We did not have an Easter baby..
He arrived the night before!
Theodore Lende Lynch, named for his grandfathers (Teddy Bear to his cousins and sisters already), is big (8 lbs. 2 oz) has a head full of dark hair and a face like a boxer (for the time being, he came into the world in a hurry, nose first.) His mother is well, his father is proud, and needless to say the rest of his family are all over the moon with joy and relief. I am sitting here feeling grateful, and a little tired, and thinking of the noisy happy Easter crowd yesterday. One of my guests met me in her pink fuzzy bathrobe this morning on the porch when I came home from the early bird swim. Did she sleep over? No, she was just picking up her sewing, which she forgot last night, and since it was raining and she gave her grandson a ride to school, because he woke her up and asked her to, and was in the car anyway, figured she might as well drive over here. While we were talking (she declined coffee and couldn’t stay, it’s a busy day) an aunt telephoned wondering when Teddy and his family would be leaving Juneau (the next ferry). She has a cold and hopes it’s gone soon so she can hold him. (I have to wash my hands more.)
Then I walked dogs in the rain with a friend whose husband passed a kidney stone about the same time my daughter pushed Teddy out, and they are both very, very happy about that, too, and prouder still that they managed to put on an Easter egg for their grandchildren hours later.
How quiet and nice it is right now, with the clock ticking and the rain, and the warm fire and the cottonwood leaves in the vase smelling like spring. I’d kind of like to sit a bit longer. Betty just called from Haines Assisted Living to ask about the baby, and I told her a few more details that I missed in the initial excitement of the birth, like his name. She reminded me to pick up any 5 gallon buckets in the garden.
“He’s not going to be crawling into them anytime soon,” I said. ( I read the warnings. I pay attention. I will guard that kid like a junkyard Doberman.)
Hadn’t I heard the weather report? “It’s going to blow 60 knots this afternoon.”
It’s true. They even canceled the annual all-school Earth Day community spring trash pick scheduled for today. No one wanted to even imagine all those grandchildren tumbling in the wind clutching their yellow bags risking life and limbs (or an eye or a tooth) for a good deed. Betty also suggested I point the hood of my car into the storm (she used to be a flight instructor) so that the wind won’t spring the door hinges. I’d never be asked to give anyone a ride to school with a car door flapping in the breeze. I better go over and tie down that trampoline at Teddy’s house next door too, or it could take off like a flying saucer and crash land in Klukwan injuring who knows how many grandchildren. (Being a grandmother is a lot of work.)
