Today is a sad day in the McGrath household. For the past 3 months we've had the best house guest one could ask for. Erin, Ryan's sister, has been living with us this summer while she's doing a show at the Lincolnshire Marriott - City of Angles. Having her here with us has been awesome and I was so sad to say goodbye to her last night.
Having been on maternity leave for the second half of her stay has meant that I've had a girl friend to hang out with and watch crappy daytime television with. Someone to chat with about all the things from marriage, babies, careers, family and so much in between. I'm sure that Erin has learned more about parenting in the last 3 months than she EVER cared to know. She can swaddle a baby as well as any mother, knows the crying baby bounce, can entertain a 3 year old and redirect tantrums. She's been my extra set of hands and my sanity check in these first early newborn days.
See, she's even got the newborn crotch hold down too!
Abby is about to crash hard when she realizes that her Auntie is no longer living in the basement and a flight of stairs away. No matter how hard I try, I just can't play the way Auntie does. She'd pick Erin over me any day....and, that reminds me, why don't I ever get to play the "sleeping game"? (See picture below).
Erin knew how to jump in and help right when I was about to loose it with the girls. Whether that means scooping up Hazel to calm her crying, getting Abby to forget about whatever she's crying about in this moment, helping with bath time, getting PJ's on when its causing a meltdown, watching Hazel while I snag a quick nap after a long night awake, or reading bedtime stories. I say that Abby and Hazel will miss her, but the truth is, I'm the one that's going to miss her the most.
Erin is sweet, kind, loving and a great friend to confide in. I've been so lucky to spend these last few months getting to know her in a way that only people living together can know each other. She's been my co-conspirator to getting Ryan to eat veggies, a good influence in convincing Ryan to NOT have one more beer and just go to bed, and an awesome "backseat car ride entertainer" on the long car rides to and from Turkey Run.
I've been writing this post in my head for about a week now and no matter how hard I try I just can't come up with the right words to explain both how much help she was to me and just how much I'm going to miss having her around. I've been giving her the hard sell to move back to Chicago so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I know that even if she does it won't ever be quite like these past few months where we got to spend SO much time together with the girls getting bunches and bunches of one on one time with their aunt. We'll be missing you tons girl!!! Thanks so much for EVERYTHING. These will be days that Abby will never forget.
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