They Learn Really Fast How to Push My Buttons!!

Those who know me, or have come in contact with me over the last three weeks are well aware of my caution around my newborn. There are stories behind that fear, the one I will impart has two parts.

When one of my sisters-in-law had a baby, my other sister-in-law wanted to go visit her, with her little kids. I said, "before you go let me tell you a story. When your husband, my brother, was born my mother had a nurse (an old German woman...actually, at some point she probably wasn't old, but I remember her as old. We called her Nursie. She was very tough, and whenever my mother had a baby, the youngest child in the house was toilet trained within three minutes of this woman coming over. But as my mother always says, she knew babies). As a person who knew babies, she did not allow my aunt, who was then 11 years old, to come in and see my brother before his bris. My mother thought it was a little over the top, but she trusted Nursie, and my aunt did not come in. A few days later, my aunt came down with chicken pox."

My sister-in-law thanked me for telling her the story, and said she would decide what to do. A few hours later she called me back to let me know that when her son came home from school, she was still planning to go see our new niece with the kids in tow, when the young lad mentioned he didn't feel well and his throat hurt. A quick trip to the doctor revealed he did indeed have strep throat.

That's TWO connected stories of illness and newborn. TWO!!! That's not even counting the story of my brother in law who got very sick as a newborn and took a while to be diagnosed with strep. On his brain. They think it may have come through his soft spot. (At least this is the story told in the family)

So I get a little crazy when people touch or handle newborns, or when I go to a shalom zachor where the child is paraded through the throngs of well wishers. And people bring their kids to "see the baby."

A lot of people know this about me, and they know it even more now, since I've been at one party after another since this kid was born, and I've had to keep him sequestered. I expected many comments from many people (and got them and shrugged them off), but I didn't expect what happened today.

The three year old (formerly known as the cheese- eater) wanted to do something today, and I had to tell her no. She was not happy with me, and thought for a moment and hurled the following threat at me:

"When we get home, I will touch the baby, and I won't wash my hands!!!"