The fact that I don’t plan on having children of my own for a variety of reasons often makes me feel like other people think that I don’t like kids, which is not true. I am lucky to have 3 super cute nieces and a nephew (somehow reading that makes it sound like I only think my nieces are cute, but my nephew is too). Sadly I don’t live near any of them, so I only get to see them a few times per year.

I am at an age now though where almost all of my friends are having kids so there are more and more of them showing up in my life. This post is inspired by the fact that two of my closest friends in Baltimore just gave birth to their first daughter today. I am so happy for them and excited to play surrogate aunt to their little one.

Fun story (at least to me). Today is also my eldest niece’s fourth birthday. My friend and my sister both had the same due date of December 23 and both wound up giving birth on December 13. Also my sister’s preferred name for a girl which her husband always vetoed is what my friend wound up naming her daughter. This amuses me in a way that it probably does no one else.

I have two other sets of friends who are both having babies next spring. One of the best things about this and the baby that was born today was that I will now have plenty of people to buy nerdy baby gear for. I always see this super awesome baby/kid stuff that I would buy for my nieces and nephew except that none of it would be appreciated by their decidedly non-nerdy parents. The fact that my nerdy friends are finally procreating means I can gift them with all manner of ridiculous baby gear.

I also can’t wait until the kids in my life are a bit older. Babies may be cute, but no offense babies you are boring. I can’t wait until I can do more active things with the kids in my life other than try and keep them out of trouble. I’m just dying for the first one to be old enough to play Sorry! with. That will be several years out, but my eldest niece is at least finally getting old enough to play some games. I have a couple friends in Baltimore whose children are getting out of the baby/toddler stage, but most of them are still there.  I will still love their kids while they are maturing to a more fun stage of life, but am looking forward to a few years from now when they are older.