Kids Before I Had Kids II. b.

Heidi and Marc came to me one day in early 1996 and said, "You're going to be an uncle again." 
Evan was just over a year old so I didn't think of Heidi being pregnant again. 

I said, "Uh oh, what did Kelly do?"

"No, Heidi is pregnant," said Marc, and both he and Heidi were smiling.  Heidi had been rubbing her belly, I had not noticed.

"Ooooooh!" I said.  "Evan will have a sibling!"

I was pretty excited, since I thoroughly enjoyed Evan the Baby.  I also knew this would herald the end of my extremely convenient living arrangements with Marc and Heidi.  They would soon be needing an extra room to house their babies.

Heidi had always displayed a very high degree of tolerance when it came to my living with her family.  Who else would put up with a brother-in-law living in her house for so long?  Who else would put up with a man who worked nights and needed absolute quiet from 3pm to 9pm, the noisiest time of day?  Who else would never complain about all the messes he made in the kitchen, the bathroom, the garage, the yard, the world?

Anyway, Heidi was pregnant and we soon found out that a girl would be the new addition to their family.  That was it, a boy and a girl.  It was too perfect.  So was her birth.  The way I remember it, Heidi went into labor in the morning, Marc drove her to the hospital and Elise was born less than two hours later.  The family hardly had time to arrive in the waiting room!  Once, when a nurse was entering the room, I peeked in and saw Heidi's face as she was looking upon her new daughter.  It was an expression that is hard to describe in words, that pure joy, excitement, love.  

Elise was a joy from the very beginning.  A pure ray of sunshine cast down from heaven.   Sure, it might have taken her a couple of years to grow any hair, but that didn't matter.  She had a smile to light even the most gloomy day.  She would sit alone in her baby bouncy and smile at the ceiling if no one were around to look at her.  

When she was learning to talk she said something that I still say at least once a day.  She said, "I happy you, me!"  I don't remember what the situation was but it was precious.  It still is, and so is she.