My dear friend B arrived this evening with her two children, having braved rush hour traffic between her state and mine (and two others in between) to get here. Such love, eh?

I would like to say first, hands down, her son is the easiest baby I have ever had the privilege to meet. When she arrived, he was still sleeping in his car seat. After a short while, he awoke and cried. I took him out, changed his diaper, whispered sweet nothings to him, and set him in his bouncy seat. The young man just set to looking around his new surroundings, watched a bit of television, posed for a few photos, and gurgled some great stories.

B and I were able to get the car unloaded (I am not mentioning just how many bags she brought with her), her things put away, and her eldest child E fed, changed, pajama-ed, and popped into bed. All the while, young J just chilled out with us.

After about an hour and a half, he let it be known that he was hungry, nursed, and went down to bed, crying only when E started protesting her perceived "banishment" to the basement, i.e., her bedtime.

I know that I have only had a few hours with him, but seriously, any woman would be just thrilled with such a laid back, happy-go-lucky little man.

Before she went to bed, E gave me the most fiercest hug and plopped a sweet kiss on my cheek. Already I miss the chatter of her chirpy voice. Tomorrow cannot come soon enough for me to take my fill of B's children.

After the kiddos were in bed, I made B a chicken quesadilla (she liked it), and we watched a movie (I will not write about how it was a scary movie, something I have avoid quite assiduously for 23 years now due to a problem with nightmares). After the movie ended, even though she was droopy-eyed, B watched some of my videos (I won't talk about how much of the footage is of Kashi or the embarrassing sequence I forgot I filmed of Fancy and Madison having conjugal relations).

B did play a video of E "nursing" her "baby." What was remarkable was that B managed to get her on tape while nursing J at the same time. The most intriguing part was how particular E was in mimicking all the preparations B does in nursing. Though I will point out E has no endurance past the initial placement at her breast. Her baby gets all of ten seconds to nurse, but at least the nursing pads, towel (cloth diaper), and pillow are all in the right place.

E is quite smart. She is attentive, absorbing the processes around her. For example, when they arrived, B mentioned that she needed to change E. Between one thing and another (I am not going to talk about how long it took E to warm up to Kashi), she still had not been changed when J awoke in his car seat. I asked E where the diapers for J were, and she fished out one for me. But first she opened the wipes and held one out for me to use. Once I had, she passed over the diaper. When it was her turn, she first gave me the diaper and then held the wipe in her hand until I was ready for it. She is only two and a half years old and yet already displays remarkable critical thinking skills she has.

B has struggled with addressing E displays of temperament, which truly wears on my friend at times. Having a child in a screaming fit makes life very, very difficult. Yet watching her display with the diapering process and on the video of her nursing her baby, I am again convinced that part of the problem is the dissonance between E's mental age and her physical age. Her body needs to catch up with her mind (I am not writing about the pure stubborn streak that is distinctively maternal in tone that might possibly play a part in E's behavior issues...for if I did, her mother might point out that her adoptive aunt has a far greater one!). In any case, I am confident that both B and her husband have sought the Lord's wisdom in how to handle their oldest child and will continue to look to the One who crafted her while she was still in B's womb.

Lest you are thinking I neglected the Kashi factor in this account, I will say that I was so darned busy enjoying watching the absolute exuberance with which he greated B that I forgot to get it on video tape for my memory collection. He about near climbed up into the green chair with her and E just to get some kisses. He practically wagged his tail off. And he raced around with his own baby for quite a while, celebrating the fact that B had arrived (I was in agreement with his sentiment).

When she set J down on the floor (I shortly moved him to the top of a chest because I feared I might be the one to trip over him), Kashi came bounding up to the car seat and skidded to a stop before he collided with it. He took one big sniff of the new addition to B's family, ran away wagging his tail, and then returned to give J one quick kiss on his cheek. J had been welcomed to his home.

I have not asked how long she is staying. I really don't want to know. For however long she is here will be too short, and I am fearful it will be the last time I see her before I move too far away for us to visit much.

Sitting on the couch, laughing at the home movies, I felt as if I had come home. One of the gifts she gives me during her visits is that no matter how exhausted she is that night or the next morning, B allows me the time to process my own excitement over her arrival and accepts all the chattering and posturing I do to show her this, that, and the other, since her last visit, stuffing much into a short period of time even though we both know she will still be there in the morning.

I think, perhaps, it is her way of saying, "I love you, too."

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NOTE: I prefer to think of myself as tenacious...