I wake up to a pair of blue eyes staring over the mattress at me.
“Do we have school today?” Mare asks. She’s wearing a sparkly dress and has put her hair in a pony tail.
“YES!!” I say, trying not to sound over-the-top ecstatic.
“Oh, cool!” Long pause.
“Have you checked on Hermie?” I ask warily. Hermit crabs not being known to announce their deaths.
“I did! He’s alive, Mother!” (She calls me “Mother” these days.)
“How fabulous!! We did it!” I pop a hand out from the comforter and she slaps me five.
“Actually, Mother, it was really me. I did it.” And I realize she really did. All by herself. Which is good because she can explain to her teachers what the moldy green strawberry in his bed is all about. (“We experiment with what to feed him, Mother!”)
“You did great,” I say. Beside me, rammed between my ever-widdening backside and the body pillow, a second rumpled blonde head and pair of blue eyes perk up.
“I DID IT TOO! ‘Member dat whole night when you were at Greta’s and I took care of Hermie and he didn’t die?? — You have to tell your whole class about that. Tell them all: your sister saved Hermie’s life!”
See? We just might be up to a newborn, yet.
Heck yeah, you are all up for it! Well, at least the girls will be until Eden begins the magical diaper filling and mouth spewing. Then they might just leave her up to you, Mother.
Do you ever look back to the early very freaked out “How do I DO this?” days of motherhood and laugh at yourself? I mean. One tiny nonverbal person compared to…to…THIS? Man.
So, yeah. When Ren starts to call you “mother” and owns a small, out-of-the-way hotel, it’s time to *really* worry.
OMG Shelley, that was hilarious.
But I won’t be worried if that happens, I’ll be taxidermied. My pain will be over, lol.
Yes, Ei, it does seem remarkable to me that once not so long ago a single newborn seemed an insurmountable burden. In my current scenario, the newborn is the relatively easy part.
Apparently, hermit crabs can feel and remember pain:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/03/27/crabs.memorypain/index.html