Somewhere in the 70s
I am four and a half years old. Mommy has gone into the hospital to have a baby. Soon she will bring home a new brother or sister for me and I can’t wait. I will get to help take care of the baby. I have asked that we name the baby “Amy” after me, but mommy and daddy said that might get too confusing. My grandmother from Louisiana is staying with us at our house. Every night at supper she makes me eat all my vegetables, even the yucky ones, or not leave the table. That means I can’t watch the reruns of That Girl and I want to be an actress, just like the lady in the show. My mommy never makes me eat all the vegetables, she just makes me try them. I love my grandmother but she is very strict. She tells me I might get rickets if I don’t eat enough. I don’t know what that is but I think it may be little bugs in my stomach that make a chirping sound and I sure don’t want to get them. I miss mommy so much. Every day she calls me from the hospital to tell me where to look for my next present. She has hidden surprises for me all over the house. Yesterday I found a pretty white hairbrush with the softest bristles and a matching mirror. Daddy is usually at the hospital with mommy and when he is not, he sits at the kitchen table grading papers and smoking cigarettes, one right after the other. I can’t bother him too much to play. He is busy working on being a doctor, but not the kind I go to for check-ups.
Before we lived in this house, we lived in an apartment. Daddy went to college every day and mommy and I spent so much time together. We played and she read me lots of books. But in the old apartment I had to take naps and I don’t have to do that in the new house. Naps are boring but I take them when mommy says she’s feeling nervous. Mommy went to the hospital once in the old apartment, too. I found blood and daddy said mommy had another baby in her belly but she lost that one. Daddy said Mommy told the doctor that he will never know how beautiful her babies are.
The next day, Daddy calls from the hospital to tell my grandmother he is bringing mommy and the new baby home. Then my grandmother puts me on the phone with daddy and he tells me the news too. He tells me it is a baby girl and I tell him I am so happy to have a new little sister! Daddy makes a funny sound on the phone and I think he is laughing but my Grandmother says later that he is crying. When she says this, my Grandmother starts to cry, too — but everyone seems so happy that I don’t really understand the crying.
Then Mommy is home and she carries in her arms the fluffiest, softest pink blanket, she carries it very carefully. She tells me that once she sits down, I can come over and see my new sister. I stand next to the chair and peer into the blanket. The baby is sleeping and she is so tiny — everything on her is so tiny, her nose and her ears and her little fingernails are so tiny you can barely even see them. Mommy looks at me and smiles and asks if I like all my presents and I tell her I love them. She says that once the baby is a little bigger, I can hold her too and even help Mommy give her a bottle. I can’t wait. This is better than the Baby Alive doll I got for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy say that they have decided to name the baby Emily because it sounds kind of like Amy but different enough that they will be able to tell us apart. They ask me what I think, and what I think is that I like the name very much. It is so pretty, just like my new baby sister. Mommy and Daddy smile at each other a lot, and there is a little more of the crying, and Daddy says we are really a family now that there are four of us. I feel warm and snug when Daddy says this. And I think that being in this family, with these people, must be about the greatest thing in the world.
