Three plus one

Ethan and Big Bunny, snuggled up between me and Noah in our bed.

"My mommy is a pwetty bwave pewson," Ethan said to the nurse this afternoon as she hooked me up to the non-stress-test machine.

I needed to hear something like that, and coming from Ethan, it meant the whole world.

*   *   *

A few nights ago Ethan asked us to tell him the story of how Big Bunny met Sammy the seal in "Sicajo" (Chicago, because they're both from there).

We explained that he had Big Bunny first, then we went to this big aquarium, where he met Sammy and brought him home to Big Bunny.

Big Bunny said hi and asked Sammy if he wanted to be friends, and at that point Ethan took over and explained that Sammy immediately asked Big Bunny to marry him. Big Bunny said sure, so Sammy gave Big Bunny a ring and then they brought home Baby Bunny. Then they got married again, and brought home another Baby Bunny.

I hoped Noah was taking notes, because I'm expecting another ring.

*   *   *

This pregnancy, like my pregnancy with Ethan, has certainly had its challenges. Apparently it takes a lot out of me to gestate this much cuteness, and that's fine. This afternoon, we scheduled an induction for tomorrow morning, for the health of the baby. (I'm now 38 weeks pregnant, a whole week more pregnant than I was when Ethan was induced.)

Now, we've been through this before, and this boy was going to come out sometime within the next two weeks whether we were ready or not, but there's something strange and exciting and nerve-wracking about knowing when precisely this life-changing and life-making event is going to happen.

We're as ready as we could ever be—my grandparents even sprung for a house cleaner as a gift, and she and her crew came today and quite frankly embarrassed me with the sheer amazingness of their work, inadvertently putting to shame everything I thought I knew about cleaning.

Ethan was still asleep when they arrived this morning, and as I brushed his hair from his forehead and woke him up, explaining who these ladies were in our house, he asked, "So they come over and clean up when it's messy?"

"They sure do," I said.

"This changes evwything," he said groggily but with conviction. I could only laugh.

*   *   *

When I posted the big news on Facebook this evening, my friend and mentor Lisa commented, "THIS changes everything!" So right.

Noah and I have had nearly five years raising a smart, delightful, caring, hilarious joy of a son. Now we get to do it again. I'm tempted to cry over the "end of an era," as a dramatic and hormonal person might put it, but there's really no need. Ethan is part of this, too, and we'll do everything we can to make sure that he knows it's not just Mommy and Daddy who are having a baby. It's our family of three, welcoming a new little person to love, together. So in that sense, this changes nothing.