"Be Still - This Won't Hurt a Bit"

Sheila went to Waxahachie, Texas on Tuesday to be present for the first hours of the life of London Grace, Wendy and Paul's second daughter. London and her mother are both healthy and happy, and Sheila got to spend three nearly uninterrupted hours with them both in the hospital before returning to Cypress. Such close proximity to a tiny (six pounds) baby girl, along with 'pretty in pink' photos of her newest niece Lydia and hopeful predictions that Jamie is carrying a girl (we won't know until August), have her literally surrounded by girls. That her life consists of wall-to-wall boys is as often a torment as a blessing, as Julie surely knows. No bows for the hair, no frilly clothes, no tea parties, no dance classes.

Well, no dance classes isn't entirely true. You might count Austin's annual 'square-dancing' demonstration at school during the Houston Rodeo days, an event which inspires unparalleled mortification in Austin for two reasons: he's having to dance and he's forced to have physical contact with girls not of his own choosing. I say "not of his own choosing" because he might gladly hold hands with one girl in particular at his school, though the opportunity has not yet presented itself to express his affection for her. I'm sorry not to offer more details, but I'm not quite ready to accept this new, pre-adolescent development and therefore cannot yet write about it... After all, he's still just a baby!

Braden is 3 1/2 and yet has already developed a keen sense of the importance of the day's first pot of coffee. We have established a habit of having him "help" me make the coffee every morning - "I help you Da-ee?" - which is so important to him that he burst into tears one morning when he came into the kitchen and the coffee had already started brewing. He has two responsibilities - putting the filter into the basket and pushing the on-button. I have been going in to work pretty early the last two weeks to help night-shift employees with their annual benefits enrollment paperwork, so Monday morning I was making the coffee a little after 6:00am. He must have heard me, because he walked sleepily into the kitchen from his room holding his blanket in one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. Stopping in front of the coffee pot, standing there half asleep, he put his right index finger on the on-button and waited for me to put the carafe in its place. After pushing the button, I carried him in to "Ma-ee's bed" so he could "nuggle", and he was back asleep within five minutes.

As for Sheila, she will love on any girl who crosses her path for the rest of her life, but as an Aunt or surrogate Aunt only. I have an appointment with a urologist in just a few weeks that will put an end to our procreation, so it's two boys for us, thank you very much. Two loud, wild, silly, big, messy, rough, smart, funny, beautiful, healthy boys.

"A blessing since the day they were born," as someone once said...