware that I don't really know the protocol for these sorts of things. Last night on my way home from playing games at my sister's house, I stopped by the grocery store for milk, and stood by the flower arrangements for about ten minutes wondering if that's what you do when someone has a baby. Or I guess I was wondering more if that's what I do when my brother and sister-in-law have a baby, because the mylar "It's a Girl!" balloons and little flower cards with "Congratulations!" printed against a backdrop of bottles and teddy bears and toy blocks suggested that buying flower arrangements for new parents is definitely something some people do. I finally decided that what I do is get a ridiculously pink "Welcome to a New Little Princess!" balloon and a box of red vines, because I think my brother and his wife will find the balloon funny, and because I know my brother will enjoy the red vines more than flowers. Except that there was no one around to blow up the balloon so instead they get a generic $2 balloon-on-a-stick and a picture of a princess balloon on my blog. And red vines. They still get the red vines.

That was only the first of many questions I've had about proper etiquette for new aunts. Should I turn my phone to silent like I usually do before I go to bed, or keep it on so I can hear the announcement even if it comes at two in the morning? When the announcement does come, do I follow my first inclination and call my brother, or will he be tired and busy and inundated with phone calls? (No matter how many exclamation marks I put after "congratulations" in my text message, it felt like a lame response to one of the biggest events in my brother's life, and I wanted to call, so I did.) Do I drive up to Salt Lake to visit the hospital, or do the new parents just want to be left alone? If I immediately announce that I'm a new aunt in my Facebook status will I be stepping on the toes of my brother and his wife's making the formal announcement? Is it too early to blog about it? Am I allowed to post a picture of the baby?

Being a new aunt would have been so much easier ten years ago, technologically speaking.

Most of the congratulations and advice should, of course, go to the new parents. But being a Favorite Aunt is a really important role, and one I take very seriously. And unfortunately, there just isn't a whole lot of How To out there for the work that I have cut out for me. I've resolved most of my early questions, but my niece and my nephew-in-embryo and I have many years ahead of us, and I'd love to have advice from the seasoned aunts and uncles among you.

And finally, it's an anticlimactic end to this post, but I also have two new book reviews: the last two Stieg Larsson books, which were ho-hum, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which may be familiar to fellow Radiolab listeners, and was kind of really incredible.


* Don't worry - my sister-in-law wasn't in labor when they went in on Friday night.
** Who, I'm sure, has far better things to do right now than check up on the family blogs to see herself featured...