According to my kids, I can’t be Auntie Terumi. They think it sounds weird.
You are Auntie Tee now, they told me as I tucked them in tonight.
Auntie T?
No, that doesn’t make the right sound. How do you spell tea like the tea you drink?
T-E-A?
Well you are T-E-E. Auntie T-E-E. Auntie Tee.
And this is how two 6-year-old twins decide for their new twin baby cousins what their mom is going to be called and I’m going to have to leave it up to those guys all to sort it out over time.
Tonight is the first night my baby niece and baby nephew will sleep in our world. My guys reminded me that as I tucked them in for the what might be the two thousand and somethingth time.
Tonight our baby cousins sleep for the first time. (Isn’t it crazy how kids make you think about things in such profound ways?)
And tonight might be the first of many nights my sister and her husband won’t sleep.
Dear sis of mine if you read this, it’s okay if you forget this night, or the others that come in the blur of nights that become your days, your weeks, your years.
It’s okay if you get scared or make mistakes and don’t know what to do.
Nobody knows what they are doing. You just figure it out as you go along. And you do eventually figure it out.
Standing there watching your sweet little babies curl their arms around each other as they nestled into you, I wish I could have told this to myself years ago:
Everything is going to turn out wonderful.
Because it does. Even when it doesn’t always feel that way. There are so many lovely days ahead. And one day you’ll get sleep again.
But today was absolutely perfect.
It was a gloriously sparkly day in Vancouver. The sun was shining brightly when your two littles were born. And all the grandparents were abuzz with excitement. There was texting and emailing and hugging and celebrating from the village.
And my little boys puffed up with pride as they met those adorable little bundles and realized they are now the Big Cousins. (And then they asked me where babies come from and how to get them out of a belly, which I promptly deflected with empty promises of potentially getting a dog.)
It was the most beautiful day to see two of my favorite people in the world become parents for the first time twice.
And whatever those two little people decide to call me, I’ll be okay with it.
I can already tell I’m going to love them to pieces.
I can’t wait to tell them stories about their mom and dad.
I’m excited to watch them grow up and plot with my kids all the travels and adventures their lives will lead ours on.
And I am so thankful that this time I get to remember the first night of two little people that have already changed my heart forever in an instant.
(PS. to my dear twin momma village, we have a new inductee.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
♡♡ beautifully said Terumi ♡♡