Mazel Tov!

i just got back from visiting my friend orly in the zefat hospital. mazel tov! she gave birth yesterday morning. orly is actually, the daughter-in-law of a good friend but we were gym buddies way before she met her husband. in fact, when i found out that they were on a shidduch, i put in more than my 2 cents worth in favor of the prospective male. i really laid it on thick because the two were already older than the usual young couple. she had two younger sisters who had married before her and that couldn't have been easy for orly. when they agreed to get married her family made a vort for the immediate families and served a traditional meal in their home. i was included as part of the groom's immediate family as they are a very small family unit. orly's family is yemenite and is even larger than my son's new morrocan family. i believe there are 12 siblings. i haven't counted them all as some have been out of town in yeshivas but it is definitely a lively bunch ! three years ago, after orly gave birth to her first son, my mom and i went to visit her in the hospital. i believe the entire clan was present and i also remember there being over twenty people in the room. as soon as i arrived tonite, i was greeted very warmly by a bunch of women and little girls. orly has a slew of sisters and nieces. they were passing around the new baby like you pass the salt or butter. i hadn't taken a seat yet when the baby was passed to me to hold. now that i've had a little practice with sahar i feel pretty confident. i babysat for him twice this week. the first time , i had him alone to myself for two hours and he didn't stir, or make a peep or a poop. what an easy gig!. the second time i watched him he was awake for over an hour . i sang to him and changed his diaper and even gave him some water to drink. i chatted and cooed and hugged him and walked around the room carrying him and i loved every minute of it. tomorrow i get to watch him as his mom has a toothache and is going to the dentist. i was asked to hold him tonite when they got back from a seudah at my son's work place. apparently, the winery has finished their harvest and held a dinner to gives thanks. my daughter-in-law asked me to hold him while she got ready for bed and straightened up a bit. then my son asked me to change his diaper and i jumped up delightedly, like he had just offered me a hot fudge sunday! when i heard that orly had just given birth yesterday, i immediately asked how much the baby weighed . what is our fascination with birth weight anyway. would we dare to ask the mother what her weight was? but somehow, we need to know the baby's weight. and what is this obsession we women have, with reminissing about our birth's and sharing the gory details over and over again. my bith was 23 years ago and i'm all about rehashing it with the best of them. i think it must be similar for men to retell their combat and war stories. orly's first born just turned three a couple of weeks ago and got his first hair cut. he had really long black, thick and curly hair. on purim they dressed him up as a girl and he really looked the part. orly's sister is due at any moment and her sister-in-law is due at chanuka so we will have more occassions soon to wish each other Mazel Tov!