I don’t normally make many requests from my readers, but, before you read any further, I am making a request. Be sure you read the entire column. You will understand why I am asking this of you in a minute.
Saturday, we gained a new family member. She weighs in at roughly 3 pounds, 9 inches and Kiera named her Jennifer Hope McNeely.
Now, wait a minute. Remember the deal! Before, anyone runs off on the tangent that we are pregnant. Don’t deny it. I know some of my readers and I know what they were thinking. Finish reading the story.
Jennifer is a baby… a baby doll.
Kiera has seen a few commercials advertising a baby that drinks water, wears diapers… and pees. She has asked for almost a solid month if she could have this baby doll. Finally, Saturday, I gave in.
I made the deal with her that she had to pay for part of the baby. She willingly grabbed her piggy bank and emptied the change on the bed. It was a two-fold lesson as I made her divide the coins out by quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. Then we discussed how much each coin was worth and put them in dollar amount piles.Aaron and I explained that we did have to run a couple of errands before we went to the store to buy her baby. From that moment on, there was non-stop bouncing. She bounced down the sidewalk to the truck. She bounced out of the truck as we went to eat breakfast.
After witnessing her excitement, Aaron and I decided to go buy the baby before we ran any more errands.
Upon entering the store, we headed to the toy section before any other section. Quickly finding the baby that Kiera had been referring to, she picked which one she wanted and climbed inside the basket with her baby in her lap.
As I did some quick grocery shopping, I watched Kiera sitting in the basket, talking non-stop to her new baby.
“Daddy, do you have a knife?” she asked after examining the box that her baby was encased in.
“Not on me, sweetie,” he replied.
“How will we get her out?” she asked with concern radiating in her voice.
We assured her that after she had paid for her baby, we would get her out of the box.
Once we paid for the baby, we managed to get to the truck before the next question, “Can we stop and get her water so I can feed her? She is very hungry,” she stated as she gently rocked her new baby in her arms.
Our original plan was to run into a hardware store and I promised her that once inside, we would get her new baby water.
In the meantime, my Dad called and asked if we wanted to meet him for lunch. We agreed and headed to the restaurant.
“What about her water?” Kiera asked.
“Honey, we are going to see Grandpop and Mama C. I promise once we get there we will get her some water,” I assured her.
As we climbed out of the truck at the restaurant, Kiera informed us that she had picked the name Jennifer for her baby.
She turned Jennifer’s arms so that they were up in the air and held her up to me. “She is so excited to meet her grandparents!” Kiera cried excitedly.
Once inside the restaurant, Aaron took her to the bathroom to get water for Jennifer. Heaven forbid, that baby waste away on my watch.
We sat down at a table and watched Kiera feed Jennifer. Kiera’s little face radiated joy as she held her. Finally, deciding that Jennifer had enough to drink, she decided to check her diaper.
Kiera pulled the diaper off, which was indeed wet. Once she pulled the diaper off, like a true baby, Jennifer promptly peed on the table.
Mama C didn’t bat an eye as she handed over more napkins to Kiera to clean up Jennifer’s mess. I, on the other hand, wasn’t a lot of help as I sat across from Kiera and Aaron. I watched as Aaron helped clean up the puddle of water on the table and I laughed uncontrollably. Thankfully, we had bought extra diapers for Jennifer. We are down to two diapers now.
If Kiera had her way, Jennifer would eat as often as we do. We may have to up Kiera’s chore list, just so she has enough money to keep Jennifer in diapers.
Once we got home, Kiera followed me into the bedroom as she held Jennifer.
“Mommy, you know what this means, don’t you?” she asked me with big eyes and a sincere expression on her face.
“What, baby?” I asked.
“You and Daddy get to be grandparents!” she proclaimed before taking Jennifer to lie down for her nap.
Since Saturday, we have learned a lot about Jennifer and her needs. She has to have her own lovey, be tucked into her own bed every night and has to have two minutes of quiet before she can fall asleep.
Oh, if only Kiera was that easy to put to bed… and thank heavens, we didn’t buy the baby that eats the solid food.
Rowonna McNeely is a graphic artist for Willie’s T’s Screenprint & Embroidery. She is a mother of a five year old girl and step mother of two adult girls. Her crazy life includes a dog, Sloane and psychotic cat, Gracie. Both females. She is married to her prince, who is outnumbered by the opposite gender.
