Babypalooza.

It's official: we're out of the wedding phase and into the baby phase.

Everyone we know has a kid. Or is having a kid. Or is about to have another kid.

I buy so many baby gifts these days, I've started receiving frequent customer coupons from Gymboree and mailings from Pottery Barn Kids. I've given up on picking out just the right card for everyone — instead I stock up on "You're Expecting!" and "Congratulations on Your Bundle of Joy!" cards every time I go to Target. We go through them pretty quickly.

I believe we may be experiencing some sort of baby boom.

I used to be pretty baby-phobic. The nickname "Baby Hater" may have come up a time or two with my college friends (until I got crabby about it and told them to shut up, which they kindly did). I was never a baby hater...I just didn't want to trade in my fun, grown-up life for chaos and crying. And I didn't really understand why any of my friends would want to, either. But they wanted to, and they did, and things were tough for a while, but we made it through. It took a few years, but now I'm all - Ooh, babies are cute! I love babies! Of course your baby can come on vacation with us!*

Talk about a transformation. But I think Mattie — who dribbles water all over the house, swallows my underwear** and then barfs it up, chews on my shoes, gets hair all over our couches, and wakes us up at 5am every morning — has prepared me for chaos.

I sleep with a HOOF in my bed, for pete's sake.

Even though almost everyone we know has kids now, we rarely get to see them. But this weekend was full of babies. Saturday night we had dinner with our good friends Scott and Brenna Vuong, Eric and Megan Nelson, and Jim and Jessica Healy. The Healys don't have kids yet, but the Vuongs have Jaxon, who is 7.5 months old, and the Nelsons have Owen, who is 6 weeks old. It was the first time we'd seen Owen (and we hadn't seen Jaxon since he was teeny tiny), so it was a lot of fun to cuddle with them both. Jaxon is so laid back — he was happy no matter who held him. And Owen was such a sweetheart. He hardly fussed at all, and slept through most of the evening. It was a perfect night with great friends and really good food (Scott made an unbelievable meal. Everyone should have an Asian friend who cooks for them.).

Yesterday afternoon I spent a few hours at Josh and Joanna Wing's house, visiting their nearly five month old daughter, Allie. Joanna warned me that she's shy around strangers, but Allie and I were giggling and playing within minutes. She's incredibly cute, and I could have held her all night. (Literally. Josh and Jo offered her to me for the week. I think they're tired.)

So, yes. I'm pretty sure we've entered a new phase. While we've only been to one wedding this year, there have been a lot of babies. And there are more to come, as quite a few friends are pregnant — a couple of them with their second baby. And to that I say: bring 'em on. I think I've got enough cards for everyone. And if not, Target's across the street.

*Many thanks to my dear friends, who stuck with me during the rough patch. And who produced kids cute enough to change my mind about the whole baby thing.

**I really hope our future child won't swallow my underwear, but if he/she does...well, I think I can handle it.