Hi, Baby

I wish I had a picture. But there is no way to capture it as I see it: these three beautiful children

gathered around me, on the couch, lounging on my bed while we read bedtime stories, sometimes even in the middle of the kitchen.

“Mommy, I want to pat the baby,” Alex says. “Nicholas, do you want to pat the baby? Julianna, do you want to pat the baby?”

He bends his head over my midsection, puts his lips an inch from it and whispers something I can’t hear, patting the gentle swell of the maternity tops I have to wear only because my regular ones are too short to cover the maternity waistbands. I ruffle the thick richness of his brown curls, cut too short to curl except at the very edges, where tendrils stick out wildly from his forehead and the nape of his neck. Then he sits up. “Nicholas, you want to say night-night to the baby?”

Nicholas crawls forward, and I brace myself. He’s often not gentle. “Nigh-nigh, beebee,” he says, and bangs his hand on my belly a few times. Then he smacks the part of my anatomy that is most tender right now. “Beebee dink milk!” How has he made that connection? I only told him once, when he was insisting on using my chest as a handlebar to clamber up.

Julianna watches the boys with bemusement. I can’t tell how much of this she really “gets.” Nor Nicholas, for that matter. The other day my sister asked if he understood, and I turned to him to say, “Nicholas, where’s the baby?” He proceeded to walk around my parents’ living room looking all around, repeating “Wheah…beebee? Wheah…beebee?”

Julianna comes over and, giggling, performs her ablutions. She thinks they’re nuts, these boys. But I smile whenever I think of her excitement when she sees what’s been in my tummy all these months. After all, she took exception to the idea that anyone else had a right to hold Baby Nicholas…and that was two years ago. She’s crazy about babies.

The moment passes all too quickly. It’s prayer time, hug-and-kiss time, bedtime, play time. But, like Mary, I add it to the treasure trove of memories I hold in my heart to ponder.