Introducing Emerald
On the night of October 15th, 2023, my “sister” August, who was nine months pregnant at the time, sat in a movie theater in Colorado watching Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Her new husband, Daniel, was working, so she was alone. Knowing that my other “sisters,” Arden and Aspen, and I saw Taylor Swift when she came to Cincinnati (Rules for a Greattastic Life (Taylor's Version)), she imagined me in the chair next to her freaking out while watching the movie. It would have been so fun to see her live, she thought.
The next day, August called me, and we talked for about an hour and a half. “I can't believe you're having the baby next week!” I said.
“I know,” she replied. “When are you going to come out and meet her?”
“Well, I'm speaking at OCALICONLINE again next month,” I explained, “and then Thanksgiving is the next week, and then I have my ear surgery, so… realistically, it won't be till next year.”
“Ugh. Well, you better come out as soon as possible!” August ordered
The baby was about a week late. I’m not going to go into too much detail for obvious reasons, but in the early morning of October 31, 2023, August gave birth to a baby girl. She was named Emerald McGowan.
Last Friday, February 16th, 2024, my plane landed at Denver Airport, and August, Daniel, and Emerald picked me up. We got to their apartment about an hour later, and after having some dessert, we went to bed.
The next day, August and I got up around 11:00, had breakfast and coffee, got Emerald ready, and went hiking at Eldorado Canyon State Park. That night, Daniel‘s mom came over to watch Emerald while August, Daniel, and I went to a place called Bounce Empire. It’s basically just a bunch of bounce houses. Daniel works there, and after 10 PM, it’s for adults.
When I got back from Mass on Sunday, August, Emerald and I went to Red Rocks, which is a concert venue that’s built into a mountain. Despite having been to Colorado five times before, I had never been to Red Rocks. Emerald had not gotten a lot of sleep, so instead of using the baby harness, we kept her in her car seat in the stroller.
As we walked around Red Rocks, we eventually found ourselves at a set of stairs that led down to the stage. I’m a klutz so as August and I carried the stroller down, with Emerald still inside, I was being very careful. It was super crowded because it was Presidents’ Day weekend, and so we were creating a line. The social awkwardness of the situation made both of us bust out laughing. The best part was people were assuming that I was the father, so everyone was pretty concerned that two crazy people were raising a baby.
Now August is not my first peer to have a baby. As I've mentioned a few times, my cousin Paige had her first baby last June, and actually, August and my childhood neighbor Greg and his wife Temi had their first baby last month! A few of my middle and high school classmates had teen pregnancies, and my former coworker, Carly, is currently pregnant with her third child. There are a couple more examples, but my point is the teen pregnancies were not people I was super close with, Carly was already a mom when I met her, I don’t see Paige super often and Temi got pregnant after August did. In other words, August is my first peer that is a major fixture in my life that became a first time parent during our relationship.
Throughout our entire relationship, I have never been able to imagine August as a mother… to be fair, up until her pregnancy, she couldn’t either. And because she is my first major peer to become a first-time parent, when I left Columbus, I didn’t know what to expect. I don’t think I was expecting her to be a bad mom, but actually seeing her as a mom was surreal because she is so good at the job.
Emerald- it was so nice to meet you, I can't wait to see what Greattastic things life has in store for you. Love your “uncle”
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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