Page 387 - WhyAsInY

Portrait of a (first) MarriaGe
my bar exam at Mahopac, and taking breaks to swim together; and our trip to Ausable Chasm?
I see the time when none of Drs. Jaffin, Cherry, and Moss could say, “Get dressed and go home, Yaverbaum,” as had become the refrain that would conclude each of Phyllis’s multiple Braxton Hicks visits; and the time when I first saw Danny’s unbelievably long black hair as he lay in the Mount Sinai bassinet minutes after his birth; I hear the accelerating beat of the fetal heart monitor before I saw Dr. Jaffin displaying Peter upside down after his incredible birth, as I exclaimed, “Danny’s little brother!”; and I see the birth of Rachel, hear me shout, and hear Dr. Cherry confirm, “It’s a girl!”—and I remember weeping with relief and joy as she arrived to make us complete.
Beyond that, and aside from the Tommee Tippee Cup adventure, there are countless images of the kids at play, in mischief, in lessons about the solar system taught with fruit on the kitchen table, on tricy- cles, big wheels, scooters, two-wheelers, skates, skis, swings, and seesaws; on the B Team in the local hardball league (where I coached Danny’s team and let everybody play any position that he wanted to); with toys, dolls, crayons, paints, puzzles, and Playskool figures; getting minor cuts and bruises, playing in the bathtub, and performing shows for us with their cousins; having me read Goodnight Moon, tucking them in, then fin- ishing the story with “the ebbadebbadebba-dend” as I snapped the book closed; and lighting the Friday night candles, a memory that still brings tears to me.
Phyllis and Harvey
I recall when, having decided to catch a movie in Brooklyn after grab- bing some pizza on Flatbush Avenue, Phyllis and I put on our coats, exited from our apartment, duly locked the door, and set off for the elevator, only to realize that we couldn’t go. We had forgotten that there was this little person named Daniel who was comfortably asleep in his crib in his new bedroom. We looked at each other and laughed. For we
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