So I'll tell you, when you deliver the same child for the second time you'll be happy and sad and proud and excited and scared but this time you will have no epidural. Not much to numb the pain. Nope, you'll just have to grin and bear it.
This is the kid you've learned to love, the one who would greet you with a smile through the slats of the crib in the morning. The one who I tricked with a Big Bird puppet so he would laugh and open his mouth so I could feed him. The one who insisted that you feed him while he sat in the laundry basket. The same one who ate only white food for 12 months.
The child who spread M&Ms all over the house and taught his brother to "look for treasure" and lick them off the floor. The one who lost a stuffed dog "Douglas" while visiting IKEA and would make you call every day for a few weeks to see if he had been found. This child, your whale boy, the kid who knew every fact there is to be known about whales.
The kid who sat on you lap to read Eric Carle's The Very Quiet Cricket and listened completely silent and still. The kid who sat on the beach with you. The one who asked to hold your hand on the plane. The kid whose hand you held so many times to cross the street.
The child who spread M&Ms all over the house and taught his brother to "look for treasure" and lick them off the floor. The one who lost a stuffed dog "Douglas" while visiting IKEA and would make you call every day for a few weeks to see if he had been found. This child, your whale boy, the kid who knew every fact there is to be known about whales.
The kid who sat on you lap to read Eric Carle's The Very Quiet Cricket and listened completely silent and still. The kid who sat on the beach with you. The one who asked to hold your hand on the plane. The kid whose hand you held so many times to cross the street.
The child you encouraged at school, at home, on the bike, on the skim board, at the soccer field. The one who needs to be reminded to eat vegetables. The one whose braces you paid for. The one who needed your company while he had a haircut. The one who outsources his hugs.
The kid whose heart you've had to nurse. The one you taught to drive. The one you tried to teach to dance. The kid who studied hard and wants to become a doctor. The one who wants independence and renewal and wants to find it half a country away from you. The kid who deserves his own place in this his new world.
Again surrendering to the beauty of time passing, here we are, my second delivery. The first one in Vancouver in 1998, the second one 18 years later at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Both times, labours of love.
