As all of my “Danmancledites” know by now, I work several hundred miles from home and go home every other weekend. This past weekend, however, I remained in NY in great anticipation of my first grandson. I already have by far the world’s most adorable granddaughter, so having an adorable grandson to match made it worthwhile staying in town.

 His mother, my daughter, is not actually my daughter by birth as are my other two daughters, but is my daughter by marriage (insert Brady Bunch metaphors) after she was in college. This means, I cannot be held responsible for any childhood trauma nor indicted for any known genetic imperfection of which she has none – unless nail biting has its own chromosome. 

Therefore, I can only be judged by my charming personality, constant wit, occasional bribes, immense admiration, and by how I treat her mother, all of which currently earns me a front row seat with the welcoming committee. 

The problem is, the little bugger refused to come out and play. His due date was 3 days ago (as of this writing)  which has helped his maternal grandma , my lovely wife, earn extra Delta miles coming and going waiting for the little man to make an entrance. Of course he does have his mother and grandma’s sense of timing – they both feel that being “fashionably late” is a noble trait! 

The little man’s mother is known for her dry wit and incredible straight faced “gotchas”, so truly he has his mother’s genes in his little play. 

But then again, why bother at all. Why not stay inside? He has all the food he needs. It’s nice and warm in there. He can move around, and stretch, kick back (just ask his Mom), do as he pleases. Once he hits the home stretch in that birth canal – it will be like the first time down the giant water slide at Emerald Pointe – one fast scary ride to who knows where. Once he hits the fresh air it’s cold, he gets poked and slapped and his food supply gets cut off – wow what a way to start. Heck I’d stay inside as long as I could too. 

Well, he has all our attention, and what he can look forward to is a large group of family and friends that will love this little guy more than he will ever know or appreciate, and I can’t wait to share in his soon to be awe-inspiring life – 

He just needs to get this party started.