Alexander
Born February 21, 2003
6lbs, 11oz

Well lookie who we have here! It’s my brand new great nephew, Alex. These pictures were taken about 16 hours after his arrival. His mom, my niece Sarah, was about 60 hours in labor. Au naturelle. What a pro! Here, we see Alex letting us know the existence of his very first poo. We specially staged this shot so that you, our viewer, would not be subjected to the sight of the aforementioned poo.

Alex’s middle name is simply the letter “M“. This is for the name Marjorie, which is my mother’s name. My mom recently passed on, but we know, wherever she is, she’s pretty psyched to be part of the baby’s name. Let’s just hope that the kids in the schoolyard don’t get wind of the fact Alex was named after a girl!

Here’s my niece, Sarah, with that baby. My niece is just a baby! How can she possibly be old enough to be a mother?? Okay, I’ve got that one out of my system. Thanks for listening.

[photo missing]

Well, of course I have to sneak in a photo of me with that baby. I would also like to point out that Alex looks the most calm when in my arms. This is before I dropped my chewing gum in his eye. I’m kidding.

You, the reader, might be struck at the craziness of the Haycox family’s lives at this point: death and birth and everything in between, all in a dizzingly short span of time. We are too! Our family would like to say “you’re welcome” as we experience for you a real-time lesson of the tragedy, beauty, irony, and mystery of this thing we call life. Am I babbling? I think I’m babbling.

Well, that’s it! Can I please take a nap now? I don’t know how many more life-changing events I can take before teatime.

Love from Becky

• backstory: my mom died, my niece had a baby, and i had a cancer scare all between late January and late February, 2003. “Crazy” is such an understatement I actually chuckle a little at it now.