He Got Out!!!

This past weekend was one of the best weekends in recent weekendom. My friend's son got out of the army. For good and forever. In order to understand how I feel about this kid, you have to know my history with him. I met this child twenty four years ago as a two day old at Kaiser Hospital in Hayward on the day I had my daughter. His mom and I became roommates in the hospital and bonded over the fact that we were both new moms for the second time (We had two year olds at home.), the fact that the attending doctor was a pig, and that we had both shoved gigantic infants out of our nether regions.

I was astonished that I had given birth to an 8 pound 10 ounce baby. My first kid was a relatively tame and ordinary 7 pounds 9.5 ounces. Eight and a half pounds was a moose! Then I saw my roomie's giant baby. That kid was over 10 pounds! I still feel stuff involuntarily clenching down below when I think about him as a newborn. Cute as a button. A really big button. Like a button on an elephant's jammies.

I was the Little Big Man's first babysitter. His mom wanted to take a shower so she asked me to watch him. I wasn't worried that he'd be any trouble for 10 minutes but what if I had to pick him up? I mean, this kid was seriously huge! Not Indonesian-kid-you-see-in-the-news-big but big enough.

His mom got in touch with me about a week after we both got out of the hospital. I love her to this day for taking that step. Our older kids became friends even though they were opposite genders and spent a bit of each visit trying to kill each other. Eventually the four of them melded into a noisy, hungry, undulating, crying, hugging, playing, laughing, peeing, pooping clump of adorableness.

They never went to any of the same schools, but they would take up right where they left off every time the families got together. We watched our "second son's" football games and wrestling matches and when he enlisted in the army, we worried along with his parents.

On the same weekend our daughter unit's heart failed and she was put on a pump to circulate her blood, our friends' son was deployed to Iraq. They were 21 years old. I was worried as hell - we all were- but part of me wanted to throttle the two little weasels. Our older kids never put us through any of that crap. Well, a little depression and maybe some belligerence and teenage obnoxiousness, but nothing life threatening. That we knew of.

This past weekend we got to celebrate his release from military service and his return home. He and his fiancee are expecting a baby in a few months and I am really curious to see what this grown up giant baby will unleash on the world. When her mother found out how huge he was as a newborn, she threatened him with extinction if he caused her daughter to have a 10 pound kid!

The party was a surprise for him but I think the happiest people there were my buddy and her hub unit. I know my hub and I were happy as pigs in mud. When I said goodbye on Saturday night and hugged him, my "second son" said "Thanks for meeting my mom in the hospital." then he hugged me back. I didn't embarrass myself or anything, but I came close! All because we were roomies in the hospital twenty four years ago!