Ina’s Delayed Arrival….

Thirty-one years ago today my long wait, made longer by baby’s reluctance to make an appearance on its due date of Tuesday, September 30th, was finally over.

I had been at work all week, silly I know, but I had a lot of people relying on me, tickets to sell, hours to kill…the hospital and my Ob/Gyn were just across the road,

Heck I could walk over in an emergency… that’s how much I knew back then!

I was in a perpetual state of anticipation, poised on the eve of parenthood,

at the end of the bridge that would take me from childless to mother,

that would hurl me headlong into a world of bottles, diapers and bottomless pits of sleepless nights.

“Let’s get on with this already,” I kept saying to my motionless lump as I patted its butt.

In the wee hours of Friday, October 3rd I finally felt activity and fifteen hours later my doctor, not wanting to wait anymore, came into my room where I was trying to smile through gritted teeth, during the not so very strong,

but stronger than any cramping I’d ever experienced,

contractions, and said,

“Let’s do this!” and whisked me off for a C-section, which was a relief.  I handed the ball to him and it was painless sailing from there on…at least until the drugs wore off.

But by then I had an adorable little man-child and nothing hurt except the feeling of my heart bursting with love.

IanBaby

Adorable man-child

We named him Ian after Ian Fleming, the author of Hubs’ favorite hero, James Bond… go figure!

And then, as quick as a flash, my adorable man-child,

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Van Cliburne hopeful

went from serenading us at his piano to wooing us with his words.

Two words in particular.

Due Date.

“Do I get a gift on my doo date?” he whispered in my ear.

Hubs and I looked at each other.

“Why not…?” he pulled back and studied our puzzled faces, “Today could have been my birthday!”

There was no arguing with that.

“Can’t I have just a teeny little gift,” he asked, “something I really, really need, and can’t do without?” he mouthed the last word.

Yes, even at almost two he was the master of persuasion,

“This is a really special day…” he added in his sweet little man-child voice.

We caved.

He was our only child, had an impressive command of the English language and cute as a button,

Still is!

ianbday

“He’ll make a good lawyer one day,” I remarked to Hubs.

What did we know?  He’s a used-to-wanna-be-an-astronaut-film-maker in L.A. now.

Same difference!

So, on September 30th 1987 Funyuns-Day was born and became a much loved tradition.

This year he sent me a Funyuns-Day Eve card inviting me, well it was more, commanding me to,

“Reflect on all the silly but much loved traditions we had as a family…”

I did and here’s a partial list (with some help from his very good memoried sister, Parsis),

Cinnamon roll day (1)

Donuts on Saturdays

Il Sorrento (2)

Watching Hitari when putting up the Christmas tree

Soupalada (3)

Second breakfast (4)

Friday night movie night upstairs

Chinese food on Christmas eve (5)

Gifts on other siblings’ birthdays (6)

Taking candy to the movies

Birthday tapes (7)

Watching Christmas Eve on Sesame Street on… (wait for it)… Christmas Eve

Decorating the kitchen (8)

Feeding the ducks

Fountain drink or TCBY on Fridays on the way home from MCHS, or anywhere…

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L.A.

Bread outlet store (9)

Designing and making our own Christmas cards

Day by days (10)

It’s MY day (11)

Mass on Friday mornings followed by breakfast at McDonalds (12)

Hiya! (13)

How many of these are still well worn McNeny Trads?

Hmm, maybe that’s another reflection.

He may not have become a lawyer but he is still the best, most articulate young speaker I know; a wordmonger who has engaged me in many hours of insightful conversation so far this year!

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Thank you…and…while I’m here,

Happy, happy Birthday, handsome man-child!

When I gave you life first you blazed the trail for your siblings and set the bar high enough to make being a mother,

The Best career ever!

I love you!

See you at the end of the week!

 

  1. Fridays…every family knows that TGIF means it’s cinnamon roll day, right?
  2.  Fancy Italian restaurant, since closed, where we dined at the end of every school year  all dressed up.  The waiters gave the children candy floss as we were leaving
  3.  a bucketful of dirt, twigs and leaves stirred with water to a pouring consistency and poured over unsuspecting heads at the end of the game
  4.  on Saturdays around 10am and Sundays after mass
  5.  the only restaurant open after Christmas Eve mass the first time we did this
  6.  as new parents we were worried the other siblings wouldn’t understand why they weren’t getting gifts too…today they still don’t understand.  Oh well!
  7.  I read books that were tedious to re-read 10 times a night every night.  This went on until they turned 18
  8.  the night before birthdays with balloons and streamers in birthday boy’s/girl’s favorite color
  9.  day old bread, we’d get twinkies and other goodies off the rack because we bought so darned many sliced white loaves!
  10.  notebooks with an enjoyable activity to get the school morning started
  11.  Ian-Monday, Simon-Tuesday, Paris-Wednesday, Malia-Thursday for answering the phone when Pops called at lunchtime and getting the mail.  Saved a lot of petty squabbling.
  12.  this stopped with homeschool and was replaced by a fast food restaurant on Friday evening.  Usually Cici’s.
  13. A game that involved running full pelt at Pops and flinging their bodies at him while shouting “Hiya!”
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ElRay

2016-10-03 20:26:48 Reply

Well – that just about says it all! For # 1 at least.

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