All I have been able to think about is this little miracle baby growing inside of my niece as I type this.  I literally live, breathe, and obsess over this BABY!!!!

My niece came over to my house when my oldest daughter was home, which seems to be a rare occurrence in and of itself lately since she works in Charleston now.  We have talked of wanting to do maternity pictures of my niece, but now it’s more of a documentation of the entire nine months between the blog here and the MANY pictures we’re taking of her!

Obsession … I am NOT kidding you!

The eyes of my niece lit up when she saw my daughter bringing out all of her professional photography equipment.  As we set up the background and the lights, her eyes widened and she started giggling with excitement.  My daughter positioned her, and she began with the photography session.  I sat there with the biggest smile on my face with each shot taken.  Then, my daughter told me to get in the picture with my niece.  Not wanting to take away any attention from her at all, I bowed out of the pictures initially.  When my daughter insisted again, my niece insisted this time also, so I gladly stood beside her where I did not have to contain my excitement any longer!

I felt like a giddy school girl at that moment, and I had to do something a little silly in the picture so I pointed to her baby bump.

Then my daughter insisted I touch my niece’s stomach.

Well, you normally don’t walk right up to someone on the street, or even your own family members for that matter, and just randomly start touching their stomach.  That is just frowned upon, but with a pregnant woman, people cannot keep their well-meaning hands off of their stomachs!  I didn’t want to be “that” person, so I refrained UNTIL my niece said, “Go ahead, Aunt Shirley … you KNOW you want to …”  SO I DID!!!!

I “held” the baby for the first time as we took pictures together!!!

And I skipped off down the hall afterwards with the biggest, goofiest grin on my face that stayed there the rest of the night and into the next morning!