..lives my little niece. She’s just over six months old. I’ve seen her on skype, I’ve watched videos of her bouncing in her mad little hang-the-baby-from-the-door-frame bouncer thingamee and I’ve received countless photos thanks to her lovely mama. She’s my whole family distilled into one gorgeous little face.
I’d love to go and visit but it’s a long and expensive trip and if I’m totally, and possibly disgracefully, honest I just think it’s an awful long way to go to change a nappy… I’d rather hang on and take a trip there when she’s a year or two and really hang out with her.
That doesn’t stop me having minor panics about my decision. What if she’s the only niece I ever have and I never get to hold her as a baby? Is that terrible aunty-ness? Well it’s kind of done now, because I got a photo this morning of her crawling about like a woman on a mission. She’s not a little bundle of anything anymore, although she is still heart-meltingly cute.
So what do you give your six month old niece whom you’ve never met for her first Christmas? Well, I’m a serious sucker for traditions, I’m not traditional but I love the idea of traditions or just ideas that grow. So we (the other aunty and I) decided to start a tradition of sending her photos of her ‘other’ home. So, introducing “Placebook” – a sort of naff name for – a growable photo album of lovely sights from another world. We started it off with a nice snowy one from a few years back. And in case you’re wondering, we got her a lovely Santa Christmas story too. But no clothes, that’s just self-indulgent shopping that I’d rather leave to the granny and the grand-aunts.
What do you think?