[January 1991]

January was a month of firsts, one after another after another.

Julie sat up all by herself, without support. Eric saw it, while he was studying in the living room and Julie was on the floor. Tami missed it, because she was in class.

Julie also got up on all fours and rocked while Tami was making dinner one night and Eric was out running routes with Stumpy.

But Eric got to see her crawl the first time, while Tami was at work.

[February 1991]

Tami's grades were improving. She was determined to earn back her academic scholarship, and it was easier to study now that Julie was sleeping through the night. Now that Julie was being babysat while Tami worked, Tami could also use the occasional downtime at work to do her homework. She always got the job done faster than the deans expected.

Julie was crawling now, like a jitterbug, fast across the floor, and it made things more difficult for them. They finally cracked out those baby gates they'd gotten at the shower, and blocked her off from the kitchen and hallway. Outlet covers went onto the plugs, and corner guards on the edge of the coffee table.

"We didn't have all this safety gear when you were a baby," Tami's mother told her when she came to babysit one Saturday. "And you turned out just fine."

"What are you afraid of?" Mr. Taylor asked when he came to babysit one Sunday afternoon so Tami and Eric could get out for a belated Valentine's date. "That she's going to crawl over at seven months old and stick a fork in the socket?"

That evening, when they came back from their date, Eric's father said, "She pulled up. On the coffee table. Just pulled herself straight up to a standing position."

"They don't do that at seven months," Eric said. "The books says around nine months."

"Do you think I'm lying?" Mr. Taylor asked.

"No," Eric said. "It's just neither of us has seen her do that, or even look like she's going to do that."

"Well she did," Mr. Taylor insisted. "For her granddaddy."

[Tuesday, March 5 1991]

Tami saw Julie pull up first, one morning while Eric was already at practice. Eric still refused to believe until he saw it with his own eyes.

"What are we going to do when she starts climbing?" Tami asked.

Julie seemed to think No! meant Try again! Tami couldn't imagine how much work the girl was going to be when she could reach things.

[Saturday, March 23, 1991]

The Bears lost their spring game, but Eric had a blast playing. He was like a kid again, all smiles. That evening, while they were sharing a bottle of wine and watching TV, Julie pulled up once again on the coffee table.

"That's my girl!" Eric told her. "Ahead of schedule!" He looked at Tami. "What sport do you think she'll play?"

"Maybe she'll be a cheerleader."

"No," he said.

Tami laughed. "It's going to be fun when she starts dating."

When Julie was down for the night, Eric and Tami made playful love. As he held her afterwards, he said, "This year is shaping up to be better than last year. Think marriage just keeps getting better and better?"

"I think it's probably more like a roller coaster," Tami said. "Up and down. That's what my mom told me anyway." Alas, Tami had no other source of marriage advice, and Eric's father hadn't been married much longer than his son had.

Eric rolled to his side and spooned with her. "Then I guess we better buckle in tight."

[Sunday, March 31, 1991]

Tami's mother was not happy when Tami told her they were going to Dallas for Easter.

"Garret and Karen don't even go to church regularly!" she'd said on the phone.

"Well, we're all going on Easter. They do have a church in Dallas they go to."

"When they feel like it," Mom had grumbled.

But Tami and Eric went to Dallas anyway.

Tami was a little intimidated by the Easter service. She'd never been to a church so big before, right in the heart of the city, packed with people, stain glass windows looming all around. She'd expected a Baptist church, since that was Karen's denomination, but it was Episcopalian. Mr. Taylor had apparently been allowed to pick.

Tami refused to drop Julie off at the large nursery before the service when the girl started crying. So instead, Julie had gone from arms to arms during the service, passed like a football between Eric and Mr. Taylor and Tami and Karen.

Eric knew what he was doing – he'd been confirmed Episcopalian, after all – and Karen had apparently learned the ropes, but Tami was quite at a loss. People were standing and kneeling and standing and turning to pages in a book that wasn't the Bible and saying all sorts of words in response to the preacher that she couldn't find. Eric kept holding his book out to her and pointing to bolded words. She felt like she had at her first dress rehearsal her freshman year in high school, when she'd kept forgetting her lines. And every now and then, people would randomly cross themselves.

When it came time for communion, she just sat in the pew instead of going up to kneel before the altar. "You don't have to be Episcopalian," Mr. Taylor told her. "It's open communion." But Tami shook her head and stayed put. In her childhood church, they drank wine from plastic shot glasses that were passed down the pew in a tin. They didn't kneel before the altar and share a common cup. She was sure she'd do something horribly embarrassing, like drop the wafer on the ground, or eat it before she was supposed to eat it, or get wine poured all down her Easter dress. Eric took Julie up with him for a blessing, and the girl seized the priest's stole when he put a hand on her head. The priest smiled and worked it loose from her hand before moving down the line. If Tami was embarrassed by her daughter's action, she wasn't for long, because a little, pre-school age boy who had received a blessing, as his family left the altar, shouted, "But I want the snacks too! Why can't I have the snack!"

Tami was more relaxed during lunch at the Taylor's house. After the Easter meal, they all settled into the living room, and Julie took off like a light on her hands and knees. Mr. Taylor went around closing doors to keep her out of the bedrooms and bathrooms and the study, since he didn't have any gates. He lay a dinning room chair across the entrance to the kitchen. Three times he had to tell Julie, "No! Don't touch!" when she tried to pull all the books off of the bottom shelf of his living room bookcase. Eventually, he just plucked up his granddaughter and set her in his lap in the armchair, opened a book about monkeys, and pointed to pictures.

"How are you handling the school, work, mothering balance?" Karen asked Tami. "Has it been hard for you?"

"It hasn't been easy," Tami said. "But we're managing."

Karen glanced at Eric's father. "I guess it would be easier if only one of you was in school, and one of you had a flexible work schedule, though."

Was she suggesting that Tami delay college? Had Mr. Taylor put her up to the suggestion? She looked from Karen to Mr. Taylor and back to Karen. They were smiling knowingly at each other. Tami realized this wasn't about her. Mr. Taylor was the one with the flexible schedule who wasn't in school. Karen was the one who was in school and working. And Karen had not been drinking wine with lunch. The fact had not leapt out at Tami until now. She turned her gaze to Eric, who was on the couch next to her sipping a beer, completely oblivious of what Tami had just figured out.

Eric caught her staring at him and gave her a look that asked, "What?"

Mr. Taylor cleared his throat. "Eric," he said. "This should, I hope, be less intimidating than learning you were going to be a father."

Eric looked at his dad and blinked.

"You're going to be a big brother."

"What?" Eric asked.

"Karen's pregnant."

"Pregnant? As in…" Eric shook his head. "My daughter's going to have an aunt or uncle?"

Mr. Taylor nodded.

"Who's younger than she is?"

"Stranger things have been known to happen," Mr. Taylor told him.

"Congratulations," Tami told them, hastening in a positive word between Eric's wide-eyed exclamations.

"You'll be 60 when the kid is in college!" Eric said.

"There are men who become fathers at 60, Eric. I'm not ancient. I'm in great shape." He smiled at his wife. "So is Karen."

"Well…congratulations, I guess."

"Eric!" Tami hissed.

"Congratulations," he said, more enthusiastically.

Later, Tami took Julie for a walk in the stroller, and Mr. Taylor joined her. The neighborhood was more diverse than Tyler, and the houses were closer together. Passing neighbors said hello and Happy Easter. In a couple of blocks, they passed a small park with a playground. Two blocks later, they were beyond the houses and into an area with shops. It must be nice, she thought, to be able to walk from your house to a convenience store or a deli.

"Let's turn around and head back," Mr. Taylor said. "A couple more blocks down, the neighborhood is not so nice."

On the way back, Tami couldn't help but tease her father-in-law, somewhat affectionately, but also somewhat in retaliation. "You don't think you're biting off more than you can chew? Having a baby while Karen is in medical school?"

"Well, Tami, I'm established. Business is good here in Dallas. After combining the two houses, we have no mortgage. I can somewhat arrange my schedule as I like, and we'll hire part-time help as needed." Julie gurgled in her stroller and widened her eyes at a passing butterfly. Mr. Taylor smiled at her. "Karen wanted to try for a child before it was too late, but she didn't want to give up her dreams, either. I can't blame her for that."

"What about you? I presume you wanted a baby also?" She found the phrasing odd - Karen wanted.

He took off his fedora. He looked like a classic movie star in that hat and his Easter suit. "Eric took up so much of my time when he was growing up. I was always running plays with him, helping him with his homework, carting him to and from Pee Wee practices, going to his games, playing with him, taking him to movies, trying to fill the void left by his mother..." He toyed with the rim of his hat as they walked. "I thought I couldn't wait until I had more time to myself. And then, once I did, I hardly knew what to do with myself. I hate not being busy, and while it's nice for Karen and I to be able to do what we want when we want...it's also kind of...empty."

"A baby is pretty exhausting work," Tami reminded him. "And you're busy as a parent, but you're not…there are stretches of time where you can't go anywhere or do anything. Because the baby is napping or whatever."

Mr. Taylor chuckled. "You know I've been down this road before. Long before you, Tami."

"You lived with your mother and sister, in the beginning." He wasn't exactly home alone with the baby, the way she often was with Julie, the way he might now be when Karen was in classes.

"Yes. With my slipping mother, who needed almost as much care as a baby. And my working sister. May and I shared expenses. She helped some, yes, but she was busy with work and our mother, and it wasn't as though she raised Eric and I just went about my life. I've changed more than a few diapers in my time."

Julie let out a loud, flatulent sound. "Want to change this one?" Tami asked.

"No thank you."

[*]

Tami had to make the drive back to Waco later that afternoon. Eric was too dazed. "The baby is due the first week of November," he said at last. "My dad's going to miss half of my last season."

She dropped a hand from the wheel to his knee. "You'll just have to learn to share the spotlight, sugar. There's a whole chapter about sibling jealousy in one of my psych textbooks. You can read it tonight, if you want."

She looked at his frowning face and laughed.

"It's just weird," he said. "Isn't it weird? I'll have a daughter who is older than my own brother or sister. Do you think they planned it?"

"They've probably been trying since they got married. That's probably why your dad knew how a pregnancy test worked when he saw mine."

Eric shook his head. "Why would they plan to have a kid while she's going back to medical school? That's just foolish. Especially after all he said to you about biting off more than you can chew."

She shrugged. "They're a lot more established than us, that's for sure."

He glanced at her. His eyes were defensive and worried and a little bit hurt. "I'm going to establish myself, Tami. I'm going to do right by this family."

She smiled at him. "I know you are, sugar."

"I'm going to play my best next season. I'm going to get drafted."

"I know you'll establish yourself," she assured him. "In or out of the NFL."

"Why do you keep saying things like that? Do you think I won't make it?"

She dropped a hand from the wheel and put it on his knee. "You're a great player, Eric. And you're always working to improve your game. The NFL would be foolish to pass you over. I just want you to know that if ever something happens to prevent you from making it, I believe in you just the same."

He covered her hand with his own and squeezed.