Lots of things to write about, but I don’t feel like I can write about any of them until I’ve covered the most important thing to happen in the past few years, which is:

The birth of a nephew!

JLP was born May 16 and is the most freaking adorable little ball of pudge I’ve ever seen. I love his seriously chubby cheeks. The day after he was born I bought a plane ticket home for the next week, so I got to meet him when he was 10 days old, and all I did (or wanted to do) for the entire weekend was hold the baby. Even after he peed on me (four times; no diaper is a match for this super-soaker kid). Sigh. Suddenly I’ve become one of those annoying people who keeps showing others pictures of their small relatives, but I just can’t help it, you know?

Speaking of pictures:

(this is the one I printed and framed and set as my desktop wallpaper)

These days JLP looks uncannily like my older brother as a baby–at least from the (far too few [hint hint]) pictures I’ve seen. It’s hard to not just buy plane tickets and fly down there; however, as this isn’t feasible at the moment I’ve contented myself with creating a line item in my monthly budget dedicated to spoiling him. He has to know who his favorite aunt is, after all. (Sorry, KLPH, it’s not gonna be you.)