The Book

This evening we celebrated perhaps the most wonderful event to happen in this family for years!  My oldest son, Mark and his beautiful wife, Joanna,  are expecting a little bundle of joy early this spring so this evening we had a a family gathering/baby shower for them.  Two of my favorite nieces came to decorate the house for me and help me cook enough food to feed an army.  By this evening the Little Bayou House had been totally transformed and the tables were set.  Far more guests arrived than we expected.  Folks seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork!  But..despite several minor setbacks, the party went well.  It seemed that folks had a most enjoyable time.  Since this was a baby shower, Joanna and Mark received many lovely gifts for their little princess-to-be.

At first, I felt sort of bad about the gift I chose to give.  I suppose it may not be even fit to call a gift as actually it already belonged to Mark.  You see, I gave them a book...not just any book but a book of rhymes.  Years ago when I gave birth to Mark, my Aunt Marie came to see me.  She had a gift for the baby..a book..this very same book.  Mark love this book as a child.  Even though it is quite a large book, he would lug it around and beg me to read from it.  He worked hard to memorize the rhymes so he could run next door and recite them to Aunt Marie and Uncle Alfred.  When I handed him the book, the look on his face almost brought tears to my eyes.  His face lit up as memories came flooding back.  He was excited to see that I had saved his "book".  I promise that he almost looked like that little boy once again.  Here was the little boy that once stole my heart..here is the young man that now fills that heart with much pride.  Tears were welling up in my eyes as I thought of how proud I was of him when he learned that first rhyme and now, how proud I am of the man he has become.  I had to slip out of the room so no one would see a misty-eyed-soon-to-be-grandmother.  No...I am not formal enough to be Grandmother!  I am much more the Mawmaw type person..the one that will be trying to teach the precious babe a thing or two about gardening!  Still, tonight it seemed that the bond was there between Mother and Son.  A bond that will be passed down to the Little Princess!