[September 22]

Eric crawled back into bed at 1:00 AM, after having made a mad dash for the ringing phone. "He's in the NICU," he told Tami, "and he might be there for a few days, but they think he's going to be fine. He's five pounds, three ounces, so a good size for being a bit premature. They just need to monitor him and make sure he's doing a'ight. I'm going to sleep a few more hours, skip church, and drive up to the hospital."

"Want me to come?"

"No. Stay here with Julie. They won't let her in there anyway. And I know you have to study. I'll take pictures." He kissed her forehead. He paused there, his lips lingering, as though he were thinking. He pulled back to look at her. "Hey, whatever happened to your interest in photography?"

"Life," she said. "Life happened. But I've taken lots of photos of Julie. I even entered one in the Parent Magazine photo contest a couple weeks ago. I could win up to $600."

"You didn't mention that."

She shrugged. "Fall is for football."

"Well, I'm glad you're still taking pictures. And I hope you win." He was quiet for a while. "Do you realize that there's a larger age difference between me and my little brother than there is between my dad and me?"

"I did realize that."

"I'd never do that. I'd never have kids that far apart. It's just weird."

"But you do want a second?" Tami asked.

"Yeah, don't you?"

Tami had gone on the pill when Julie was three months old. She didn't want to risk another pregnancy while they were still in college. She'd tried a different kind this time, and she wasn't having the headache issues that had made her give up on it the first time around. "Yes. Maybe when Julie's in first grade. That's a six year's difference. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, sure, that's fine. As long as it's not more than seven years. I want some years alone, just us, while we've still got energy, you know? I don't want my last kid to leave the house when I'm over 50."

"Me either," Tami agreed.

[September 28]

For the first time in his life, Eric played a game without his father watching from the stands.

Baylor defeated SMU by a wide margin, and Eric dedicated his victory to his new baby brother, who had come home from the NICU yesterday. Because the game was held at noon in SMU's stadium in University Park, just a 20 minute drive from the Taylor house, Eric and Tami stopped by on the way back to Waco.

Julie peered into the bassinette, which was in the living room. "Bay-bay!" she declared. "Kee-oot."

"Is it okay to hold him?" Eric asked.

"Yeah. He's a strong little guy," Mr. Taylor boasted. "They just had to make sure he was doing well before they let him go."

Eric picked up the baby very carefully and cradled him, the way he'd learned to do with Julie. He'd seen the infant in the NICU, but never held his brother before. "He's so tiny," Eric said. "My girl was bigger than this."

"Well he'll grow!" Mr. Taylor insisted. "He's already put on weight. Wouldn't be surprised if he was a linebacker one day."

Eric looked up from his baby brother and asked, "What if he becomes a ballet dancer, Dad?"

"Don't taunt me, son."

Eric chuckled.

When the baby started fussing, Eric handed him to Karen, who was sitting in the arm chair. She breast fed him beneath a blanket. Though she was fully covered, it still made Eric obviously uncomfortable, and so he offered to "clean up in the kitchen" and disappeared.

Tami felt a pang of jealousy when she saw how easily and carelessly Karen fed her son, after all the struggles she'd had with Julie. She sat down on the couch and asked, "You getting any rest?"

"Not much. Garrett is willing to help, but since I have to do 100% of the feeding…there's really no point in waking him up in the middle of the night too. And he's been working hard."

Mr. Taylor, who was standing with his hand resting on the back of Karen's chair, said, "I want to get some things solidly in place before Karen goes back to school in January, so I can trust my workers and scale back my hours."

"We're also interviewing part-time nannies to cover the hours when he'll be working and I'll be in school in the spring."

"I'd so love a nanny," Tami said.

"Maybe for the second," Mr. Taylor told her. "When Eric's in the NFL."

"Do y'all plan on a second?" Tami asked.

Karen shook her head. "We had so much trouble trying for this one."

"I wouldn't call it trouble, my love." Mr. Taylor kissed the top of Karen's head. A little hand came out from beneath the blanket, and he stroked it with a single finger.

"And also, I think one child requires enough attention," Karen said. "Especially since I'm going to be a doctor one day."

Mr. Taylor sat down on the couch next to Tami. She pulled the latest Parenting Magazine out of her purse. "It's no big deal, but…." She paged to the section with the photography contest winners. "There was a baby photo contest. I submitted one of Julie when she was about eight months. I only got an honorable mention." Her reward was a $25 gift certificate to Toys 'R Us.

She handed the magazine to Mr. Taylor, who chuckled at the photo of Julie with a toy phone, upside down, against her ear. He turned the magazine toward his wife. "Karen, darling, did you know my daughter-in-law is a published photographer?" He sounded almost proud. "Published!"

For the first time, Tami thought it might not be so terribly weird, after all, if she were to one day start calling Mr. Taylor Dad.