Shea here. I have been following your baby (and other!) posts for several months and I have greatly enjoyed/appreciated your frankness all this time. I do not know anyone close to me who has ever had a baby and I am naturally curious about pregnancy and child raising the older I get. The picture you have painted of Brian being so supportive and loving is really touching (I am a daddy's girl myself) and I can only hope the father of my children will be as supportive and hands-on as he has been for you and Mina. If it is not too person to ask, when did you and Brian decide to have kids? How does a conversation like that go, I wonder? (Do not feel compelled to answer if you don't feel like it.)

I know Mina already has a large, extended family, but if/when I move to Boston I would be thrilled to help you guys out in any way. I would love to learn more about babies--I'm embarrassed to say that at 27, I've never even changed a diaper. There are a lot of things I would like to learn before I decide to have children of my own.

At Sea World, I see the worst in kids--rude behavior, temper tantrums, filthy, obnoxious brats--and I sometimes doubt I would have the patience for child-reading. But, I also know that I am seeing them at their worst, and my mom also says quite often, "You don't necessarily like other people's kids, but you LOVE your own kids." So that gives me hope that I have parenting potential. And I know that can't always be true, because I've already fallen in love with Mina!