New Friends...

WELCOME BABY KARA ELLE!

One of my dearest friends from college just had her first baby on August 11. Kara Elle Barber is a beautiful baby girl. Her birth is especially exciting for me because when I was growing up, the children of my parents' close friends became like family to us. Often we addressed the parents as "Aunt..." or "Uncle..." so their children were like our cousins, and sometimes we even introduced them as such. We always looked forward to the several times a year we got together because those children were 'special friends'. They didn't live on our block or go to school with us - we had to drive in a car and spend a night, or several nights, in the course of a visit. We camped with these friends. We went to Disneyland with these friends. These friends were outside the realm of the normal day-to-day life stuff and that made them way cooler. Because we were all born within the same span of several years, none of us really remembers childhood without one another.

Marleena and Marc now have baby Kara, which means Analiese and Kara are now linked in each others' lives - even if they don't know it yet. Another of my best childhood friends is due to have her first baby, also a girl, in September. We look forward to meeting her. I know that Analiese will grow up with these two girls as her friends and it makes me smile.