It was nice to stretch my legs for a bit. I took the opportunity to text updates to Taylor, who relayed them to the rest of the family. Since Nikki gave birth a few weeks before her due date, her mom wasn’t in town yet. My parents were going to pick her up from the airport in the morning, then bring her here. The rest of the family would come by throughout the day to visit, and we would hopefully go home the next morning.
My stomach growled as I walked into the cafeteria. On the food scale, hospital food was slightly above airport food. And I could never figure out why, but for some reason the food they served in the cafeteria was much better than the slop they put on patient trays. I saw hospital staff milling about in their scrubs, none of the suited admin staff would be here this late, I was sure.
I figured the hamburgers must be the best on offer since the line in that section was the longest. I opted to grab a couple of slices of the ready-made pizza since there wasn’t a line and I didn’t want to be away from Nikki too long in case she needed something. After I managed to load an apple juice for Nikki and couple bottles of water in the other hand, I made my way to the check out.
“Do you have a box for this?” I asked, planning to take it back up to the room.
“No, but we have Saran wrap,” the cashier told me, and pointed to the huge roll by the plastic forks.
“Ok, thank you.” I told her. I guessed I would just eat the pizza there then head back up to the room.
I sat at a table, and as was frequent when I was out in public, I felt a set of eyes of me. I started to put on my work Isaac mentality when Taylor slid into the seat across from me.
I must have looked surprised because he said “Well, I was in the area and thought I would drop by.”
I raised my eyebrow. “How long have you been in the parking lot and who else is with you?”
“Natalie and the kids. Nat couldn’t wait to see the baby, and I wanted to see how fatherhood was treating my big brother.”
“I do have experience with kids, you know.”
“Yeah, but being a father is a whole different ball game,” he said.
“I figured that out already,” I sat back in my chair so our eyes met. “It’s all on me. I’m not following the structure someone else laid out. It’s my responsibility to make the structure and enforce it.”
“That’s true. And you know our parent’s structure doesn’t really work for 2007. The world has changed so much.”
I sighed. I had been thinking about that too, and told Taylor as much.
He nodded. “How is Nikki?”
“She did great. She was in a little pain this afternoon and they just gave her something to help with the pain and to help her relax.”
“Ok. Maybe we’ll just have a quick look in the nursery at the baby and then head home. We don’t want to disturb her rest. There won’t be much of that once she gets home. Natalie will understand that.”
“Yeah, she had quite the welcome party when she gave birth to Penny. I think that’s one reason Nikki insisted on having just me here today. It was easier for her to allow just one person than to try to pick and choose to keep it from getting out of hand.”
“It can do that in our family.”
“You love it, though” I didn’t miss the quirk of a smile on his face when I said that.
“It can be fun. Sometimes I enjoy the chaos, if only because it’s so easy to get lost in it. So all the attention isn’t on me. If that makes sense.”
I nodded. I understood. Taylor was prone to getting lost in his daydreams. It was one of the more endearing things about him, but it could also be frustrating if you were trying to carry on a conversation with him.
“Where is the rest of your family now?”
“They are in the lobby. I told them I would come find you.”
“I’m ready when you are,” I stood and motioned for him to lead the way.
“Ike,” Penny was sitting by Natalie playing with a doll, but reached her arms out to me once I got close enough to pick her up.
“Hey, sweetie,” I took her in my arms. She put her head on my shoulder.
Ezra was sitting in Natalie’s lap sniffing.
“He thinks he has to go to the doctor today. He remembers from when he had tubes put in his ears,” she explained.
“Hey buddy,” Taylor crouched down to his level. “You have a new cousin. Do you want to go see him?”
Ezra shook his head and wrapped his arms tight around Natalie.
“Why not?”
He looked up at Taylor with big eyes.
“You don’t have to see the doctor today. We are just visiting today.”
“Visiting the doctor?” Ezra asked.
“No, visiting Aunt Nikki and your new cousin.”
“No doctor?”
“No doctor.”
“Ok.” He took Taylor’s hand. Penny reached for Natalie when she stood. We walked down to the nursery and I wondered if I would ever be as good as Taylor at avoiding temper tantrums.
Natalie’s eyes lit up when she saw all the babies in the nursery and I couldn’t help but notice her quick glance at Taylor. I thought our mom liked babies, but Natalie took it to another level. I don’t know if Taylor wanted it, but I was sure that they would end up with a huge family.
“Isaac, he is precious,” she squealed, giving me a quick side hug. “What a beautiful baby boy,” her eyes shined when she looked at me.
“He is amazing,” I said.
Taylor slapped me on the shoulder. “Congrats, big brother. You did good.”
Taylor then explained to Natalie that Nikki was resting.
“Oh, ok. Well, we’ll have to save mom talk for another day. I’ll come by once she’s home and settled in.”
“That would be great. Thank you!” I told her.
“Well, we are going to go on so you can get back to her, but we’ll see you soon.”
“Thanks for coming by. I’ll let Nikki know you were here,” I said, already turning to make my way back to her room.