Just back from our whirlwind east coast tour. For those of you who don't know us, we have two kids (hard to call them "kids" at this point since they are 33 and 29). Both (well daughter Johanna and son Eli's wife Melissa) were due mid-summer, one on July 25th and the other on Aug. 8th. That's really all the background you need to continue so please do....
The key thing here of course is that Mickey Mantle was number 7 so it was critical to have as many 7's in the birth dates of these two grandchildren as possible. Thursday morning the 26th we got two calls in a row. One was from Johanna in Albany (due August 8) who said she was having contractions about 5 minutes apart. The other was from Melissa Zeserson in Swarthmore (due July 26) who said hers were about 10 minutes apart. At around 4, Johanna's husband Tom called to say things were progressing and that Johanna was expecting to go to the hospital sooner than later. Alas, I had a gig that night and hence couldn't leave until about 9:30 that evening, but on second thought (and I came to this conclusion all by myself!) we decided that getting to Troy (where Johanna was to be giving birth) was probably more important than playing for maybe 10 people at the Lost Dog Cafe in Ithaca. So when Tom called around 5 to say they were going to the hospital we packed up and jumped into the car and arrived at the hospital in time to be told that Johanna was deep into it and in fact wasn't too eager for any face time at the moment. Tom assured us he'd call us when the baby came and then went back to work in the delivery room. Sure enough at 4:15 that morning, they had a daughter, Lyla Thiessen Stebbins. "Thiessen" is Jan's mother's maiden name and Lyla was Johanna's first kitten...of course.
Meanwhile things had also started to move rather swiftly in Swarthmore where Melissa was having some powerful contractions by early Friday morning and they too were thinking about going to the hospital sooner than later. Back in Troy, we went to the hospital around 8 in the morning and there was Tom proud as punch but looking like a little ragged as indeed one would. On the other hand, Johanna who had just had a 19 hour labor with no analgesia and had screamed so hard she broke some blood vessels in her eyes, looked like she was ready to get up and do 5 miles. Cutest of the bunch by far was Lyla, a beautiful baby girl 6 lb. 10 ounces (no idea how long but probably not record breaking considering the genetics). She is very calm and though we know she can't do it yet, it seemed that she greeted us with slate blue eyes and kind of a half smile. She is VERY strong and absolutely adorable and looks a bit like the baby Johanna.
Anyway so we were passing her around, watching her feed and just enjoying the hell out of the situation when the phone rang at 4:05 in the afternoon and there was Eli announcing the arrival of Declan Kenneth (aw shucks....!) Zeserson, 7 pounds 10 ounces. And so Mickey Mantle was paid his due as both kids came to the plate on 7/27/07 and will be united by birth for ever more. With Princess Lyla in good and loving hands and her maternal grandmother on the scene, we left Albany about 4 in the morning of the 28th for Swarthmore to meet Little Lord Declan. The lad has his father's dimples including one in his chin probably courtesy of his Grandpa Fred's with a little assist from his mother Jan. He is not going to be bored in the next few days, weeks or probably forever because in addition to all the attention he will be getting from us, Melissa's family takes kids very seriously. They should because Declan is about the 65th born just to HIS generation in this far-ranging crew. At the moment two aunts and a grandmother are on the scene and the cousins are coming, the cousins are coming! Grandpa Joe Burkhart and I aren't quite sure which one of us young Declan resembles but Winston Churchill seems a better bet at this point.
So that's about it. Here they are. All involved are doing fine and something tells me we are going to be putting a lot of miles on the cars in the next few months. Grandparents 'R Us just can't wait.
