Saturday, June 14, 2008
Rose unlocked the front door of the house, her step light in spite of her continued soreness from Paul’s birth. Not only had the final gone well, but she managed to ace both portions in spite of having to take it late. And now she was finished with college, at least for the time being. Maybe she would go back later, but for now she’d had enough and wanted to concentrate on her career instead.
"I’m home!" she called, closing the door behind her.
"We’re in here, Rose!" Jack called from the living room.
Rose headed in the direction of the living room, only to be stopped by an unusually quiet and sad Lizzy. Her blonde hair was pulled into two pigtails, slightly askew, but she wasn’t bouncing around with her usual cheerful energy.
"Hello, Lizzy." Rose bent down to greet her daughter.
"Hi, Mommy." Lizzy stopped, looking hesitant about approaching Rose.
"What’s the matter, Lizzy? Where’s my smiling girl?"
At that, Lizzy burst into tears. "Mommy!" she wailed, throwing herself into Rose’s arms.
Rose picked her up, rubbing her back gently. "What’s the matter, sweetie? What’s wrong?"
"Nobody loves me anymore!" the child wailed, clinging to her mother. "Everybody loves that new baby instead!"
"Oh, Lizzy." Rose turned her daughter’s face to hers. "We still love you. The new baby doesn’t change that."
"You won’t have any love left."
"Now, that’s not true. You know what the truth is, Lizzy? The truth is, the more people you have to love, the more love you have for everybody. So we actually have more love for you now."
Jack walked in, hearing Lizzy crying. "What’s wrong, Busy Lizzy?"
Lizzy looked at the baby cradled in his arms and buried her head in Rose’s shoulder, refusing to answer.
"She thinks we don’t love her anymore because of the new baby."
"We don’t love her anymore? Of course we love you, Lizzy. You’re our special little girl."
"You love the baby more." Lizzy peeked out at her father, then put her head back on Rose’s shoulder. "You said we could play Candy Land, and then you went to take care of him, and we didn’t get to play."
"Oh, come on now, Lizzy. We can still play. Your mommy can play, too."
"No."
"Lizzy, babies need a lot of care. Baby Paul needed to have his diaper changed, that’s all. We would have played Candy Land when he was clean."
"He stinks."
"Yes, babies do sometimes." Rose laughed. "So did you, sometimes, when you were a baby. He’ll outgrow it, and then he’ll be able to play with you, too."
Lizzy didn’t respond, but instead clung more tightly to her mother.
"Lizzy, how would you like to hold the baby?" Jack offered. "I think it’s time for you two to get to know each other."
"He’s just a dumb baby."
"He’s your little brother, Lizzy. And he really wants to get to know you. After all, you’re his big sister, and that’s pretty important."
Paul chose that moment to make a gurgling noise, waving one hand around and catching a handful of his sister’s T-shirt.
"You see, Lizzy? He wants to see you."
Lizzy looked reluctant, but finally agreed. "Okay. I’ll hold him."
They went into the living room, Jack and Rose sitting down on the couch with Lizzy between them. Jack carefully placed Paul in Lizzy’s arms, the baby lying awkwardly in the arms of the little girl.
"You hold him like this, Lizzy," Rose explained, positioning the whimpering baby in her daughter’s arms. "Now, be careful of his head, because it has a lot of soft spots."
"What are soft spots?"
"It’s where his head could squish, so that he could get out of his mother," Jack explained.
"How did he get out of you, Mommy?"
"The opposite of the way he got in. Remember where I told you babies come from?"
"Daddy took him out?"
"Yes, Daddy took him out." It was a good enough explanation for the time being, and in this case, it was quite true.
"Did it hurt?"
"Yes, it did hurt a little. But I love Paul anyway."
That brought Lizzy’s mind back to the question of whether her parents still loved her or not. "Daddy?"
"Yes, Busy Lizzy?"
"Do you really have more love for everybody when there’s more people to love? That’s what Mommy said."
"Your mommy is right, Lizzy. We love you even more now. And now you have someone else to love you."
"Baby Paul," Lizzy said, looking down at her little brother, who had relaxed and was looking up at her with a blank-eyed stare. "He’s cute."
"So are you, Lizzy." Rose hugged her. "Look. He likes you."
Lizzy looked at Paul, who was waving his arms and legs around, almost making Lizzy let go of him. Jack hugged Lizzy with one arm and steadied Paul with the other.
Lizzy touched one of Paul’s hands. Immediately, the baby wrapped his tiny fist around her hand, almost able to clutch her palm.
"He likes me!" she exclaimed. "You like me, Baby Paul!"
"Yes, he does," Jack agreed. "You’re his big sister, and he loves you."
"Even though he’s just a baby?"
"Even though he’s just a baby."
*****
Around noon, the guests that Jack and Rose had invited to the graduation began to arrive. Helga and her family arrived first, bringing food for the potluck lunch the Dawsons had planned, as well as presents for the new baby and for Lizzy.
Lizzy hugged Daniel, inspiring him to make a rude remark about girls, which Lizzy answered with an equally rude remark about boys. Nevertheless, the two old friends soon forgot their differences and played contentedly on the dandelion-studded lawn outside the house, chasing each other around until they fell giggling on the grass.
Rose greeted Helga and Bill, looking at Helga’s swelling middle. "How much longer do you have?" she asked.
"Three more months," Helga replied, sighing. "All in summer."
"You and I do have a penchant for having babies close together." Rose smiled, looking up as Jack came into the kitchen, carrying Paul again.
"So this is my new ‘nephew’," Helga remarked. "Let me hold him."
She cuddled the newest member of the Dawson family. "You are so cute. Yes, you are. You’re a little angel."
"Except for two AM feedings, diapers...those baby things."
"Oh, you love him anyway."
"Yeah, we do. Lizzy was afraid we didn’t love her anymore."
"Daniel went through the same thing when he found out he has a little sister on the way. She’ll get over it."
"We’re trying to diffuse the green-eyed monster before it can start. That’s why I asked you to bring a present for Lizzy, too. We’re holding a Big Sister Party for her at lunch. We even have an ice cream cake that Jack decorated."
"That should make her feel happy and important."
Helga handed the hungry baby to Rose. She sat down to nurse him, unbuttoning her blouse. Bill and Jack left the room, giving her some privacy and leaving the two women to talk.
*****
Tommy, Sophie, and Mari arrived a short time later. Lizzy ran to Mari, overjoyed to see her, and Daniel ran to her, too, not sure who she was, but wanting to be a part of whatever Lizzy was doing.
"This is Aunt Mari," Lizzy told him.
"Hi, Aunt Mari." Daniel looked up at her. "I’m Daniel de Rosa."
"Welcome, Daniel de Rosa. Are you having fun?"
"Yeah!" the two children replied in unison.
"Lunchtime!" Rose called from the doorway, polishing off a piece of lunch meat.
Mari took each child by the hand and walked with them into the house, helping Jack and Rose get them seated. Lizzy sat in her booster seat, while Daniel sat on a pile of textbooks. The two hungry children dug into their lunches while the adults took their time, talking and filling their plates before sitting down.
Rose grinned at the sight of Tommy and Sophie, who had grown inseparable over the past few years. They no longer claimed to be just friends, though they lived separately and showed no signs of wanting to live together or get married. In spite of their close relationship, each claimed to want their space and freedom. Rose wasn’t fooled, having observed just how much time they spent together. The pair reminded her strongly of herself and Jack, but without children in tow.
Lizzy finished her lunch and started to climb down from her seat, but Jack stopped her. "Wait, Lizzy. Not everybody is done yet, and we have something for you, besides."
"You do?" Lizzy had seen the pile of presents for Paul, eyeing them with more than a little jealousy. Never mind that her parents would be the ones to open the presents, or that Paul was too little to enjoy them much, she was still envious.
"Yep." Mari hurried out of the room, going into Jack and Rose’s bedroom. She returned a moment later with a pile of prettily wrapped presents. "These are for you."
"For me?" Lizzy looked confused. "Why?"
"Because you’re a big sister now," Rose explained. "You don’t become a big sister every day, so we’re having a little party for you."
"Yeah, I’m a big sister." Lizzy smiled, feeling important.
"Go on. Open them," Jack told her, smiling.
Lizzy, never one to do things halfway, ripped into the first present, pulling out a Barbie doll, for which she had been begging for months. "Look! It’s Boobie!"
The whole table erupted in laughter. Daniel looked at the doll disdainfully.
"Why do you want to play with a doll?"
"Because it’s fun!" Lizzy answered, setting the doll on the table and opening the next present, which drew another disdainful look from Daniel. "Doll clothes!"
Rose had purchased several inexpensive sets of Barbie doll clothes. She smiled, glad to see Lizzy enjoying her present.
At her parents’ prompting, Lizzy opened the rest of the packages, delighted at the coloring book and crayons from her father, the baby doll from Helga and Bill, the three children’s books from Sophie, and the toy truck from Tommy. Even Daniel was impressed by the last present.
"Neat!" Lizzy exclaimed. "A truck for Boobie!"
"You don’t put dolls in a truck," Daniel told her. "Trucks are only for boys."
"Are not!"
"Are so!"
"That’s enough, Lizzy, Daniel." Their parents made it clear that fighting would not be tolerated.
"I have a present for you, too," Daniel announced, pulling something out of his pocket. "Mommy let me get it from the machine at the store."
Lizzy took the plastic container of some sort of slimy stuff, the sort that could be bought from a vending machine for a quarter.
"Gross." She opened it and poked at it. "Cool."
Daniel looked proud.
Rose began to clear away the wrapping paper while Jack collected Lizzy’s presents and took them down to her room.
"Can we go play now?" Lizzy wanted to know. Now that the presents were opened, she was tired of sitting at the table.
"Not quite yet, Lizzy. We’re having dessert first." Rose took the cake from the freezer, setting it on the table.
"Ice cream cake!" Lizzy grinned. She wanted to be a big sister more often if she got this kind of stuff.
"Look at the decorations, Lizzy. Your daddy did that."
On the cake was a carefully rendered design of a little blonde girl holding a baby, her hair in pigtails like Lizzy’s. The baby had red hair and was smiling.
"It’s me and Paul!" Lizzy exclaimed, looking at the picture. "What do the words say, Mommy?"
"It says Lizzy is Paul’s big sister."
Lizzy looked at the words again. "I know which word is Lizzy," she announced. "L-I-Z-Z-Y. That spells Lizzy. Right, Mommy?"
"That’s right. Just like I taught you."
"I like being a big sister, Mommy. When Paul gets bigger, can he play Candy Land with me?"
"Of course he can. And you can play with him already, even if it’s baby games."
"Yeah." Lizzy stood up in her chair and looked at Paul in his baby carrier. "I love you, Baby Paul. I’m gonna teach you how to play Candy Land and pick flowers."
"And play tag," Daniel added.
"Yeah. And watch Sesame Street." Having made her speech, Lizzy sat back down. "Can I have some cake now?"
Jack grinned, coming up to cut the cake and serve everyone, Lizzy first.
"Sure, Busy Lizzy. It’s a special day for you."