Meeting Baby Rhys ♥

A few weekends ago I went to the city to meet my nephew, Rhys, for the first time. Ahhh. He is the sweetest and I fell in love as soon as I laid my eyes on him. It's amazing the amount you can feel so quickly after meeting someone. Everything about him is perfect and if I could describe my entire weekend with just an emjoi it would be the heart eyed one. Seriously, all.the.feels.

I also made sure to have some one on one time with my niece, Noa, and we just had the best time with each other. We went to the playground together during my visit and she proceeded to show me all the big girl things she can do. When it was time for the swings I could not help but laugh because she is just like her mom when it comes to those things. Growing up, I hated to be pushed too high on the swings (it did something weird to my stomach) but Emma wanted to go higher and higher until she reached the sky. That was Noa. "Auntie, higher, higher. Push me higher". We really bonded and I just love her personality so much. She made me beautiful art which is now hanging on my fridge and she is now old enough to understand sleep overs. She was thrilled when I told her that I was spending the night with her and now no one can tell her that I did not specifically call my sister to speak to her.

It is pretty awesome to watch someone grow. When I suggested taking Noa to the park, my sister said she'll show you the way. In my head I was like, there's no way she would know how to get to the park from their apartment. There were lefts and rights to take! Lo and behold she knew. I kept on questioning her on our walk to the park, "Are you sure you know how to get the park?" And she would nod her head confidently and say "It's this way, we're going the right way".

A memory that I will never, ever forget (but still believe I should write down that way I am sure never to) was when it was time for me to leave and I jokingly told my sister while holding Rhys, "OK, it was nice to see you all. Taking Rhys home with me". We all had a good laugh (I gave Rhys back to my sister) and moved on. But a few minutes later we realized that tears were streaming down Noa's face and now she was crying loudly. We were in shock trying to figure out what happened and Emma began to think that maybe she was crying because I was leaving. So we began to try to calm her down and find out why she was crying. We were finally able to get what she was saying though hyperventilating tears. She was saying, "I don't want Auntie Faith to take my brother. Mommy, I want him to stay here with us." And that's when it hit us all that she was not in on the joke and she seriously thought I was taking her brother home with me. She was crying so hard so of course I could not help but cry (a curse I've been given!) and told her that Auntie Faith would never take her brother and that he will stay with her forever. It took a few more minutes to calm her sweet spirit but soon all was forgiven and I was her favorite aunt again ;). But wow, talk about love for her brother. My sister and brother in law did not realize how much she had already fallen for her little brother.

It was such a beautiful trip and I fall more and more in love with my family. I'm so, so thankful that I get to do life with them! ♥