FIVE AND ONE HALF - Chapter 26

Bringing New Baby Home

 

Lottie and Ester went with me to pick up Lesley and Levi to bring them home from the hospital.

Ester took Levi and I thought she was going to smoother him with kisses. She had already fallen in love with him.

Lesley was as expected a little weak but I knew she would be back to normal very soon. Lesley moved over next to me as we drove home and said, “I have missed you.”

“Missed me? I have been right here all the time,” and then it dawned on me what she meant.

I smiled at her and said “I have missed you too.”

She said, “Give me a few weeks and that problem will be solved,” and she did something uncharacteristic for her; she winked at me.

Upon arriving home a couple people who helped keep up our place met us and wanted to see Levi. They really cared for Lottie and kept an eye on her when she was outside and they were going to feel the same about Levi.

I hoped that they would still have time to do their work while watching over the kids as they grew up. Yet it was a comforting feeling to know the people you hired felt that way about your kids.

I had asked the grandparents to wait a week before coming over and give us time to return to our new norm.



Many arms were holding the new baby

Between Lottie, Ester, and Lesley, Levi didn’t get much time to cry because someone was always holding him. I had to tell them to back off a bit and let him have some scream time.

I said, ‘He will be completely spoiled by the time he is six weeks old.”

They did a little better after than, but not much. The only time I got to see him was when someone else was holding him.

I figured I would make up for this as he grew up and we did some man stuff together.

The next few weeks seemed to pass slower than usual but then Lesley went for her final checkup and the doctor gave her a clean bill of health.

She came home smiling and said, “It’s time.”

I thought, “Time for what?” and then it dawned on me.

Sometimes I’m pretty dense and it takes me a while to work through things.

I just said “Its time and I’m glad.”

A couple weeks later while engaged in things, “I said are you ready for another young’un?”

She quickly retorted; “The memory is still too fresh in my mind about what it’s like to carry and bare a child to want another real soon.  Perhaps after a couple of years when the memory has faded and I see a newborn in someone else’s arms.”

I laughed at that and said, “So be it.”

One of life’s pleasures is watching Levi nurse as he strokes his mother’s breast while he suckles. He started it early on and probably will continue it until he is weaned off the breast and put on a bottle.

That will be his first trauma.

I had to buy a lot of extra groceries for there was always someone coming over and wanting to see Levi and we always ended up feeding them.

The grandparents were there every day making over him.

I finally hired the daughter of our cook part time to help in the kitchen. She worked as much as she was needed which often turned out to be full time.

Her mother was on her case all the time for she wouldn’t allow any sluffing off in her domain.

Lesley resumed designing her line of baby ware and about once a week she would have me sketch her creations. I didn’t mind doing things for her but this was a bit boring.

I knew a young man I met when taking some modern art studies who was an excellent design artist and I had him come over and look at what Lesley, and Ester was doing. He immediately was interested and by the time they had lunch they were talking like old friends.

He looked at some of my drawings and immediately made suggestions to improve on my work.

This proved my point that women are far better at designing baby ware than men.

By the time the day was finished I was fired and Jim had been hired.

As I relaxed that evening, I thought boy are you smart! Getting out of that job was masterful.

Yes, I might be Interested !!

A week later I received a call from the company I had worked at and they asked me to come visit them and inspect the plant since they had taken over.

 

To Be Continued