Thursday Motherhood Moments

Precious moments. We’ve all had them—those moments that make your heart catch every time you remember them. No matter how often you revisit them, they never get stale or lose their power. Tender or funny, poignant or inspiring, they fortify us against toddler tantrums and pubescent (and pre-school) power struggles.

I’m starting something new this week. Thursdays will be Motherhood Moments. Leave a comment sharing your moment—or, if you’re feeling ambitious enough to write a whole post (or want to link from your own blog), email me and I’ll use your story as the moment of the day.

From the day we first started talking to Alex about having a third child, Alex threw himself into the role of Big Brother—a role he had been too young to appreciate when Julianna came along. He prayed for “the baby in Mommy’s tummy” every night; he was the one who gave his Grandma Basi the news, in the form of an 8-week ultrasound picture; he was the one who was the most excited about seeing the baby’s nose and fingers and toes in our 20-week ultrasound.

So it only seemed appropriate that he be the first one to get the news when Baby made its appearance. He and Julianna were staying with my parents, and I told them that when we called, we were going to tell Alex, and let Alex tell them. That was to be his big moment, and he was really excited about it.

An hour or so after Nicholas was born, I made the call. “Do you want Alex?” my mother asked.

“Yup.”

“Alex!” she called, her voice muffled. “Your mommy’s on the phone, she wants to talk to you!”

Muffled, giggly shouts grew clearer, punctuated by footfalls, and then a breathless voice came on the line, sounding so much more sweet and childish than in reality: “Mommy? (hehehehe)”

“Hi, honey. You have a new baby brother.”

“Oooooohhhhh! (hehehehe).” His voice was doing that cute thing where it breaks up and down like a teenager’s.

“Tell Grandma,” I said.

“Grandma, I have a new baby brother!” I heard him say, and then my mother: What’s his name? “I don’t know, let me ask my mom. Mommy, what’s his name?”

“Okay,” I said, “this is a long one, so I’m going to give it to you one at a time. Are you ready? Nicholas.”

“Nick-what?”

“Nicholas.”

“Nick-o-wuss.”

“Yes.”

“Grandma, his name is Nick-o-wuss.”

“Okay, and he has another name. Are you ready? Theodore.”

That one got kind of garbled in translation, but it wasn’t until later that I knew how badly. After we got off the phone, Mom took him outside to give the news to Grandpa (whose name is Theodore), who was working on the planter. “Grandpa!” shouted Alex. “I have a new baby brother, and his name is Nick-oh-wuss Dorothy!”