Well it’s great news!!! One of my very good friends (and your fellow mydaralink.com member Nakia Jones) delivered a healthy little girl last week! She is the latest in the list of babies that I now get to shop for…something that I never enjoyed two and a half years ago, but has now become something I love doing. Being in my 31st year, kids are something that I have been considering the past two years or so and as each one of my friends has begun their new life with their new family, I really have seen my life start to transform. Seeing all my friends settle down in some shape or form – three have babies, another has his first born in school, another is getting married in September and the other is looking to buy her first place with her common-law boyfriend – really has put the microscope on my own life.

I have been single for most of my 20’s and luck in love at 30 has been, well, not very successful. I have always said it’s because I was so focused on my career and having a man wasn’t a priority. In actuality, it really was because I was dating the wrong men or dating the right men at the wrong time…do any of you feel me on this? But now, I’m almost 31, fairly established (hey – we should always be striving for more) and ready to settle down, I am beginning to hear my biological clock ticking and I wish it would just shut up.

Let’s see if any of you women can relate. Disclaimer to any of the men reading this - do not take this literally as this is purely for entertainment purposes. It goes something like this:

I would like two or three kids, but we will see what God blesses me with. Step kids are definitely an option, but I would like to have at least two of my own. I am not too crazy about having kids in my 40’s and was hoping to have them in my 30’s so that I am not in my 60’s when they are starting college. Keeping in mind that I don’t want to be some baby making machine having them all back to back, I figure two to three years apart is good - get one out of diapers before the next one comes along. Now take my current age of 30 (31 in August) and my single status, we can definitely rule out kids this year or next. Let’s say I meet someone before the end of this year, I’m not Jennifer Lopez, so no shotgun weddings, therefore, the earliest I could possibly be having a baby is in my 33rd year (that’s if I meet someone this year). Are you still following? Now, if I get pregnant in my 33rd year, that means I will most likely be giving birth at 34, add three more years for the second and I am now at 37. That’s two babies which I would be so thankful for, but it’s two very well planned and thought out pregnancies and let’s be real….who the hell does that????

All joking and neurosis aside, I’m not desperate and I am not quite ready to be a mom, but seeing all of my friends experiencing this part of their life does get the baby on my brain. So my question is…how in the hell do I shut it off this clock for now? Damn, give me three or four years! Is it just nature running it’s course and I have to tune it out? Can I not just be Auntie Darcie without craving my own flesh and blood newborn every time I hold a baby? Let's hear your thoughts on this one.

Have a good one ladies!