Friday, September 14, 2012

Lost In Translation

In the week preceding baby K's birth, there was a lot of down time. Everyone just sort of hung around.

Her due date had come and gone with no action. Everyone was afraid of venturing too far away from the house, convinced that as soon as cell phone signal was lost (that happens in a pretty consistent two mile radius from here) I would suddenly go into labor.

HC was in the middle of final exams anyway, so she was distracted, but the other kids noodled around the house and found ways of entertaining themselves with increasing desperation.

One afternoon, my mother spent a good hour watching youtube videos of donkeys braying. Just braying. HeHAWWWW. HeHAWWWWWW.

An hour.

 She claimed she was doing it to entertain the toddler, but I saw it as a sign that things were reaching a critical point. I opted for an induction.

My Mom has a hard enough time deciphering anything P says, given his dense accent, and her donkey experience turned out to confuse things even further. Once things were well under way at the hospital, the two of them were having a little chat while we all waited for my contractions to get serious. Conversation meandered around, finally settling on the topic of familial characteristics.

"Well, A is really a lot like my brother, don't you think?" P said.

"How so?" my mom asked.

"Well, they're both basically gentle and  burrow loving..."

"What loving?" She looked at me for translation.

"Burrow loving," I said, and when she still looked totally confused, " BURROW LOVING...like, he loves his house and home and doesn't want to be disturbed."

"OHHH!" said my Mom, visibly relieved. "I thought you meant BURRO loving!" 


I mean...who isn't?

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