Birth, Pizza and Bathtime

As I type on my laptop in the kitchen, both of my kids are sitting in the sink, one on each side. It’s kind of a like a kosher kitchen, except instead of separating the milk from the meat, we separate the babies. It keeps them busy for at least a half hour. While they splash I’m able to put the dishes away and teach them a few words. “Spoon..” “Water…” “Cold...” “Old cracking linoleum…” My daughter, Sophia, is extremely active, so it’s the one place where she can sit still and splash to her heart’s content, while also perfecting the art of how to guzzle water directly from the tap. As her Italian Great Grandma, Stella, says “She’s got a split down her teeth just like me. She’ll be the best spitter in the pool!” Sophie’s two year old brother, Dominic, barely fits in his side of the sink. He is the size of a four year old as it is, and to bathe, he must cross his legs pretzel style over the drain plug like a yoga instructor. Until I have to pry him out, though, that’s where he’ll bathe. He’ll learn a new words the fateful day he's permanently lodged. “Spatula!” “Vaseline!”

I just got a phone call from my highschool girlfriend, Liz. Turns out her new baby, one week old Brianna, does not have Down Syndrome after all. Congratulations, Liz! Of course she would have dealt with whatever she was handed, and we all would have supported her, but it’s a huge relief to have a healthy baby. Women amaze me. When she called last week to tell me the baby was born with unconfirmed Downs, she was in tears. And rightly so. She was expecting to bring home a healthy pink girl to join her three year old daughter, Jessica - not have a preemie on a feeding tube. We mourned the loss of her vision and I gave encouragement the best I could from two thousand miles away. Two seconds later, though, the conversation shifted to how she spent the day at Chuck E. Cheese with Jessica. How many men, two days after pushing out a human being, could handle alarming news then go to pizza joint where an oversized mouse shouts birthday wishes to sugar induced toddlers?

Gotta run. Dominic pulled the plug out of his side and is screaming “No! I don’t want my pee pee to go down the drain!”