As I sat down tonight to pen another journal, for the life of me I could not think of anything interesting to write.

 

During training camps our days are pretty monotonous: Plenty of training, resting, eating, then sleeping: Nothing overly exciting to write about. Then I had a brainwave. I have decided to write tonight about the future of Canadian Women's (and Men's) soccer: The nieces and nephews of the squad members.

 

While I was away in Brazil last year, my nephew Zachary was born to my brother David and sister-in-law Kristina. He reached his first birthday on December 16th. Zach enjoys way too much attention than is good for him, but he is the cutest thing ever. I attempt to spend every possible second around him, when I am home. I owe an apology to David and Kristina for always being underfoot.

 

My twin sister Sara is due to give birth April, and I can't wait to have another little one in the family. Sara will be the pregnant fan cheering the loudest in Vancouver.

 

There are quite a few of us on this team who are totally smitten with our youngest family members. Robyn has three nephews and nieces: Milan the youngest; Jacob-Li and Olivia.

 

                

 

I am sure our group of aunts is the most annoying gang imaginable to some teammates not yet blessed with nieces and nephews - their time will come. Carmelina Moscato has six nieces and nephews: Gabriella, Rocco, Loredana, Michael and Adriana.

Thank goodness we aunts have one another to whom to show our photos and extol the virtues of these children. Captain Christine Sinclair has a niece Kaitlin while Erin McLeod has Lilly and Malcolm and Kelly Parker has Nash (1 year) and Neven (3).

 

       

 

And, of course, these children will be the future wave of Canada's soccer players. It turns out there are some insanely cute team babies!