"Pay attention to buy the right size. And the good ones, not the no-name-product, they're leaking very quickly. Oh, and there's a difference between – "
"Amy, I'm just going to buy some diapers for our daughter, it will be alright. Furthermore, do you really think I'd ever buy a product without reading all that's written on the package? Relax!"
"Alright, then I'll fetch the parsnips for tomorrow and also some carrots and potatoes, Red Vines for you… Something else? Does your Mom need anything?"
Sheldon was shaking his head.
"Ok, then we'll meet at the car in some minutes! Let's hurry up, I don't know how long Rosy stays quiet, alone with her MeeMaw in the unknown environment..." Amy placed a small peck on Sheldon's lips and disappeared in the grocery store, while Sheldon turned around and went to the drugstore. Buying diapers, wasn't that a matter of course for a young father?
Quickly, he had found the shelf with the baby hygiene products. Directly next to the shelf with the female hygiene products. Oh, he loved to choose the right sanitary napkins for Amy. Why did all the other men have so much problems with it? But unfortunately, she didn't need them at the moment…
Ok, there was the right trademark, size 4, one package for the night and one for the day, on to the checkout!
He placed the items on the conveyor belt, put that thing that looked like a plastic Toblerone behind them (damn, why did nobody know how that thing was called? Not knowing the name of something drove him really insane!) and quickly calculated the sum of money he would have to pay in some minutes.
Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around in surprise. Behind him were standing two elderly women with concerned, sympathetic looks on their faces.
"You're such a brave young man", one of the ladies said.
"What happened?" the other one asked. "Was it another man? But you are so attractive, how could she have chosen another one over you?"
"The young women these days, I don't understand them. Isn't having your own little family the most important thing in live?" The first woman mumbled to herself.
"Sorry, my ladies, but what are you two talking about? What's wrong?" Sheldon was really irritated.
"Oh, there's nothing wrong with being a single parenting Dad, we're just really sorry for you!"
"But, I'm not – "
"You have to stop denying it, my Dear, and face the truth. The sooner you realize she's gone forever, the better!" The first Lady squeezed his forearm in a comforting manner, then she and her friend turned aside and took a very interested look at the little shelf with the alcohol-filled chocolates behind the checkout.
Sheldon wanted to ask, why for Heaven's Sake they thought he was a single parenting Dad, but in that moment the cashier had scanned the diapers and he had to pay.
Some minutes later, he and Amy met at the car and went home.
When they opened the door, they were greeted by the smell of melted butter and the sound of an old-fashioned filter coffee machine.
"Oh, that smells and sounds so cozy!" Amy exclaimed with a smile "I feel so… at home right now!"
"Yeah, it's the same for me," Sheldon admitted. "I hate drinking coffee, but I love the sound of the coffee machine! Mom? We're back!"
"I'm here, Shelly! At the table! Rosy was so hungry…"
"Oh, you've already cooked her mash? That's awe- what's that?" Amy had arrived at the table and was holding a little glass in her hands, that originally must have contained industrially manufactured baby food, but that now was almost empty.
"Mary? What is that? What did you do with the parsnips that I told you to cook for her?" Amy pointed angrily at the glass in her hand.
"Oh, I've bought that some days ago, just to be prepared for emergencies. Don't you worry, it's best Texan quality! And I've mixed in some good butter!"
"But I explicitly told you to cook the mash fresh from the parsnips that I bought at the market yesterday…"
"Did you know how that smells? It was awful! Reminded me somehow of the smelly rear wall of the shed in the backyard, where George junior used to work on his motorbike…"
"Mom, you have to be very strong now!" Sheldon sat down and took his mother's hands. "Penny told me - and I'm quite sure that, although she's not very wise in general, she knows very well about these kind of things – she told me that this is the smell of old urine!" His last words were merely a whisper.
"Oh Shelly…" Mary whipped Rosy's mouth with a bib. "I really don't know what to say…" She sighed and patted Sheldon's hand. "Anyway, I'll be glad to cook her carrots and potato mash, but parsnips, no, thank you, not in my kitchen!"
"Well, carrots are ok, too, I guess." Sheldon took a questioning look at Amy. She nodded approvingly. "By the way, Mom, did you know, that beta carotene, the dye that is responsible for the orange color of the carrot, is photosensitive?"
"No, I didn't, but I know how to get rid of the spots, isn't that far more important?" She sat Rosy down on the floor at went into the kitchen. "Amy, do you drink a coffee with me, my dear? Shelly, your peppermint tea will be ready soon, too!"
They went to the living room and sat on the sofa to have their drinks. Sheldon told his mother about his strange encounter in the drug store, but Mary just shrugged her shoulders and said something like "This is Texas, Shelly". Then she asked Amy how her family was doing, and Amy told her about the incredible family secrets she had learned of and that her Dad still was struggling with selling his cousin Robert's old house.
Meanwhile, Rosy rolled and crawled over the floor for a while but when she tried to eat a dead fly, that she had found under a cabinet, Mary decided it was time to bring her some toys.
"Look, what I have found at the attic," she announced with a broad smile and handed Amy a couple of wooden building blocks with numbers and letters on it. Then she gave her two books. "Sheldon loved these as a baby! Do you remember them, darling?" Sheldon took one of the books into his hands and flipped the pages. A little smile appeared on his face. "Yes, I remember it… Oh my, eidetic memory!" But then his look darkened a bit. "Although I don't understand why you gave me a book about the sounds that animals make? In which universe is it useful to be able to neigh like a horse or to grunt like a pig? What about the other book?... "My first colors and shapes", well at least that's more useful in life. Although I'm wondering why it's so necessary for a baby to learn these things. Shouldn't a baby be able to say things like "I want more apple puree?"
"Well, I guess the most important words for a baby are "Mom" and "Dad"…" Mary looked at her son and daughter in law expectantly.
Amy shook her head. "Nothing so far. But we're waiting for it. After all, she's nine months old now.…"
"Oh yeah, Shelly started speaking with 7 months… well, not every child is special gifted!"
"Don't you dare saying something like that about my daughter, Mom!" Sheldon blamed her. "Come on, Rosy, say Daddy!"
"Or Mommy!"
"Or MeeMaw!"
Everybody looked invitingly at the baby, but Rosy just continued playing with Sheldon's old wooden blocks. Suddenly, an unfamiliar sound escaped from her mouth. "Ey".
"Rosy, what did you say? Rosy, look at Mommy, what did you say?"
Rosalind looked at Amy and grinned at her. "Ey… Eybee," she finally said.
"Eybee? What's that supposed to mean?" Amy looked questioning at her husband. But Sheldon only shrugged his shoulders.
"Who cares what it means, she said her first word! Well done, Rosy, well done!" Mary bent down and tenderly pinched the baby's cheek. Then, she sat up straight, again. "Oh, and praise the Lord of course!" Mary folded her hands and looked at the ceiling in gratitude, where, to her displeasure, she found some cobwebs.
Encouraged by Mary's reactions, Rosy now mumbled her new word incessantly, while playing with the wooden blocks. Amy and Sheldon watched their daughter proudly and discussed about the question how anybody in the world could have transcribed the sound of a male chicken into "cock-a-doodle-doo". Mary got a colorful feather duster and started to clean the ceiling.
Some hours later, Rosy's bedtime had arrived. Sheldon and Amy were a little worried if she would be able to sleep in the foreign crib, but since their lullaby still worked perfectly, they were quite confident.
They had just but the baby into her sleeping sack and wanted to start singing, when Mary entered the room.
"I just wanted to give her a little Good Night kiss. And make sure that nobody forgets the prayer!" she whispered.
Sheldon rolled his eyes behind her back. "Ok Mom, but hurry up! Amy, did you pack the pillow?"
While Mary was speaking the prayer, Amy took a little embroidered pillow from of their bags.
"What's that?" Mary asked. "Isn't she too young for a pillow?"
"Don't worry," Sheldon calmed her down, we don't put it in her bed, yet. She can have it, when she's older. Are you ready, Amy?"
Amy nodded, and they started singing:
"Once the world was a wild place
No structure was in sight
But symbols and signs and lists and tables they make the world so bright
Oh, symbols and signs and lists and tables they make you see the light
Now Amy, held the pillow into the air with one hand and with the index finger of the other hand, she traced the embroidered letters, so that Rosy could see them:
ABC, DEFG,
that's how language is transcribed
Yeah, symbols and signs and lists and tables they make the world so bright
Oh, symbols and signs and lists and tables they make you see the light
"Eybee, eybee!" Rosy called excitedly and clapped her hands.
Amy and Sheldon looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and continued singing the lullaby.
123, 456,
Once the numbers were defined
Yeah, symbols and signs and lists and tables they make the world so bright
Oh, symbols and signs and lists and tables they make you see the light
"Eybee! Wontutee!"
Suddenly Mary understood. She stroked Rosy's hair, kissed the cheeks of her bewildered looking son and daughter in law, and with a huge grin on her face, she went out of the room and gingerly closed the door behind her. "…not every child is special gifted? What for Heaven's sake did I say there? I really should have known better…"
So, I hope you all could figure out what "eybee" and "wontutee" mean and why Rosy started saying those words while she was playing with the wooden blocks! :-)
Actually, the German version of "wontutee" (eideidei) was one of the first words my own son said; I used to loudly count the spoons of milk powder when I was preparing his bottle of milk and , he thought that "eins-zwei-drei" means "milk", LOL!
*Something similar really happened to my husband while he bought diapers and ready made baby food in the drugstore. Isn't it just alarming, how much caring for a baby still is considered so much a woman's task by some people, that a father who goes shopping for his baby is automatically considered a single parenting Dad?