Last Wednesday was a perfectly ordinary day. It was Steven’s last day of work until the new year and the kids and I did our usual stuff. A bit of school with Lydia, a bit of outside time, an ordinary day all around. That evening Sam went to bed without much fuss, and as Steven tucked in Lydia the phone rang.
“Auburn Univ, I bet,” I surmised as I went to check the phone. One of the few calls we get on the house phone are from Auburn University, panhandling for money. For once I was wrong — it was Jason. Hmm.
When I picked up the phone, Jason calmly but quickly said, “Cathy’s water broke — can you come get Elizabeth?”
Let me pause here to point out how completely unexpected this was. Cathy wasn’t due to be popping out any babies until January, somewhere around the 10th. She had already scheduled her c-section for the 6th — coincidentally the day of the National Championship game — and I had already booked a hotel room. In fact, I booked it on this same ordinary Wednesday we are now discussing. Nobody had thought up any contingency plans.
After a few ‘OH MY GOD’s’ I was off the phone and throwing clothes into an overnight bag. Two boring hours on 280 later I got to the hospital where Cathy and Jason were just chilling. Not much else to do, really. They were going to wait until the next morning for the baby fetching. I got Elizabeth back to her house and eventually she got to sleep, well after her usual bedtime.
At some point in the middle of the night I woke up to a text — the baby is here! Little Jonathan wasn’t going to wait until morning. At 3:00 am I was texting back and forth between Cathy, Dad, and Steven. Baby, baby, baby! Man, we should all have been asleep.
So, here is Cathy and Jason’s early, very surprising Christmas present: Jonathan Andrew Summers, arriving at 1:56 a.m. on the 19th of December, 2013, weighing in at 6 pounds 3 ounces and measuring at 19 inches long. This probably won’t be the last time he surprises his parents, either.
