thanks for being our first.

Hadley Jane, our oldest, the queen of our castle, the big cheese, the center of our universe, our practice kid...we are about to wreck your life a little.  And I feel a small twinge of guilt.  But I feel about 100 times more excitement than I do remorse for you.  I know this adjustment will be hard, I know you're going to hate sharing your mama and your dada, and I know it's going to make your life "not very fair" for a little while.  But remember this...you were our first.  Our first love, our first realization that we now had everything in the world to lose, our first lesson in what truly matters.   You taught us everything we know, and everything we needed to learn (hang in there, we are a work in progress).  You are the epitome of a first child.  You strive on structure and organization.  You are super bossy.  You are such a people pleaser and love to help.  You know all the rules (often don't follow them, but you know them).  You are very articulate, love school, and get so proud of yourself at everything you achieve.  So see, when you are accepted to Harvard...remember to thank us.  And remember to fill out those student loan applications.

But here's the best part Hads, having a brother or sister is going to be better than anything....maybe not at first.  However once you get over the shock, anger, and resentment and once your little 3 year old world gets a tad bit back to normal, you will see that being a big sis really is fabulous.  You get to have someone to boss around, someone to outsmart, someone to tease.  Someone to sit on and do the 'typewriter' to, someone to show the ropes, and someone to play with at your leisure.  Someone who will stay up with you when you try to spy Santa, someone who will worship the ground you walk on, and someone who might have cute friends you can make out with (in about 15 years).  Someone you can complain to about how lame your parents are, someone who will hang out with you after school, and someone you will want to fiercely protect.  Someone else in the house who has to take the heat of mom and dads bad days too, someone to share the chores with, and someone to steal Halloween candy from.  Someone to tattle on, someone to laugh with at dorky family photos, and someone to drag along on boring family vacations.  You will always get the biggest room, the best clothes (little sis will get hand me downs, little bro probably won't care about clothes), and will still be our 'first' to do everything (ie, lose a tooth, get a drivers license, go to a dance).  Your life really is about to get better...trust me.  We're giving you a partner in crime, someone you will bond with unlike any other, someone who will know all of your secrets, and you there's.  Someone you can wholly be yourself in front of without any false pretenses, because they know you and love you, despite your imperfections.  And that's hard to find.  We are giving you someone with whom you will form a greater and differant connection that you could with anyone else in the world.  Now that's big.  We love you Miss Jane, we know you'll be over the moon about the new mister or miss, we know it will take time...and we know you'll thank us later.  And we know if we're wrong, at least you'll have someone to take it out on.