Fun with babies

My brother Jim’s family was in town a few weeks ago. They don’t make it this way very often because traveling with four young children just isn’t the barrel of fun you’d think it would be. But they were in town and invited me to come visit the kids at the house where they were staying, so I headed that way after work on a Saturday afternoon.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think these kids are exceptionally cute and extraordinarily interesting, so I couldn’t wait to see them.

The first to greet me was Lily, who is five years old. She threw her arms around me in a hug so passionate she nearly knocked me over. Golly, I thought, I really should come ‘round more often. Feeling pretty good about my status in their lives, I hugged her back just as fiercely and heard her whisper in my ear, “Oh, don’t go Aunt Di! At least have something to eat first!” Where’d that come from? I assured her I really had just arrived and had no intention of leaving immediately, but I have to admit, the overwhelming feeling I got was that she was URGING me to leave.

I moved on to the living room, where Jack was watching TV. He sensed an adult approaching and buried his face in the corner of the couch. Being absolutely certain he would recognize my voice, I turned on my phone camera, pointed it at his little back and said plaintively, “Why Jack Cota! You don’t want to see your Aunt Di?” and bless his little heart, the second he heard my voice he shot around with a joyous look on his face and I was able to capture the moment. The picture is priceless to me and as soon as Nextel and Sprint figure out what they’re doing with this merge I’ll be able to share the picture with you. Right now that feature isn’t working, or at least that’s what they tell me.

Then it was time for the twins, Abby and Grace. They’re moody little babies, you never know what you’re gonna get with them. I got lucky. Abby let me hold her right away. What a blessing to visit them without the rest of my family around! Nobody to compete with over who gets to hold the babies.

By the time I got to Grace I was thirsty and my hostess offered a fresh bottle of water. Grace reached for it and I did what good aunts do: gave it to her immediately. What can I say? I’m weak. Besides, it was water. It didn’t occur to me it might be a problem. But it seems with Aunt Di there’s almost always a problem of one kind or another. This time it was two-fold: I wanted a drink of my water and she wasn’t giving it back, and apparently handing her that particular item was akin to putting her back on the baby bottle. I had to hide it from her before things got ugly.

When it was time for bed, I carried Grace upstairs where her mama Char was already trying to settle Abby down for the night. We were in a darkened bedroom, slowly swaying back and forth with our babies, while Abby got increasingly fussy. Trying to help from my side of the room, I began to talk/sing to Grace and threw Abby’s name in there at the end. Abby heard her name and instantly silenced. It worked! So I took a deep breath and sing-songed a few more nonsensical things, being sure to say both their names very clearly, very often. This was actually more of a chore than this little story can convey because Aunt Di cannot sing a note to save my life and even though babies don’t care about that my thoughts were on their mama, who surely did not appreciate the sounds emanating from me.

To make matters worse, my voice was now the only thing making noise in the room and I got nervous. So now I’m crooning to them in a weird, strangled, can't-catch-my-breath kind of voice. But by golly, I kept getting those little names out there and my reward was the sudden complete relaxing of the baby in my arms. Grace had fallen asleep…! And instantly became the heaviest baby this nervously noisy aunt had ever held.

I whispered excitedly to Char, “She’s asleep!”

Char whispered back, “She always falls asleep fast. It’s Abby who’s the challenge.”

Oh. For a crazy moment there I thought I was a hero. Now I was beginning to realize I could very well be the reason the girls weren’t already down and snoring.

I stopped “singing,” carefully laid Grace in her crib and crept back down the stairs. It was a crazy, fun visit and I would see them again in the morning. We were meeting for mass at nine.

God was smiling down on me then, too. The first thing that happened after I joined them in the pew was Abby reaching her little arms out for me. I defy any other adoring aunt to pick up a baby faster than I snatched Abby from her mother that morning. I really think I set some kind of frantic, baby-grabbing record.

So we’re sitting there, everyone relatively quiet and focused on the mass; everyone but me of course. I’m flirting with Abby. We were rubbing noses when it occurred to me that I probably needed a breath mint. I reached down into my purse for one of those Ice Breakers liquid ice balls I’d picked up the night before along with some sugar free jelly beans, which Jack was happily sneaking out of my purse when he thought I wasn’t looking.

I popped the mint into my mouth when the baby wasn’t looking (remember the water bottle experience) and instantly my eyes started to water and my mouth was on fire. The almost overwhelming peppermint loaded into this teeny tiny mint just about did me in. I was barely recovering from this sensory overload when Abby turned back in my direction and smiled at me. I smiled and whispered, “Hi,” and that baby gave me the most startled look I’ve ever seen on one so young. It was so hard not to laugh out loud!! Her entire expression was of puzzlement. Where did that smell come from? Not that it’s a bad smell, just where did it come from?!

You forget so many of the precious moments when they grow up, maybe because there are so many of them.

But I don’t think I’ll ever forget Abby’s startled look when I suddenly started breathing peppermint fumes at her for no apparent reason. It was one of those times you really wished a baby could talk.