Once Upon a Valentine, Part I

Once upon a Valentine, a little girl was born. Tuesday, February 14th, 1984 was the day she entered the world, and Saturday, February 14th, 2009, marks her 25th birthday! Know who she is?

That's right, it's me! I'm the Valentine, and I'm officially 25 now! I'd like to share with you an email that I received today, in honor of my birthday! This is from my mother...

Punkin Pie,

Today is your 25th birthday -- you are now officially 1/4 of a century old. Do you remember how, on each of your birthdays, I would tell you about the day you were born? I can't be with you today but I can still tell you your story. But this time let me start from the beginning.

In the spring of ' 83 I was working with your Aunt Sonya cleaning apartments in the Washington, DC area. Dad and Uncle Tim, Uncle Jim and his brothers, Paul and Pat were working there also refurbishing the apartments. Your brother, Ricky and your cousin, Timmy went with us every day. Those apartments were awful places, stinky and dirty, so we used a lot of ammonia to scrub everything down. One day my head started spinning and I felt faint while we were cleaning so I had to climb down from the counter and sit on the floor. I almost fainted and Sonya assumed it was from the ammonia. But I knew different. I only fainted one other time in my life -- when I was pregnant with your brother, Ricky. I made an appointment with a doctor and had a pregnancy test done and BINGO! I was right -- YOU were on your way. I didn't go back to those awful apartments anymore because I had to be careful with you. But you did cause me to faint one morning while Ricky and I were waiting for his school bus. I ended up on the ground with Ricky shaking me and asking me if I was OK and the school bus pulling up with everyone on board staring at us. I told the bus driver I was OK and put Ricky on the bus and walked back home.

Of course, we didn't know you were you yet so we were deciding on a name for a boy and one for a girl. But in the meantime Ricky gave you a nickname. He used to like to put a styrofoam cup on my belly and watch it move around as you moved around. One time you kicked the cup right off my belly and he said, "Boy, that little Jasper sure can kick!" And so you became "Jasper". If you recall, some of the baby shower cards in your baby box are addressed to Jasper. Aren't you glad we didn't name you that for real? Dad left it up to me as to what we would name you and I decided on Ryan James, if you were a boy, and Katharine Ann, if you were a girl. I decided on the name Ryan because I liked it (even though Ricky hated it) and James because I wanted to honor your Poppy, my dad. I decided on Katharine because it was my grandmother's (Nanny's mother) real name (we always thought her name was Lillian Elizabeth but her real name was Katharine Mae). Katharine also because it was how my favorite actress, Katharine Hepburn, spelled her name. I decided on Ann without the E because I wanted to honor my baby sister, Toto. I almost named you Kati Scarlet, from Gone With The Wind -- you remember? I still think I should have, little Sarah!

All the time I carried you I felt very calm. I had already raised Ricky for 7 years and thought I knew what I needed to know to do it again. I didn't have any kind of morning sickness but I did develop a loathing for the smell of vanilla for a while. I also had an unbearable craving for pumpkin pie and since it was summer time there was not a pumpkin pie to be had. I haunted the stores and fruit stands (or rather made your Dad haunt them) waiting for Fall, when they would have the pies in stock. Guess you know that's how you got your nickname from me, Punkin Pie. Also while you were "enwombed" I took you to Ocean City for the first time. At the time, nobody but my sisters knew I was carrying you. I found out there was no water to be had on the boardwalk from any of the vendor's stands. Bottled water did not exist in 1983 -- isn't that strange to realize? I had to settle for drinking 7Up until we found out the Dough Roller pizza place would give me all the water I wanted if we ordered pizza.

The whole time I carried you I never gained any weight. I lost it instead. Also, the doctors estimated your birth date to be around March 3. Dr. Harvey Brilliant was the doctor I saw at the South Baltimore General Hospital OB/GYN clinic and he decided to do a sonogram because he said you were too big for the due date estimation. How about that, there was a time you were too "big". Sonograms back then were nothing like the ones now, no 3D images, but the doctors could make a guess at the sex of the child. I told Dr. Brilliant I didn't want to know. I still think knowing takes all the fun out of labor -- and believe me that is the ONLY thing fun about labor! Next he ordered me to take a glucose tolerance test because they thought I might have gestational diabetes. That was a gross tasting test and I didn't have diabetes. They were just wrong about the due date. And for some reason no one can explain, the weight loss was just a bonus for me because I lost 40 lbs. while I carried you and also when I carried your brother. Go figure.

The night I went into labor with you. Ahh, yes. I was at Nanny's house because I had come down from Finksburg a few days before to go to my clinic visit. Aunt Bonnie and I were watching a mini-series on tv called "Celebrity". Mini-series' were a still new thing back then; the first one I can recall was "Roots". We were into the second night of a three night series when I was becoming uncomfortable. My "taint" was hurting and I couldn't figure out why. I went to bed that night and around 4:00am I finally figured out I was in labor. Nanny was up and drinking coffee in the kitchen so I got up and told her. We called your Dad at Uncle Tim's to catch him before they left for work and he came to Nanny's to take me to the hospital. Ricky was still asleep so we didn't wake him up but he spent that whole day and into the night sitting in Nanny and Poppy's bay window looking out the drapes and waiting for Dad to come home and tell him if he had a Ryan or a Katie. He wanted a Katie.

At the hospital they told me I should walk for as long as I could because once I lay down I would not be allowed back up. So Dad and I walked the halls and waiting rooms for a while until the pains would take my legs out from under me. But just as I had had a long hard labor with Ricky (14 hours) I would also have a long hard labor with you (12 hours). Dad hadn't been in the labor room with me when Ricky was born, Nanny stayed with me through that one. But this time I told your Dad he would be in the room and would not be allowed to leave. I guess everyone thought I was kidding. I wasn't. Dad had to stay through the I V insertion (during which he almost fainted) and he had to stay through all the screaming. I gave him such a headache he asked a nurse to see if Toto could bring him an aspirin (and you know he hates taking pills). She brought him one and offered to stay with me so he could go rest for a while. OH NO YOU DON'T! No disrepect to Toto but he was staying through the whole thing even if his head flew off! And he was lucky really because there was a tv in my labor room and he spent his time watching it while I screamed and squeezed his hand off. When the pains were coming really close together and long Dad would watch the fetal monitor climb up and up and up, and then slide down. I relished the slide downs but he would keep telling me "no not yet, it's going up. Still up. Still up." Finally I told him to please lie to me and tell me it was going down and down and down. My water didn't break all the way to help you get born so a doctor came in to break it for me. His name was Doctor Obeyuwana and he was huge and he had HUGE hands. Hands as big as hams! When I saw that he was going to reach inside me to check on you I tried to climb up the bed to get away from those hands. I was yelling, "He's gonna hurt me!" He didn't of course. And, by the way, Dr. Obeyuwana is the same doctor who delivered your best friend, Angie.

I knew it was time for you to be born when I had the illusion of being a big fat cannon ready to fire out a cannon ball (they had given me Demeral near the end, which it turned out later they shouldn't have done.). I didn't see you get born because I had my face squeezed shut trying to fire that cannon ball, but Dad was there and he saw you make your entrance. He told me you were a beautiful little girl. I remember saying, "Ricky got his Katie!" You came into this world crying -- and that was the first time you cried and broke your Daddy's heart. He has never been able to stand up under your tears.

You scored high on your APGAR right away (shades of the future!) and the next thing I knew they put you in my arms and wheeled us down the hall past the waiting room where everyone was waiting to get a first look at you. The nurses took you from me then and took you to the nursery where you proceeded to remain wide-eyed and party all night long. All the nurses came to see the little Tomato Faced baby with the frosted hair and wide awake eyes who didn't cry but looked around all night long. ( And when your brother came to see you he was amazed by the way you could roll your eyes in different directions at the same time. Also, you would never be Jasper again.)

As for yourn Mama, I never did get to see the last episode of Celebrity to this day. Aunt Bonnie filled me in on what happened but it wasn't the same. But that's OK.




I have my Girlie Girl, my Larka, my Punkin Pie, my Kati Ann.












Ricky has his Teddy Bear, his Smodge.










Daddy has his Farty Bubbles, his Stinky, his Winks.

So, Happy Birthday, mine kid! Go tell your story.

And there you have it! That's how the world came to know me!