To My New Baby

Dear Nolan,

Welcome to Earth! You have been enlisted into pretty much the coolest family on the planet. Congratulations! We will have loads of fun, laugh 'til we cry, play Uno, and eat lots of ice cream. It will be awesome. But, I'm gonna give it to you straight. Life is hard. And also, sorry but this part of Earth's life history is one of the toughest and scariest and craziest so far. I would wish you good luck with that, but you're going to need much more than luck (although you do have plenty of that on account of your lucky St. Patrick's Day birthday!) You are going to require the following materials: a strong stalwart spirit, a rock solid set of morals, a strong sense of truth and discernment between right and wrong, an iron will, a kind heart, empathy, compassion, integrity, honesty, patience, common sense, prudence, charity, and lots and lots of love. Don't worry because you realize you were sent here with little more than your cute button nose. We didn't expect you to arrive with all of these qualities neatly packed in your little suitcase, although it's more than likely that we will discover that you did come prepared with quite a few of them already. The rest of these things will be provided for you, and that's where we come in. By "we" of course I mean your Earth family - Mommy and Daddy and those fantastic sisters and brother and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and friends and teachers and neighbors and even the people you will meet that you think you don't like very much. We are all the ones who will cumulatively teach you that long list of things. All you have to do is listen and learn and accept the lessons. Easy, right? Don't worry, you'll be great!

Now, about you. You are currently not quite 23 hours old, so we are still getting to know you. You haven't even seen an entire day on Earth yet! (You're gonna love 11:00 am, by the way. It's the greatest.) But you and I have been hanging out for 9 months, so I feel like I've gotten to know you a little better. For example, it is clear that 10 pm - 3 am is your play time! That was your favorite time to kick up your heels while you were in my tummy and I was going to sleep. Last night you stuck to your scheduled plan and spent those hours blinking in confusion and looking around the room. I love the little bewildered look of wonder on your face as you stare at everything. (And I get that those ceiling tiles are fascinating, but hopefully the novelty will wear off and you'll soon figure out that that time frame is best spent sleeping.) Your little cry is the cutest thing I've heard - kind of like a desperately little high-pitched scream/wail, which certainly doesn't sound like it would be "cute" but believe me, it is. Your eyebrows do the same little pucker as Brooklyn and Troy, which makes you look kind of angry but I think you're just concentrating really hard. Your little blue eyes look a little dark, but they still haven't settled our wagers on whether they will be brown like mine or blue like Daddy's. And right now you are kind of snoring a little bit while you sleep on the pillow next to me, which is also super cute.

Most of all, I love you more than life itself, which you totally won't understand until like a quarter of a century from now when you are sitting here like I am, holding your own little newborn with tiny little lips and no eyebrows who relies entirely on you for everything, and you love him completely even though he's done absolutely nothing so far. Don't worry, you'll see what I mean. In the meantime, I'll try to show you how much. I love you to the moon and back! (Maybe a few dozen times)

Love, Mommy

[You and Daddy, who loves you like crazy too]