Baby ahoy

To an explosive flurry of family excitement, my Cos in Seattle announced a few months ago that she was pregnant. Immediately, a network of phonecalls burst forth within the family.

Ttrring, trring, "Congratulations!"
Ttrring, trring, "Guess, what, our Cos in Seattle is preggers!"
"Boy or girl?"
"'No clue, but hell, it's a new baby in the family!"
And so it went.


The weekend past, there was a mini-culmination of the event, with a baby shower for the Cos. All of us shuttled down to Milwaukee, where the Cos is originally from, to have a family reunion together. I'd forgotten how long it had been since I'd been to Milwaukee for a family event. Immediately, I rejoiced in the forgotten familiarity of all of us lounging around together sans agenda.


We walked around the lakefront, so my other cousin's new condo, and everywhere we went, I just gaped and blinked at the sheer enormity of space. I hadn't realised how accustomed I'd become, in New York, to - erm - the cosyness - of being.


And we all got excited over the baby shower.


"I don't like being the centre of all this attention," my Cos whined at one point.
"Get over it," I sagely advised, "if you're going to have a baby, it's just a mantle you must be willing to bear. You're fair game as the subject of all conversations from now on out. Even for people who don't really know you, and still come, Indian style, to pinch your cheeks and tell you how much you've grown from the last time they saw you, some thirty years ago."


She made a face. But such is the price of procreation.


Babies aside, it was just lovely to see the fam again!