understatement of the decade: a little (girl) busy right now
“This is a configuration that cannot last much longer,” I thought to myself. And then:
“Do you remember when you were almost 9 months pregnant with Mitra?” I asked.
“How can I forget?” Nazy replied.
“You told me that you were going to be pregnant forever.”
“Really?”
“You were wrong.” I claimed — absurdly believing that objective truth would triumph.
“Have you ever been pregnant. Dan?” Nazy replied — victoriously.
Christiane’s pregnancy was, by all accounts, smooth. But, changes, announced by text message, were afoot. It was early morning (e.g. 1:26 AM) on May 31st when the first message arrived.
Water broke. At hospital.
There were regular updates, but little change, throughout the night. Then at 8:05 I got a text from Darius:
apparently will be born soon will text afterwards
“Strange,” I thought, “Darius is not usually so casual with syntax and punctuation.”
By now, Melika was up and, thanks to my emails, she knew that things were happening in Lebanon. She sent a text asking for an update from Darius - who responded immediately.
a little busy right now
And then, at 9:51, punctuation skills partially (!) returned, Darius sent:
she is born! Christiane doing great
Official proclamations from Beirut proclaim that it was “a smooth pregnancy and fast and easy delivery” — an assertion confirmed by Christiane. The beautiful baby, 3kg (6lbs, 9 oz), has more hair than Arrow, who is 11 months old.
“She has more hair than you, Dan,” Nazy interjects. “And you’re..”
“Point made, Nazy!” I replied.
Little Leandra also has developed strong opinions about the state of the planet. In particular..
“She wants us to swap day and night, Dad.” Darius claimed.
“Mitra was like that, too.” I replied. “In fact, Mitra is still like that,” I thought.
“And if she’s awake, she wants someone to hold her.”
“She wants? How do you know?”
“And she likes to eat. Dad — every few hours. She cries when she’s hungry.”
“How very unusual, Dar.” I replied. “Does she cry when her diaper is ..”
“Yeah! How did you know?”
Over the past couple of weeks, young Leandra has established a routine that remains independent of the sun’s position. She has also officially become the grand(est)daughter. In July, Nazy and I will be visiting Lebanon to see her in person. In the meantime, Skype will partially suffice.
(If you take a look at the top left of the screenshot, you’ll see that my Mac is deleting more than 5,000,000 files. I had trashed a backup file on an external disk — it took three days to empty the trash.)
This is an exciting time for Christiane, Darius and Leandra. Not only has the family grown, Darius is teaching his final course at the American University of Beirut. The entire family will be moving to Bellingham, Washington in autumn. Darius will be a professor at Western Washington University. So, in little more than a year, Darius and Christiane have gotten married, had a baby, found a new job and will move internationally. It sounds..
“… like something you’d do, Dan.” Nazy asserts.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you remember our move from Vancouver to (gasp!) Houston?”
“How can I forget?” I replied.
Flashback
Flying out of Vancouver on a beautiful autumn day, I looked out the window and saw Vancouver Island, the twin peaks, the Lion’s Gate Bridge and snow-capped Mount Baker. Several hours later I landed in Houston after flying over a series of mosquito-filled bayous. When the wheels hit the runway, the cabin filled with steam.
“What have I done?” I thought.
Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, Nazy was coping with logistical issues: negotiating with the movers and getting ‘papers’ for the cat and two parakeets. [Immigration and customs officials actually told her that the parakeets could “drive across the border, but they could not fly across the border”.] Nazy was scheduled to arrive, with the family, a few weeks after me. Two days before departure, (five year old) Darius broke his arm on the jungle gym at school. Nazy showed up at the airport with 16 suitcases, a cat, two parakeets, three children and..
“… no husband…” Nazy interjects.
End Flashback
I called Darius immediately…
“… make sure that you fly with Christiane and Leandra when they come to Bellingham.” I advised. “At least he’s going to a beautiful part of the world,” I thought.
While events unfolded in Lebanon, Tiger and Arrow continued to amaze here in California.
At school, Tiger is focused on his artistic masterpiece.
Arrow, now at the pointing stage, continued to enjoy his music classes.
And a few more baby pictures
