A Bay-bay!

Eeeeee!  Too excited to write a proper post, but I'm going to be an aunt again! 

I got a call from my brother at work.  I was in the office next door, so I heard his ring tone but couldn't answer.  And then I got back to my office and didn't look at my phone and kind of forgot about it.  This is probably the brother I am closest to, and he works in sales, so it's not exactly unusual workday call from him, so I didn't think too much about it. 

After work, I was going from a parking garage to a restaurant for a homeowner's association board meeting, and he called again.  I was with someone but I told her I had to answer since it was odd for him to call more than once in a day, so I needed to check and see if everything was okay.  I tried to answer, but it immediately cut out as we stepped in the elevator. 

In the elevator, I was telling our property manager that I guessed he was calling because he was expecting to have a final round job interview for something he really wants, but I didn't know.

A minute later, we were in the courtyard of Travis Walk (going to dinner at EST, a new-ish oyster bar, not exactly my choice as a vegetarian allergic to seafood), and he called again.  She understood I needed to take the call, so I answered, and right away, I was like, "Hey, I'm about to go into a meeting, can I call you back, or is it something important?" 

And he was like, "Sure, call me back, was just calling to tell you we're pregnant." 

I let out a huge EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, and our property manager whispered, "he got the job?," as I was jumping up and down. 

So yeah, March 8, my sweet brother (engagement here, wedding plan here) is going to be a dad.  That's kind of hard for me to imagine.  I didn't think his wife wanted kids based on a couple conversations we had many years ago, but I can 100% see her as a mom. 

I'm excited for them.  After getting the news, I didn't sleep well, waking up at least 5 times and every single time, either my first or second thought was that they're going to have a baby.  A baby!!!  A BABY!!!!!!!!! 

This exciting news, however, throws a major kink in our plans for a 10 day trip to San Fran in March, but maybe we'll do it anyway and get to visit the new little one.  But part of the 10 day domestic trip plans was to go at least a couple places where we'd stay with friends and family so as to not change our financial priorities.  But staying with people who just had a baby that month might not be fun for anyone -- them or us. 

So the San Fran March 2015 plan will have to be more thoroughly considered.

I heard some statistic the other day about the cost of raising a child to age 18 (not including college), and it was $245,000.  The news said the largest component of that was housing costs (the CNN article I linked actually says "housing and transportation").  The idea of $100k plus in increased housing costs struck me as BS because I don't think of that as really a necessary cost.  I mean, we (and most other people I know) have a guest room, and there's no reason it couldn't be a baby's room or a kid's room, and so we'd have zero increased housing costs -- unless we still wanted a guest room, and so that doesn't really strike me as a cost of raising a child  -- it's more the cost of wanting to have a guest room, or an office, or whatever, a true lifestyle choice (unlike food, which you're required by law to give your offspring).  And man, whatever happened to the days when kids shared rooms?  Maybe my main issue is with how the news portrayed the statistic -- the COST of raising a child to age 18, when maybe what they meant was the average amount SPENT raising a child to age 18. 

Anyway, hearing about this pregnancy may have changed some of the skepticism I felt last week in hearing about that number.  Maybe there's some more merit to that statistic since at least some people without kids live in a one-bedroom place, particularly in costly cities like San Fran and NYC, and so they legitimately have increased housing costs with a child.  In speaking to my brother, it sounds like adding a bedroom where they live (a neighborhood called the Presidio) is going to be about $2k/month more.  Yowza!  Maybe they can charge fees to hold the baby? 

P.S., I should mention that I decided to go meet my running buddies this morning to see how my foot/tendon/ankle felt.  I told my husband I might be back home in 15 minutes, and I'd stop if there was any pain.  I felt a few niggles over the first mile, but no pain, and by the time I finished up the 8, I wasn't sure it had even hurt yesterday.  Fingers crossed the worst is over!  Went to the dr today to get ABX and anti-malarials for India and he reminded me to ice, so I'll try that tonight (you know, after my run home from work...).