to: baby Mairn

i didn't expect to be so amazed when i first heard your rapid heart beat earlier this week, but i was. and i didn't know i would be in love with you already after seeing your beautiful face only today. i have 3 pictures and a million delightful thoughts of you. i love that you are a girl, tho' i am also quite fond of little boys, all 5 of your uncles in fact. but we long for more femininity here, surrounded as we are by male dominant genes. you, my dear angel, for my part, will have one grateful great-grandmother,  twin great-aunties to amuse and claim you, and me, your ranne.

i am late becoming a grandmother, having waited to marry. and  i already see the world thru tinted glasses because of you. you are changing us all by being the first. i ponder what you will call me; shall we wait for you to speak or hold out for the names we prefer? the very thought, and the word grand-daughter, flood my eager senses with worlds of possibility. i saw your face today, dear one, and we are bonded. i will never be the same.