Sometimes the Internet is wonderful. When my daughter-in-law Sara learned that she was pregnant, she happened across a website (www.babycenter.com) that sends out weekly e-mails detailing “Your Pregnancy ThisWeek.” She forwarded one such message to me when she was very newly pregnant and I learned that my future grandchild was the size of a grape. I also learned that my 9-week, grape-sized grandbaby’s eyelids were not open yet, but she did have tiny earlobes.
I was delighted and asked Sara to continue to forward the updates to me. At 10 weeks I learned that the baby was the size of a kumquat. What’s a kumquat? Good question! Sara and I wondered, but we were more interested in reading that the baby limbs could now bend and tiny fingernails were forming.
However, our kumquat question was answered that week when we attended the EATS educational fundraiser at Cook County High School. The Whole Foods Co-op had a table with a delectable array of treats, including an interesting fruit that looked somewhat like an olive. The woman staffing the co-op table probably thought we were crazy when we burst into laughter as she answered our “what is this?” It was a kumquat!
We couldn’t wait to see what babycenter would compare the baby to the next week. It turned out to be a fig; then a lime. And so it went—the baby was as big as a lemon, as long as a carrot; as big as spaghetti squash.
I thought it would be fun if one of the comparisons worked as a baby name. I thought Fig had potential and for a while I called the baby-to-be Fig.
But Fig’s big sister Genevieve came up with a better name—Twinkle Toes. Now, this had absolutely nothing to do with the babycenter information about the baby’s size or incredible formation. No, Genevieve just thought Twinkle Toes was a good name. Who could argue? It is kind of cute.
So, that was it. Everyone in the family started referring to my fifth grandchild as Twinkle Toes. We didn’t say the baby
was as big as a mango and startled at loud noises at 22 weeks or was as big as a head of cauliflower and could suck her thumb at 27 weeks. No, we said Twinkle Toes was as big as a Chinese cabbage at week 30.
It was fun to get the weekly updates and to imagine tiny Twinkle Toes growing to be the size of a honeydew melon, a mini-watermelon, and finally, a small pumpkin.
And then…on Saturday, October 2, Twinkle Toes was born. Happily, she does not look like a kumquat, a lime, a squash or even a small pumpkin. I’m not sure that she looks like Twinkle Toes—you’d have to ask her big sister Genevieve about that.
What she does look like is a beautiful baby girl. Welcome Eloise Irene Silence!
What a bargain grandchildren are! I
give them my loose change, and they
give me a million dollars’ worth of
pleasure.
Gene Perret
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