A few days ago I stopped by my best friend’s house to give her a long overdue thank you for all the support she has given me throughout my pregnancy and Aftermath. That is how I will refer to this year for the rest of my life: 2004, The Aftermath.
My best friend’s name is Beth, and she has two children of her own. Two boys named Kyle and Eli, two of the most freakishly smart children I’ve ever come across. And since they are boys they throw things. I don’t know how Beth has survived raising two boys with all the throwing. Oh, and the climbing. And the knocking over of large objects. I am so glad I have a girl, at least until she starts her own throwing, of unbearable hormonal tantrums.
Kyle and Eli love to see Baby Leta because Baby Leta has small hands and a little body and cheeks that scream out to be squeezed. When I walked into her house Kyle immediately ran up to me to touch Baby Leta, and he asked if he could hold her. Here is a picture Beth took of Kyle holding baby Leta, right after he told me, “I’m pretending to be Leta’s uncle.”
Eli of course didn’t want to be left out of the action and so he asked if he could hold Leta. Here is a picture of Eli holding Leta with the aid of Beth’s husband Dave. Eli told me, “I’m pretending to be Leta’s Mama.”
There was much chaos with the holding of Baby Leta and the Uncle and the Mama fighting over who got to hold Baby Leta, and I told the Mama that since Dave was holding him and he was holding Baby Leta that they were a all a big sandwich. His response to me: “I AM NOT A SANDWICH!”
Leta survived the sandwich, and here she is pondering the existence of her new Uncle and new Mama. She is also biting the living shit out of my finger.
These pictures were all taken by Beth and Dave with their new Nikon D70 which they bought after experimenting with our D70. There is a whole story behind their decision to buy the D70, a story she could tell much better than I could, but I’ll just tell you that it involves stubborn husbands who in the end finally admit that the wives are ALWAYS RIGHT.
Thank you, Beth, for these photos, and for staying with me in the hospital during The Spectacular Food Poisoning Carnival July 2004.