My Other baby, Her Mom and Our Friendship

Today is the first birthday of this total cutie:

I call her Nico, she is my other baby. Her mom is my best friend. I don't write that lightly. We became friends in 1993 because we were both dating guys in a band. How cliche, right? And why would I ever date a guy in a band, right? I am so not a groupie. Guess what, neither was she. We hit it off immediately. She was living in Boston and travleing out to Amherst on the weekends to then be ignored while the band played. I was living in Montague with one of the band members and going to school. So we would go to shows and hang out and make fun of the people (and we were relentless). I worked in the craft center at UMASS so on the weekends we would go in and do crafts, stained glass, silk painting, silk screening, stuff like that. In 1994 it was time for me to graduate from UMASS and from the boyfriend. She called me one day and said 'Boston isn't working for me, want to go to Europe for awhile?'
I responded by saying 'I Can't, I don't have a passport. BUT, we could go cross country.' And our journey started. The boy and I broke up (he was really bad for me) and she had an 'open relationship' with her boy so we were cute, 23 and single traveling across this big land. To say we had fun is an understatement and since too many family members read this blog (including Hubby) for me to tell all the tales, let's just say it was big. We became such good friends on that trip. I took her camping for the first time in her life. Bringing a girl from Queens into the woods is REALLY funny, I suggest everyone do it sometime. Here is a picture of us at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon from our trip: Look at how cute we are, and young...so young. She is on the right and I am on the left. I could have posted a different picture from New Orleans but come on, we all know that would have been hedonistic and this a family blog.

I don't blog about her much because there is nothing to tell. We still get along great after all these years. We only disagree on one thing (and in our entire friendship this has been the ONLY thing we disagree on...ever), and that is breastfeeding. Yes, totally weird thing to disagree about. I think it is an excellent thing for the child. She thinks it serves no purpose. We go around in loops about it. neither of us will ever budge, we know we won't and it doesn't matter (although I think deep down she knows I am right). Notice that her daughter, the total cutie in the top picture, obviously hasn't lacked for sustenance and she wasn't nursed. She thinks I am nuts that I traveled and pumped forever (ok, 6 months) but she still loves me. When I was working up in NJ I traveled into the city and we walked to Chinatown for dim sum. We had lunch and talked like we did this every week. Sometimes we don't talk on the phone for 2 weeks at a time, doesn't matter. We know where eachother is at. She reads the blog, we email. We love eachother. We have eachother's back. She knows when to reach out and hug me and when to let me tough it out. She was with me when I was told my father was dying of cirhosis of the liver, she was in my hospital room within hours of me having Noodle, she tells me when I am being ridiculous and when I make perfect sense. I respect her opinion so much and love her to pieces.

I do have to say, I am a little jealous of her. See, Noodle looks JUST like Hubby. Always has. Sometimes she smiles like me but she looks like her dad. Jess has a niece who looks a lot like her and then she has a daughter who looks exactly like her. Of all the reasons I would want another child (most of them pretty lame) one of them is too see if the next child would look more like me. How petty and vain is that?

Jess is a great friend, we are going up Friday to see her and celebrate her child's life. I really look forward to it. Congratulations on having such a beautiful, wonderful, pleasant, sweet baby! I love you and Nico and your family and our friendship.