So last year the band voted to admit an additional member, and our youngest grandson was born -- on 7-11, the Free Slurpee birthday! Today he turned one, and what joy he has brought to all of us.
His older brother, who we of course adore, has not been a "background child," as Wifey says. He's a lot. Big, full of energy, and hilarious.
The little guy has been the classic second child -- amazingly easy and requiring of so much less attention. D1 says he has largely been a prop to his big brother's life. She nurses him, and loves him, and plays with him, but sometimes kind of forgets he's there.
Big brother cried, and was sometimes inconsolable. The little guy meeps, gets picked up, and smiles. He is a true treasure.
We joke that D1 and Joey had baby personalities opposite of the Ds. D1 was the easiest baby in the world. D2 was the terror toddler -- with tantrums, and behaviors so tough we didn't take her to a restaurant until she was about 4 -- for fear the evening would turn out bad. Well -- she turned out just wonderfully, of course -- and her husband Jonathan takes her to restaurants all the time!
When D2 was born, back in the ancient times when hospitals still had nurseries, my in-laws and I stood at the window and watched her sleeping in the basinet. I waxed philosophic. "Who knows how her life will be? Maybe she'll find the cure for cancer." My suegra seized on this -- and repeated it often.
But it is, of course, the wonder of life. Babies are adorable, and fully dependent, and who knows how their lives will play out? As their loving families, we support and adore them no matter what. And then we watch the great mystery of a life story unfold before our very eyes.
Wifey and I are headed up to NE Miami later -- tasked with picking up big brother at Summer camp. We'll take him for eye cream, as he calls it, and then back to the house to hug the birthday baby. He is taciturn, the little guy -- I have a feeling that years later he will explain that his big brother talked SO much, narrating each aspect of his life, that the hermanito became a skilled listener. We'll see.
Last night, our long time friend Maureen came by -- to take a long evening walk with Wifey. After they returned, we caught up -- we met when her youngest and D1 were in pre school. Her oldest is just now finishing her education -- she has a BS, MS, Doctor of Vet Science from Penn, and now a PhD from Michigan State. She is a scientist in animal-human infection transmission -- a most timely topic, and has taken her first real job at U Washington in Seattle. She's moving there with her partner next month.
The younger girl is a water engineer who married her Palmetto High boyfriend, and the two live in Atlanta. Grandkids are a possibility for Maureen and Dave, but nothing yet.
As I walked Maureen out, she told me how lucky I am -- both Ds and their families right here in the 305, with grandkids to boot! I agreed, of course. She asked me how D2 and Jonathan returned -- lots of Finance people stay in NYC where they were living. I told her the tale of how Jonathan was recruited by a Coral Gables firm, and they purposely didn't tell me until it was a done deal.
D2 was home, and we were getting Dad/daughter pedicures. She was in the next chair, and I overheard her conversation with Jonathan -- confirming it was a "Done deal -- and I can tell him, right?" I had a sense she meant a return home, and I looked at her and got teary eyed.
Anyone who knows me knows I do NOT cry easily. It has to come from my heart -- though absurdly, recently someone said during a heartfelt apology I showed "fake tears." I can't fake tears. Estupida, as a friend always says.
Anyway, I recounted that tale to Maureen, and she got a bit misty, too. I AM the luckiest SOB I know.
And today, a little guy at the top of the list of my manifold blessings reaches a milestone! Happy birthday, Little Man -- here's to many, many, many more, and getting to watch your life's journey go on.
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