What could possibly possess me to belt out Justin Bieber’s greatest hit (well, at least according to my 2-year-old)? How about some smiles like this:

and this …

… and this precious, gorgeous, itty bitty little lady who was fresh out of the oven.

This weekend was pure baby bliss. For my birthday, DadJovi bought me a plane ticket to DC so I could FINALLY get my hands on my best friend’s baby boy, who was born in mid-October.

That’s the main man K up above. I can’t believe how big he is already. 13 weeks have gone too fast, and I’m so afraid that by the next time I see him he’ll be walking already. It sucks living 1,500 miles from your best friends.

His mommy and I went to college together, then lived together in DC after college until DadJovi dragged me swept me off my feet to Florida. She and I like to joke that we were each other’s first life partners. I think we really learned how to be good mates to our future spouses through our many years living together.

The stunning little lady below was just born on Thursday morning. She was a couple weeks early so I never anticipated that I’d get to meet her on this trip! Her Daddy is also one of my best friends from college. We’ve already initiated her into the ‘Cuse Club:

It was such a special weekend. It’s hard to believe that a mere 5 years ago, we were all doing keg stands at my wedding and just 8 years ago, we were living it up in DC, getting wasted in as many bars as possible. But more than the booze and bar-hopping, we were best friends. Together, we started figuring out this thing called life through our first jobs, our first loves and in some cases, our first major heartaches. We cried together after 9/11 and looked over each other’s shoulders when the sniper kept hitting a little to close to our homes. We played softball together on the Syracuse Alumni team every week on the National Mall, then headed to the Bottom Line to keep the competition going in some bar games.We took weekend trips to the Dewey and Bethany beaches and jammed ourselves on the Metro with thousands and thousands of others for fireworks on the Mall.

And now we get to be parents together. As an added bonus, I LOVE (no, seriously love-almost-as-much-as-my-love-for-my-friends love. Got all those loves?) their spouses. That never happens, right? I’m already fantasizing about big group, family trips to the beach, to Syracuse games, Disney and more.

How lucky am I?