SAD.  Sad…with a capital S – A – D.  That is how I feel now that my sister and little Noah left home for London.  I feel fortunate to have seen him three different times already…in late January when I went to visit in London for a week, in May when my sister came to visit for a few weeks and again this past month when my sister visited for a few weeks.  Both prior times of seeing one another, I knew the next time I would see my sister AND it wasn’t that far in the future.  THIS time…the next time is unknown.  Realistically it could be a year.  Babies grow so quickly and to think that I may not see Noah again for another year makes me incredibly sad.

I do feel fortunate of the time we spent again with him these past few weeks.  He is crawling, smiling, and starting to eat real food…well some pureed anyway.  He slept over twice and both times I was in heaven.  The second time he spent the night, we took him out to eat at Jacksons and walked around Reston Town Center for a bit. I’m his auntie and while I wasn’t pretending to be his mom, I love him as if he were my own.  So out we went – my family of four kiddos.  My heart was completely and utterly complete.  Wish he lived a little bit…ok, a lot closer…so we could have these sorts of dates way more often.

The truth is the girls absolutely adore their cousin too. We went swimming together, hung out at Papa and Grandma’s, went to Meadowlark, went to Reston Farmers Market, celebrated Avery and Emerson’s birthdays, and Avery and Emerson got to spend some  one-on-one time with their Auntie!  I enjoyed each and every moment of spending time with him from his soft baby skin and baby smell to his poopy diapers.

I am going to miss ALL of it!

My little ray of sunshine:)