Introducing Lily Katherine Washburn
My nephew Sam — who really should be the Washburn appearing in television commercials, not me — has a new little sister. Which means I have a new little niece. Lily Katherine Washburn was born early in the morning on October 2 in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was in Xiamen at the time (I was also traveling last year when Sam was born) and I think it was something like 8:30 pm China time when Lily arrived. Grandpa Washburn, however, waited about five hours to call me with the news … I suppose he wanted Lily to make a memorable entrance into my life. And it worked. The three of us in the hotel room were sleeping soundly, awaiting a 7 am wakeup call to see whether Typhoon Longwang was going to spoil our plans to travel to rural Fujian Province that day (it did), and then my phone rang violently (it’s new and I haven’t figured out all of its functions, like certain ringer settings). It was vibrating, too, making this awful grinding noise on the window sill, where it was recharging. It was still very dark outside — had Longwang blotted out the sun? — and I stumbled across the room to answer the phone. We were startled, confused and expecting the kind of news that accompanies middle-of-the-morning calls. Bad news. Nope. Not even close. It was my dad, with great news. Lily had arrived — and we still had more than five hours left to sleep.
Anyone who says they think newborns are cute is lying. Most photos of newborns look as though they were shot through a fisheye lens. Everything is a little distorted. It takes a few weeks for the cuteness to take hold. Not with Lily, though. She’s adorable, even with goop on her face. Of course, I may be a bit biased. I’m told she has long, slender toes, too. And I’m told this is a good thing. I’m assuming it has something to do with surfing.
The photo above is Sam kissing his little sister for the first time. I get teary-eyed looking at photos of these kids. Really, I do. The same thing happened back in Hawaii last winter when I would hold Sam. (But I just told everyone I was allergic to the cat.)
Welcome to the world, Lily. I can’t wait to meet you.
10.08.2005, 3:59 PM · Diary
2 Comments
the kid in the photo is cute.
Aww. Good looks seem to run in your family, huh? ;)
The little boy is just adorable.