Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Eggs and Things

I feel funny saying we had an exciting weekend since I almost always say that, but there you go, it was exciting. This whole having a baby thing is just so new and different!

On Saturday we had a visit from my brother, sister-in-law and two nieces, as well as my dad. My nieces are 10 and 7, and I haven't seen them as much as I'd like over the years. Perhaps because of the infrequency of our get-togethers, Stella and Ruby are not totally sure who I am. Stella, the eldest, often calls me Avery, which is my sister's name. But I have to say that on Saturday I found the key, after all this time, to street cred in their eyes. All I needed to do was adopt a Chinese baby. "Chinese babies are all unique in their own way," Stella sighed dreamily as we drove to the zoo. Perhaps they would have been just as excited with a biological niece, but there's no way to be sure. All I know is that David and I finally seemed to make sense to them. Now it's perfectly clear who we are: we are Jarrah's mom and dad. And Jarrah is the bee's knees.

From the moment they arrived, there was fierce competition to hold the baby, carry the baby, push the baby in the stroller. Ruby tried to carry her even though Jarrah weighs almost as much as she does. Add this solicitous attention to Karl and Carrie's desire to bond with their niece, and it added up to David and I barely having to lift a finger all day. We went to lunch and then to the zoo, and it was a glorious time. It felt completely surreal, not just because I was now ferrying a child of my own instead of just functioning as a groupie or roadie for their gang, but also because I must have had at least a dozen conversations with each of my nieces during the course of the day, possibly more than the total of all our conversations up to now. It was so nice, even though it sounds inadequate to say so. I really had the nicest time. And the cherry on the sundae was meeting a woman near the hippos who was playing with her 19-month-old daughter from Hunan and hearing my father (who just can't resist bringing the world together--he's like Coke) tell her "That's my granddaughter" when she noticed Jarrah.

On Sunday, we balanced out Jarrah's week of religious observances (of course that just made me think of The Daily Show's "This Week in God") with her first Easter egg hunt, hosted by Mary's brother and sister-in-law. As you can see, the girls are painfully cute in their Sunday best, though Jarrah looked like The Poor Country Cousin compared to the other girls in her cotton frock from Costco. (Still, I think she could have showed up in a diaper and been irresistable.) There was an amazing set-up with colored plastic eggs filled with goodies on every blade of grass, but the older kids got to most of them without delay. I was laughing until my face hurt as I tried to explain to Jarrah how she could pick up the eggs and put them in the basket. She couldn't quite grasp why she should carry the basket (aren't there parents for that sort of heavy lifting?) and whether it might be safe to touch those bright orbs lying on the ground. The funniest part is that long after the egg hunt had ended and the kids had stashed their booty in favor of video games, Jarrah suddenly got hip to this basket concept and decided that if one basket is good, two or three might be better (hmmm, this is a concept she seems to apply in many areas of her life.) She proceeded to lug every child's basket around the house a few times, spilling them and scrambling their contents as she went along. I could barely stand how adorable it was, though I sincerely hope that no other child was cheated out of his or her rightful number of eggs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun family get-together! Jarrah looks adorable in her flowered dress, and I love the picture of her toting the two baskets that are almost as big as she is! Perhaps she will go on to perform great athletic feats, putting the Golditier name into the record books. :) xxx, Lix

Amy said...

I love the pic with all the moms and their girls!
:)
Amy