Page 119 of Mad Love
When I keep lingering on all the sentimental ones, Rhodes gets impatient and flips it to the page he wants, pointing at a passage I haven’t seen yet.
“Read this one,” he says.
When we found out we were pregnant with our second baby, everyone said, “It’ll actually help keep Cassidy entertained. You’ll see, it’ll be great.” And Audreywasgreat, but our precious little Cassidy turned into a hellion because she wanted to be “only one girl.” And when we were pregnant with our third, everyone said, “Two kids and two parents is a man-to-man defense, but three, you’ll be like: WHAT THE FUCK WERE WE THINKING?”
And that was true.
But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
~Henley
I exhale. It is a lot to think about.
“And this one,” Rhodes points to the next page.
When you have your first baby, you’ve never been so tired in your life. You can barely function, you’re so blindly exhausted.
When you have your second baby, you’ve never been so tired in your life. When the new baby finally sleeps after being up all night, you have to gird up your loins and take care of your first child and just pray that you don’t fall asleep while you’re driving home from the grocery store.
When you have your third baby, you’ve never been so tired in your life. When the new baby finally sleeps after being up all night, the second child also doesn’t sleep at night OR during the day, and the first child wakes you up every time your eyes drift closed because she’s finally ready for her turn to have attention.
But I wouldn’t change a thing.
~Henley
“Fuck,” I whisper.
Henley gives me an apologetic look and then brightens, flipping through the sweet things Bowie says about not being afraid to sing princess songs or wear pink nail polish if it makes your kid happy. And Rhodes even has some sweet things to say about the first time you toss a football to your son. Even if it’s the tiny one for newborns, there’s just nothing like it.
“Here, this one is better,” Henley says.
We were having a hard stretch with Gracie. She was teething and miserable. One night we were so exhausted from being up with her several nights in a row, and she’d been crying off and on for hours. She finally fell asleep only to wake up again, but she was quiet before we reached her room, and when we walked inside, Audrey had crawled into the crib with Gracie. She held her hand and sang to her and it was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.
Siblings might fight like crazy, but their love for each other is like no other relationship. Best friends, co-conspirators, the next generation of memory keepers…
~Henley
He smiles when I look up at him.
“You really don’t regret having three kids, do you?” I ask.
“Not for even a millisecond,” he says.
“You could always enjoy being married first,” Penn says.
“Have you set a date?” Bowie asks.
“I’d marry her tomorrow if she said yes…I’ll keep you posted on that,” I say.
“When are you gonna start adding to the book?” Henley asks, pointing to the notebook on the table.
“Me? You think I’m ready?”
“You’ve been in the trenches for over a year. Hell, yeah, you’re ready,” Rhodes says.
“I’ve convinced Sam to stop drinking Cokes every chance he gets, and his stomach and dentist are a lot happier,” Penn says, leaning his elbows on his knees.
We all look at Penn and grin.