One More Baby

Kami was such a fun baby! She was cute, sweet, and everyone loved playing with her. Moe made up a song he sang to her every day: “She's got big blue eyes and a little button nose, the cutest little smile and the teeny tiny toes; she's so very special, she even seems to glow, that's why she's daddy's princess,” or something like that. And she really was a little darling, helping to bring our blended family closer together.

I'd decided even before Kami was born that we needed to have one more baby, so she'd have someone to grow up with. Stephen was ten years old, and it didn't seem fair to make her be alone at the end of our family. Still, I was getting pretty old. I turned 39 that year, and Moe was 50.

The rest of the kids were also growing up. Linnea became a senior that year. She was busy in school, playing the flute in band, participating on the flag team, and she loved dance. One thing she wished was that I had let her take dance classes when she was little, but there just hadn't been enough money or time for that. The best I had been able to do was give the girls a few years of piano lessons.

Holly was a sophomore in High School. She played the cello beautifully, she even thought she might get a scholarship with it for college. She was also heavily involved in the drama club, and was in every play at school. It was obvious that she was a natural actress, and her goal was to live in Paris when she grew up.

Russell moved up to the High School that year, and although he still struggled with his classes, he seemed to enjoy school more. Moe bought him an old computer, and Russell discovered that building and working on computers was something he really enjoyed. He also found out that he was very good at it, and took classes to get even better.

Alyssa was eleven. She played the flute in band, like Linnea, and was a happy, energetic, delightful 6th grader. She always had a big smile on her face, and no matter how down I was, she could made me feel better. She was my friend, and I appreciated having her around more than she knew.

Stephen had turned into Cowboy Jim. All he wanted for Christmas was a guitar and cowboy clothes, and he was the cutest little rootin, tootin, cowboy of them all. He also loved sports, all kinds, and played football and baseball and kept us busy going to his games.

We had a great family, even if we did have three girls with PMS, three teenagers with attitudes, two preteens, a new baby, and a step-dad who meant well but ended up making the kids pretty cranky when he told them what to do or corrected them. There were times when our house sounded and felt like WWIII, but it was worth it.

Still, I was sure we needed to have one more baby, and this time Moe agreed with me from the start. I didn't really look forward to giving birth at forty, nor did I want to be pregnant when my oldest daughter graduated from high-school, but that would be better than being pregnant when she got married, right? Pregnant mother's of the bride looked pretty funny. So we began planning for our seventh baby, and by Kami's 1^st birthday I was expecting one more time, and excited to find out if it would be a girl or a boy.