Love, Aunt Bitch
Dear Banana,
One thing you’re going to have to learn about your Aunt Laura is that she’s late with everything (except singing happy birthday; thank God for phones). Late to appointments, late to work, late with birthday cards. I’d love for you to be the exception to that rule, but I’m afraid I’m already going on two weeks late with your birthday card.
Part of my problem with lateness is that I want everything to be perfect. And who has time for perfection? But I want your first birthday card to capture every little thing I love about you from your thin curl of hair to your tiny toes. I want you to know that you are the first crumbsnatcher I’ve ever genuinely liked. I want to tell you all about the story of your mom’s pregnancy and all about the story of your birth. When I read Leo the Late Bloomer to your mamma’s big belly, and when I first felt you kick, and how excited I got every time you made her belly undulate from within. I’d squeal; your mom would laugh; you’d stop moving. Stinker. When you were born, and your head popped out, and I just gasped because in that split second I got it, I understood for the first time ever why people have kids. When I sang you your first happy birthday when you were thirty minutes old. When, for the first twenty-four hours of your life, my eyes teared up like a big ol’ softie every time I looked at you. I just couldn’t believe that you were you.
And I don’t tear up anymore, but it’s still hard to believe that you’re you. That you’re a year old now, and that you have sharp little teeth and can crawl and giggle and smear food all over your face. Happy One-Year-and-Two-Weeks, Emmit. I love you.
And I’ll put that card in the mail to you … soon.
Posted 31 August 2006
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you, are such a sweetheart!
This must be a sign of the Second Coming. B being mushy and goopy and sappy over a kid!?
Regardless, he’s a super cute kid that deserves all the mush and goo and sap…
B, you *are* too sweet sometimes. That’s why I love ya!
late?
nah.
perfect timing.
i was just lamenting to josh
this very morning
as we wrestled in bed with our giggling boy
that i’m so very ready
for the next level of communication
& could emmit hurry up already…& bloom!
so the reminder of leo the late bloomer -
especially this morning – is quite excellent.
i will pull it out tonight to read it before bedtime.
& maybe it is your fault
that he’s the laid back little guy that he is.
maybe your reading permiated the depths of the belly
& he actually heard you!
i must say
that no one will ever believe that you don’t like kids
on accounta your super-softiness.
emmit loves you right back
oh!
& not to question monte & clarabelle’s biglove for emmit,
but they totally look like, “okay, crazy lady, where’s my treat?”
Your little Leo will bloom in his own good time… and I love the thought of my reading to him in-utero having this profound, formative effect on his life :) If ever he’s accused of being slow, he can just blame his favorite Aunt Bitch.