Smile, baby! -- Celebrating new life is the best reason in the world for a lengthy blog absence, right? Well, regardless, that's my excuse -- my new niece was born, huzzah! On Saturday night, while I was sleeping in a tent on an island in the middle of Boston Harbor, which is why I'm not in this picture (sigh...) with my brother, Papa Josh, and Auntie Becca and Auntie Sara, and most especially with Lily Catherine herself! She shares her birthday with luminaries like Dag Hammarskjold, Ken Burns, Alexis de Tocqueville, Peter Jennings, Theda Bara, Diana Vreeland, Patti Scialfa, Wil Wheaton, Clara Bow, Captain Lou Albano, and uh, Benito Mussolini. It's also the feast day of Saint Serafina and Saint Martha, which tickles me no end.

We are headed to NJ this weekend to say hello...welcome, baby girl. May your life be long and happy and filled with adventures, as well as the heady thrills of being The Older Sister someday, tee hee hee... :)