Home button bAby drops ZEaLously on deadLinE date
“… it is not only a time-consuming distraction, it is a life-threatening flaw.”
“Life threatening?” He replied.
“He seems skeptical,” I thought. “Yes. Life Threatening. If my house is burning down and I have to stop and reboot my iPhone to call the fire brigade, the whole family could die in the inferno while…”
“You could just run outside and then call…”
“Do not attempt to distract me with factual commentary,” I thought. “I don’t like it this way.” I replied.
It turns out that this particular flaw could be caused by a ‘display failure’ ($149) or it could necessitate a total replacement ($gazillion), or I could upgrade or
“When this happened on my iPad, they turned on an app — a virtual big button app.” I interjected while holding my wallet very tightly.
“We can do that too,” the technician replied.
So now, my (aging) iPhone, devoid of finger print recognition, sports a virtual home button. Of course..
“Dan!” Nazy interrupts. “You’re talking about iPhones when other, much more important stuff happened this week!”
Nazy is, of course, right. Because school was on holiday this week, Tiger went to Zoo Camp. Arrow, not old enough for the camp, wanted to go to the zoo and..
“Ride Blue Train,” he requested.
Nazy complied with the ‘suggestion’.
“No, Dan.” Nazy repeats. “That’s not it.” In fact, the week was passing slowly for Melika who, nine months pregnant, was carrying a baby girl that…
“… seems overly comfortable, Mel,”I observed.
“The due date is Friday, Dad. The baby has not dropped.”
“She’s perfectly comfortable.”
The situation, however, was a bit more complicated. The local hospital will not perform a breech birth delivery. And the ‘comfortable’ position of Melika’s baby was maximally inauspicious for an easy C-Section. And, because the baby was full-term, the doctors also wanted … well … demanded a ‘sooner rather than later’ arrival. They wanted to avoid emergencies. And so..
“They set a deadline?” I asked Melika.
“Yes! This baby will arrive on August 17 — at the latest.”
“You have always worked best against a deadline,” I thought. “How are they going to do that?” I asked.
“We have to go to the hospital early on Friday.”
“Early?”
“5:00AM. They’ll try a massage to adjust the baby’s position.”
“Didn’t you already try a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, meditation, bouncing in a swimming pool and tarot cards?”
“Dan!” Nazy interjected. “Shut up, Dan.” Nazy thought.
The early morning massage worked — probably because the baby, shocked by unusual and, in fact, unprecedented activity at 5:00AM, reacted by fleeing. (Or attempting to flee.)
“Now we just have to wait.” Tom concluded when he called us.
“Wait?” I thought.
“Melika’s been waiting for 9 months,” Nazy noted. “No one wants to wait any more.”
However, after a wait, Azelle Karen Adams was delivered at 11:00PM on August 17 — thereby completing an Adams family trend.
The next morning, Nazy and I brought Tiger and Arrow to see their new sister:
Tiger, four years old, was excited and very gentle. Arrow, two years old, was..
“.. miffed,” I thought. He wasn’t too excited by the baby, but he was really agitated if Nazy or Melika held the baby. Getting him to pose for pictures wasn’t particularly easy.
I asked Arrow about the baby as we left the hospital.
“Did you like that new baby, Arrow?”
Arrow did not respond.
“What is that baby’s name?”
“Arrow is baby.” He replied, forcefully.
“He may need some adjustment time,” I thought. And, as the days progressed, Arrow is beginning to believe that Melika and Tom will not send the baby back.
The officially enlarged Adams Family photographs, would be taken in the hospital the following morning. Nazy and I dressed them nicely and took them to breakfast — where they spilled french toast syrup and ketchup on their shirts. Luckily, we had spares.
The formal portraits will be unveiled in The Adams Family birth announcement. In the interim, we recreated the photographs of Melika and Family leaving the hospital:
Azelle, less than two days old, was comfy in her car seat. She’s been nursing well and she..
“… has very sensitive ears,” Tom explained.
“Sensitive ears?”
“Yes. When they did the hearing test, they said that she had ‘great ears; and would be easily awakened by noise.”
“Wowee!” Tiger shouted.
“Want Paci!” Arrow exclaimed.
“Sensitive ears, eh?” I replied. “Not sure this news is all good,” I thought.
More on the baby and on the Christening of (the lovely) Leandra in next week’s letter.
For last week's letter, please click here.
The 'Boys' and the young lady