Tuesday, May 30, 2006

One Of Us

Well, we’ve decided to keep her. The way we understood it, we could return her to the hospital if we were in any way dissatisfied. We have 30 days to do so according to the fine print. Yet after only three days we’ve decided to hold on to GK. Jumping the gun, you say? That is possible. We should wait until the 30th day to be absolutely sure, you suggest? Well, now that you mention it…no, nope, it’s decided, she can stay. The other three kids are attached already and, besides, she doesn’t take up all that much room right now. In fact, she’s staying in a basket on a table. How about that? No crib, no bulky baby bed to be put together and adjusted. Kristy found a basket someplace and GK fits in it just perfectly, just like a loaf of bread. They call it a Moses basket, but its buoyancy has yet to be tested. And the Moses basket is on an end table next to our bed. So she’s like a knick-knack.

We live in a 1200 sq. ft. house. You read that right – twelve-hundred square feet. With six of us now, that means 200 sq. ft. apiece. I could play the dictator card and take considerably more for myself, breaking up the rest of the square footage according to seniority or according to who can fetch a beer from the fridge for me the quickest, but I’m a fair, benevolent dictator. I may, however, claim as part of my 200 the bathroom. Living in such close quarters there are some rules GK is going to have to learn fairly quickly, the sooner the better. An example of some of these rules are: 1) turn off the light in your room when you leave it, 2) everyone is to remain quiet while Daddy is watching his DVDs, 3) any food that is unwrapped, peeled or prepared in any way must be eaten in its entirety, 4) flush the toilet. When these are learned then her stay here will be much more pleasant. And once she learns them all I’ll need her to explain them to her three siblings, who appear not to have learned any of them.

So welcome, GK, to your new home. Know that you are welcome and know that you are loved, not just because you are our newest daughter and sister, and not simply because we found only the nicest wicker basket for you to sleep in, but mainly because with a full 27 days left on the agreement with the hospital, we decided now to keep you.