It seems appropriate that I return to the blogging fold on this day, the birthday of the editor of Letters from the North. He seems a little distressed at the pace of the blogging. And he has been kind enough to update our picture with a welcoming garden chair better suited to the new season. Maybe I should explain how it is that Matthew came to be. After having three babies in four years, I decided that I needed a break. My smallest baby was quite a momma's boy, so for four years we just enjoyed each other. My grandmother came to visit once when Marty was nine months old. She got quite a kick out of how hard he would struggle to follow me every time I left the room. It got easier after he learned to walk and when I sat down he would usually climb up and sit on my lap. My husband started making noises about how he was too big a boy to be always sitting on Mommy's lap, but we mostly just ignored that. However, about this time I took a trip on the train to visit my mother and my sister. My sister was newly pregnant and brimming with excitement about it. I came home jealous. If Nancy was having a baby, I wanted a new baby too. My husband probably thought it was a good way to get Marty out of the nest, so he agreed to take part in the project. It didn't take long. Nancy's Jennifer was born in March and our Matthew was born in May. All of our other babies were several weeks overdue. Marty was the worst--due on July 30th, born on August 21st. Dear little Matthew was born one day before his due date. I worried a little on the way to the hospital. I knew that a fellow pastor's wife was on duty on the OB ward. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of having someone from my social life observing me during labor and delivery. She was there all right, but soon left at eleven p.m. Matthew was born at 1:22 a.m. on the day of Wisconsin's trout fishing opener. Both his father and his doctor were a little annoyed about that. Three days later we were on our way home. We lived twenty miles from the hospital. In a little town about half way there was a nice little cafe. My mother-in-law, who had come to help us out, suggested that we stop there and have some lunch. The waitress stood in front of the big front window and watched in amazement as we all climbed out of our little red VW bug: my husband, his mother, our daughter Claire, Marty, Matthew and me. She told us that she couldn't believe that we all fit in that tiny car. Two months later we moved from Wisconsin to New York with four children in that little car. It occurs to me now that you couldn't do that today, but then we just packed everybody in without any baby car seats. Our daughter Claire was always up for a new baby. She had a lot of the mother hen in her. But the brothers were not so pleased. When first grader Nick came home from school on Matthew's first day home he wouldn't even look at the new baby. His birthday was on May 12th and had been lost in the shuffle. Marty's Sunday school teacher stopped by several days later with a gift for the new baby. She laughed and said that she thought Marty had aged about ten years since she had last seen him. Matthew was fated to soon share this experience. One evening a few weeks later he was having a babysitter for the first time. My husband and I were going out. As we drove along, I remarked that Matt seemed a little tacked on to the family, not quite a part of the Nick, Claire, Marty group. Perhaps we should have another baby as a companion for him. I wasn't at all serious, but I had tempted the new baby fates. When Matthew was sixteen months old, I again left home, stayed away several days and returned with a new baby. Matthew was absolutely furious with me. He would not look at me or allow me to touch him. Only Daddy could take care of him. Unfortunately for Matt, Daddy was scheduled to go out of town for a conference. He hired a babysitter to come in the late afternoon and evening to help me get the children to bed. Matt had a choice to make. I'm happy to say that he chose me over the babysitter. We have a picture of Matt squatting on his haunches and peering at the newborn Peter in his Infant Seat on the floor. Matt looks like a scientist appraising an unpleasant speciman. However, when Matt decided to leave home a year later, he only took three things with him--his red wagon, two cans of Campbell's soup and his brother Peter.