Thirty One-derful

Today my oldest, D1, turns 31. I reflect on that, and it makes me happy that I was a child groom when I married Wifey. Otherwise, having a 31 year old child would mean I am old, indeed...

Wifey and I did something forgettable for Thanksgiving in November of '88. Maybe we brought in food with my Mom and in laws. I do know that one of my cousins hosted a party the following Saturday, and Wifey thought she ought to stay in Dade County, rather than travel to North Broward. I went alone, and returned to her in our first house, the 1400 square foot ranch in what is now called East Kendall...

Wifey woke me before sunrise on that Sunday, and told me her water had broken. I thought of all the movie and sit com scenes where the panicked husband does stupid things rushing to get his wife to the hospital, but we calmly said goodbye to our Lab, Midnight, and his assistant, the Cocker Spaniel Alfred, and drove the '82 Buick Century to South Miami Hospital.

They checked Wifey in, and labor began. And went on. And on. And on...

One of her OBs, Dr. Strassberg, a laconic Wisconsin Jewish guy, like me was a big football fan, and we watched the 1 pm Dolphin Jets game. It was one of those late 80s duels between Dan Marino and Ken O'Brien, and the Jets won. Then we watched the 4 pm game -- Bengals, I think. And after the 1st quarter, he called in Dr. Kenward, the Miami Jewish woman OB, and began prep for the C -section, which I called the baby-ectomy.

They plopped D1 out, and I swear she looked deeply into my eyes, like a puppy does. I fell in love. Wifey held her, and looked her up and down the way mothers do, and she loved her as well, but was soon overcome by post surgical pain. Nursing D1 was painful. Wifey shuffled around the hospital corridor, in a sad but funny parade of post C-section Moms a nurse said was "the parade of the Section Moms," and slowly recovered. And then she fell in love with D1 -- deeply.  So much so that when it was time to go back to work when D1 was three months old, Wifey said no -- can't leave my baby girl. And right there and then we went from 80s family to 50s family -- I became Bob Anderson of "Father Knows Best," and never relinquished the role...

I kvell often about D1 and the joy she has given us. Just the other day, I asked how she was spending her birthday, and she mentioned a volunteering opportunity after she finished a task for her Dietetics practice. What can I say? My father cup runneth over.

Raising this unusually precocious child has been a joy. She sailed through school. She worked hard to get a MS, and then worked hard learning her craft at JMH -- the top hospital in the South East, under the watch of her uncle of another family, Dr. Barry.

And most importantly, she took to heart the biggest lesson Wifey and I tried to impart -- who you choose as your life partner is everything. And she chose Joey, a man so wonderful, and accomplished, and loving our our precious D1 -- well, as I said -- my father cup runneth over.

Tomorrow we'll gather at our house -- 19 of us. It was to be 18, but Jonathan's cousin Gabriel is a welcome late addition -- terrific young man, a junior at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. And we will feast. And we will give thanks to the Big Man for all the bounty He has bestowed upon us.

And we will sing happy birthday to D1, to acknowledge and celebrate thirty WONDERFUL years.