A Tribute of Sorts

Today is Caleb's 5th birthday.  Lots of Ethan's friends have turned 5 this year, but Caleb is the first one of the crew we've known since they first came into the world.  I feel that my story of motherhood starts here, with hers.  I remember meeting Katie and Randy in birthing class...losing their contact information and then stalking them a little bit as I tried to figure out where they lived.  It was Katie who called me feeling a bit stalker-ish herself, but we were both excited to be in touch.  So many memories were to follow.......

I remember going with Steve to meet Caleb when they got home from the hospital and Randy getting overzealous with the hand sanitizer.  They filled us in on all the details about Melrose-Wakefield labor and delivery. 

I remember Katie encouraging me to go to the breastfeeding support group when things were getting tough with nursing and consoling me time and time again as I struggled.

I remember when we were going to bring the boys out for the first time and meet at Breuggers. We kept calling each other and checking in and every time one of us wasn't ready for one reason or another (baby needed to eat, baby was sleeping, mommy was too scared).  We finally made it out but I was too scared to bring Ethan and left him with my mom.  Caleb slept the whole time and she was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

I remember meeting at the North Shore Suburban Family Network for drop in play time and both babies sleeping the whole time.  The "older" babies looked so big!  It was impossible to imagine that our little lumps were going to be rolling over and sitting up and crawling.

I remember when Katie had a dentist appointment in Cambridge and left Caleb with me...and Linda.  Lord knows I couldn't handle two babies for a whole hour by myself!  I remember how hard it was for her to leave him even for that short time.

I remember the first time she nursed Caleb in public.  We were in the food court at the Square One Mall after one of our early morning mall walks.  Caleb was going through a phase where he would only nurse while she was standing.  She was mortified and I was her cheerleader. 

I remember feeling particularly frantic one afternoon where I was convinced that Ethan had a fever and that my digital thermometer was broken.  I called her to come over and use hers because the pedi wouldn't see us unless he had a temp and the office was going to close soon.  We took his temp and for some reason her thermometer was showing up in Celsius!  She ran to the computer to do the conversion and I called the pedi and begged for an appointment.  I don't even remember the outcome anymore...I'm sure he was fine.

I remember a beautiful day in April when we simply had to take the kids to the beach but couldn't find a beach umbrella because it was too early in the season (and who has a beach umbrella before they have kids!?).  I brought along a canopy that Steve and I had bought for our "yard" but never set up.  It had at least 50 pieces and was completely inappropriate for the beach but we wouldn't give up and we set that thing up so that we could sit on the beach with our boys out of the danger of the suns rays because they were too young for sunscreen.

I remember being at Breakhart Reservation with a beach umbrella a month or so later and her having to help me get my finger out of the locking mechanism because I'd managed to put the umbrella up too far and somehow got it caught.

I remember countless walks, lunches and phone calls....laughter, tears and dramatic recreations of our sleepless nights and clueless husbands (sorry guys!).   We coined the term "disaster mom" for all of those times where fussy babies stressed us out or we managed to (probably unnecessarily) stress ourselves out.  We'd show up sweaty and disheveled and heavily sighing and would just say "disaster mom" and it would all be ok again.

Things did change a bit when Steve and I moved to Wilmington.  That was the same time that I went back to work so we weren't able to see each other as often or talk quite as much, but 5 years later we're still going strong!  She is one of my dearest friends.  My wish for all new moms is that they find their "Katie".  Love you Mama!!!