open letter to Monkey...

Today is your due date.

Well, today is your official due date. Your mother says you were due one week ago, on January 14th, and I trust her calculations over her doctor's, without question. Which means you were due on exactly the date that your mother was due, exactly 33 years earlier. However, she didn't make her appearance until she was ready, which finally happened on the 30th, a very long 16 days later. I hope you don't make her wait that long to make your acquaintance.

I was thinking that you were waiting until after the inauguration to be born. Who could blame you? But the inauguration was yesterday. Monkey, you will now be born into a world where, here in America, we've just elected Barack Obama and he's been sworn into office. Change is here, Monkey and more changes are coming. Changes for the better. It's a good time to be born.

When you're born you'll immediately have 2 loving parents, but also 4 adoring grandparents, 3 doting uncles, 1 attentive aunt, and 1 exuberant cousin (the X-man, who is 6, and eager to make your acquaintance). In addition, there's a LOT of extended family: great aunts and uncles and first cousins once removed, etc. I won't go into detail because that might become overwhelming very quickly. Suffice it to say, you're being born into a big family!

You're being born, in the words of songwriter Paul Simon, into the days of miracles and wonders. Thanks to a few of those miracles and wonders, we already know your gender, and have seen fleeting images of you, and yet there is still so much to learn. We don't know the color of your eyes or your hair, or the sound of your baby laugh, which I so look forward to eventually hearing. We don't know what will make you laugh, what you will like and not like. But all of us are ready to find out!

You have a room and a bed and a chair to be rocked in. You have clothes, and pets (4 cats!) and books chosen just for you, and toys, including a wonderful wooden rattle from Uncle Mike, and a rocking horse that your mother and aunt and two of your uncles and your cousin have ridden hard. There is warm milk, Monkey, and love and light...so please come on out soon.