Welcome to LaLa land, Laura June!

Our newest granddaughter pumped her fists in the air as she made her remarkable debut in this world.

She has her father’s contemplative eyes, her mother’s long limbs, and her grandma’s name.

“I’m going to have to step up my game,” I told my husband as we chatted about my namesake, our family’s newest precious gift.

Then, I jammed my shin against a metal bar and yelped out an expletive.

It seems I’ve got some work to do.

Still, it’s a remarkable honor to share a name. I never considered that I would.

It makes me think even harder about everything I wish for her.

I hope she knows she’s swaddled in love, that she feels a coast-to-coast family hug every day, because it’s coming at her from all sides and generations.

That love, fierce and unconditional, provides the safety harness all children need as they set off in brave pursuit of their lives.

I hope she and her cousins turn their sweet dreams into healthy ambition, that they leap and land and leap again. When they tumble, as we all do sometimes, I hope they brush themselves off, recalibrate the distance, and leap again.

Because, we’ll be here for them as long as we can — a giant crash pad of grandparents, aunts and uncles — cheering their efforts and cushioning the blows.

I’m extra tickled that, thanks to the names their parents have so thoughtfully chosen, my dad, Ron Kostelnik, and I are represented together in the next generation.

I hope Margo, whose name is a compilation of all her great-grandmas, Ronni, and Laura June can feel the love we do still coming from the family members who have gone before.

I’m thrilled to be here in LaLa Land representing all that familial love and hanging with the cutest little Laura in all the land.