Stephi's Blog

My Memoir

Note to Reader: This being a memoir, it has some "too personal" tibits of information. Those have been *** out and mostly consist of city names as well as our last name. Enjoy :)

Cold December air always creates a chilly ride to Toronto during the Christmas break each year. Not everyone takes this wonderous ride, however, our family has different reasons to drive there than most families seem to. My Dad and my stepmom, Rhonda, live near Toronto, in a city by the name of **********. We visit them at their house only a handful of times a year; Christmas break is famous for one of our visits.

Christmas of 2003, my brother Trent and I were rather estatic about arriving at my Dad's house. This isn't to say that we weren't always happy about going to my Dad's house, but, this year was simply different. From a distance, we saw our father's yellow house, and we passed by the neighbour's Enstien basketball net and into the rock scattered driveway. The Christmas lights were neatly plasted to the house, as they were during the holidays every year, and the lights reflected off the snow, screaming of the happiness my brother and I shared. We rejoiced, while half asleep, as we jumped out of our purple van and unloaded the vehicle. We both had the same thing going through our heads; "only a few more sleeps." Yes; just a few more sleeps before an adventure that the two of us had only dreamt of.

As the four of us got into the small house that we considered our Toronto home, beds were made upon the floor in the living room for Trent and I to sleep. At one time, we had a bedroom to share at this house. The room contained bunk beds that we fought over; being kids, we both always wanted the top. At one point in the nearly six years Dad had lived there, he and Rhonda had decided to tear down the wall to create a larger living room. With our bedroom gone, Trent and I now shared the living room, with the t.v. set. Like every night we slept there, Dad put on the Simpsons and the television timer and he and Rhonda, along with our dogs, Wendel and Maggie, went to bed in their bedroom.

The days ticked past in Toronto. We only had about two nights to wait before our adventure and then the next day, we'd return to ********** for Christmas with our two families. Our adventure would be quite simply our first ever live NHL game. I guess it's really only Canada where this amazes children - even children like me who were never really interested in the sport of hockey. The day arrived where we were to go to the game, but, before we left, Rhonda asked me to help her wrap a gift for her mom. She handed me a small box and told me to look at the present before I wrapped it. Inside was a beautiful picture frame with three slots for pictures. On one end there was a picture of my brother Trent, and on the other end was a picture of me. The middle was the real present. "Under Construction; to be Finished June 7, 2004" it read in bold lettering. I looked at my Dad, and then at Rhonda who were sitting on either side of me by this time. I smiled and asked my stepmom if she was pregnant. Of course, she responded with yes. Soon enough, I'd be the older sister of another sibling.

When I had finished wrapping the gift, our family left for the hockey game in Toronto. The Toronto Maple Leaves were playing against the Flordia Panthers, and my brother's excitement had only grown since we had arrived in ***********. Mine, however, had branched off to other areas of my life. I seriously couldn't tell you much about the game other than that there were a lot of people there and that my brother and my Dad had smiles plastered on their faces the entire time we were there. I guess I probably did too; I was constantly thinking of how it would be to have a little brother or sister who would be fourteen years younger than me.

When we got home that night, Trent finally figured out the news. He had been in the same room as us when I wrapped the gifts, however, the television proved to be more interesting and Trent hadn't payed any attention to anything else. I guess he was probably pretty shocked, and maybe a little jealous, but he hid most emotions pretty well. It wouldn't be until later that Trent would realize how much he loved his new sibling. Trent and I were told not to tell anyone about the baby until they had recieved their Christmas presents. Sadly, the wait was nearly impossible with the amount of excitement stored within me. Surprisingly, I managed to wait out the two days without saying a word.

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we drove back home. As with every year, we went to my Great Grandma's and to my Aunt Sharon's that night. On Christmas, we spent the morning with my Mom and the afternoon at my Nana's with my Dad. My Nana and Papa recieved the same gift as Rhonda's parents had, only, their picture frame had five slots in it; one for each of my younger cousins, Ashley and Mitchell as well as one for Trent and I. As my Nana unwrapped her gift she looked at it, and started talking about how beautiful the frame was. While this was true, it wasn't exactly the point of the gift. Dad wouldn't let anyone continue with their gifts until Nana looked at it closer. My Aunt Kelly took the frame from her hands and inspected it. She smiled and said congratulations to Dad and Rhonda and handed it back to Nana. That was when she realized the fiftth spot. Sadly, when Rhonda's mom opened her gift, the reaction was much the same. Tracy, Rhonda's sister, finally broke the news to her. We all had a good time laughing at how long it had taken the new grandparents to realize what was happening. Our family likes to tease it seems; I guess this is just more proof of that.

The day after Christmas was my fourteenth birthday. After that, it seemed the days moved past us quickly. Every time we saw Rhonda, her belly had only grown, and my new sibling was getting closer and closer to their day of birth. The first week of May, we put together a surprise baby shower for Rhonda. By the time she got there, she knew what was going on. It didn't help that when she arrived at the hotel we were having the party in, Ashley had screamed "Rhonda's coming!" and ran down the hall to get out of her vision. The party went over well and we all enjoyed ourselves. We still thought we had a month before the baby would be born though.

On the night of May 18th, my Dad called my house as he usually did. This time, however, he told us that Rhonda was going into labour and he was about to bring her to the hospital. He told us that we should have a new sibling before morning and he'd call us shortly after Rhonda gave birth. By morning, we still hadn't heard from Dad so Trent and I went to school assuming that our new sibling had not yet been born. That day at school, I was extremely cheery knowing that I'd soon be an older sister again. This day really brought the truth into perspective. As excited as I was, I argued with people that I'd have a sister, but Jim was right when he said I was wrong; my new brother was born at 11:02 on May 19, 2004.

The baby was soon named; Reid Alexander ******** was born as the fifth grandchild of my Nana and Papa, and the fourteenth great grandchild of my Great Grandma ********. Our family has always joked about how the oldest and youngest great grandchildren belong to the same family of Robinsons; me being the eldest and Reid being the youngest. Reid was born on a Wednesday, and the following Sunday, my Nana and Papa drove Trent and I to Toronto for the day to visit our family. Reid, to say the least, was my new, beautiful, baby brother.

posted by Stephi @ 9:10 PM