Uploaded to Flickr on 18th June, 2007.

I met my new baby niece for the first time this weekend, and she is CUTE! She’s very smiley (except when she’s crying) and she has really chubby legs, leading me to give her the nickname “Michelin Man”. Everyone says she looks like me, which I’ll take as a huge compliment.

I took a red-eye Thursday night and arrived bright and early Friday morning. I spent the day with my sister-in-law and practiced my Shaparazzi skills on the two kids. That night my sister and her boyfriend came over for a delicious (and buttery) salmon dinner that my sister-in-law cooked. My parents also arrived to say hello and drop off some chicken enchiladas an carne adovada burritos from Frontier. YUM.

Saturday morning we had a nutritious breakfast of chicken enchiladas and then we spent a really good day together as a happy family. We had dinner at Fresh, where I had some really yummy halibut. Yummy because it didn’t taste at all like fish.

Sunday my sister and my dad and I went to the Museum of the City of New York where we saw a cool exhibition of the photographs of Eugene de Salignac. Afterwards we had a quick lunch and met up again to spend the afternoon together. For Father’s Day dinner, we all went to EN Japanese Brasserie, which was delicious. We had yummy soba noodles, homemade tofu, duck, and sashimi, to name a few. I was REALLY full afterwards.

Sunday night I stayed at my brother’s instead of my sister’s, and Bug declared that she wanted to sleep with me on the couch instead of her bed. I helped her change into her PJs and brush her teeth, and we both laid down on the couch, feet to feet. After a minute or so, I heard her talking to herself and shifting around, so I sat up and asked her what she was doing. “Go back to sleep,” she told me. So I laid back down and closed my eyes. A few minutes after that, I felt her crawl towards me, so I opened my eyes to see her face really close to mine. “I’m not tired!” she declared, then proceeded to climb off the couch and start running around the apartment. She had me call The Backyardigans on her play cellphone a few times before she eventually ran upstairs to sleep with her mom and dad. Three-year-olds are so cute!

I only had a half day on Monday, so I spent it with PP and the kids, which included visiting a court house (Bug was disappointed it wasn’t voting day) and eating a huge soft serve ice cream cone.

It was a really short trip, and I’m disappointed I didn’t get to spend more time with everyone. But I’ll be back again in December!