Midwife Margaret

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Sophie. She had bright red hair that did whatever it wanted, rosy pink cheeks, sparkly green eyes, and was going to be a Big Sister. All through the long weeks of waiting for the baby, who Sophie called JellyBean, to grow big enough to come out, Sophie went with Mama and Daddy to the visits with the mid-wife. Margaret. Sophie liked Margaret, and thought that maybe she might be a mid-wife, once she grew big enough. As summer turned from green to gold, the air getting crispy cold now and then, Jelly Bean grew bigger, Mama walked slower, Daddy cooked more suppers, and Sophie played mid-wife. Sometimes she was the mid-wife, delivering her dolls. Sometimes she was the Mama, a baby doll under her t-shirt. Sometimes she was the big sister, jumping up and down with expectation, singing songs of babies born and unborn.

One Saturday afternoon, Daddy came into to Sophie's room, which she now called Sophie's Birthing Center, and, after waiting quietly for Sophie's doll, Esma, to finish pushing her baby, BunnyBoo, out said, "Well done, Esma. What a cute Bunny you have!" Then, "Sophie, want to help me paint the baby's room?" "Do we have a baby's room?" asked Sophie. "Well that's the thing," said Daddy, "not yet. You know the big closet in our room? The one Mom uses to store all the stuff in the world?" "yeah." "We thought if we emptied it out, took off the doors, and painted it pretty, it would be a nice room for Jelly Bean." "Daaaaddyyyy," Sophie said with a sigh, "you can't keep a baby in a CLOSET!" "Of course not," laughed Daddy, ' the BABY will always be with us, but the baby's STUFF could be in the closet." "Stuff?" said Sophie. "Yeah, you know, changing table, drawers for onsies, and diapers, and socks, and snow suits. We'll get out your old baby toys and books, set them up on shelves, or, Mama thinks baskets on the floor would be nice." "Come on!" Sophie called over her shoulder as she ran down the hall, "where will we put all the stuff in the world"

"The thing is," Daddy was saying to Mama as they all took a mid-morning bagel and tea break, "a lot of it can be thrown out. A few things could go to the community center garage sale, and MOST of it is Christmas. It's just about time to be getting those things out anyway, Christmas, you know, IS just around the corner, and over Christmas break I can build those shelves in the basement we've been talking about and then put the Christmas things down there." " Honey," Mama said, "over Christmas break you are having a baby." "Right-o!" grinned Dad, and we don't want to put THAT on a shelf !" Mama laughed at the idea, and went back to her library work, while Sophie licked the last of the strawberry jam off of her plate. "What color will we paint baby's closet room?" Sophie asked. "I don't know," answered Dad, "what do you think?" "wellllllllllllllll................it's hard to choose ! My favorite color is always different..........yesterday was pink.......today is chocolate brown........tomorrow is alredy planning to be blue......." "Let's go down to the paint store and get some samples. That might help us decide."

"Alison!" Dad called up the stairs, after he and Sophie were dressed, helmeted, and ready to go, "we're off to the paint store!" "Take a blanket for Sophie!" Mom called back," the trailer will be COLD." "Got it!" Dad said, "come on, Alexander, off to the wilds!" "Why did you call me THAT?" "Alexander? Because he was a great explorer of the arctic, and you are so bundled up YOU could be exploring the arctic!" "OK!!!" Sophie laughed and climbed into the trailer behind Daddy's bike. Daddy bent down to tuck the blanket all around Sophie, adjusted her helmet, snaped the seat belt harness and they were off. Once in the store, Daddy talked to the store guy about how to get the walls ready to paint and Sophie collected the color samples they would choose from. By the time Dad was finished talking Sophie had 43 ideas. "Oh, Soph......" Dad started, "aw, let her keep 'em" the store guy said. "They're free." "Ok, " said Dad, picking up his sand paper and brushes and can of primer, "let's hit the road, Alex."

Back at home Sophie spread all of the colors out on the floor of Mama's study. FIrst, in rainbow order. Then in the order of best liked to least liked. Then in boy-colors and girl-colors. "Daddy loves lavender," Mama commented, "and isn't brown your favorite today?" "yeah," Sophie said, thinking. And she sorted, once more, by what-goes-good-together. "How can we ever CHOOSE?" Sophie wailed! They are all so BEAUTIFUL!!!."

"Green, the lighter one," said Mama. "Yellow," said Dad, any of them. "How about the pale blue?" Mama said. "Or the dark red? That would be WILD!" said Dad, holding up the red sample piece. "Hey, pumpkin, you're not saying anything," Dad said, both of them looking at her. Sophie was thinking. "Sophie....????" "We don't know what the baby likes.......we don't know if it's a boy, or a girl.......we don't know if it likes red, or yellow, or black, or what." "That's right," said Mama, "but we sure like a lot of colors!" "Poka-dots!" Said Sophie. "What?" Mom and Dad said together. "Poka-dots!" Sophie said again. "EVERYONE likes poka-dots and they could all be a different color ! Look !" Sophie ran to her mother's bed side table (remember? The one that fell over the other day,) and pulled some scotch tape (CAREFULLY!) from the drawer. Quickly she taped her color samples all over the walls of the closet-room. "TA-DA!" she said, flinging an arm toward the room like a circus ring leader.
"Not bad," said Dad. "I like it!" said Mom. "Our room is so plain. This would really make baby's room a focal point." "What's a focal point?" asked Sophie, but she didn't really care, or listen to the answer. She was re arranging the paint samples on the wall.

The following week the family went together to Margaret's. It was time for an ultra sound to see how close the baby was to being ready. "Like peeking at the cookies through the oven window!" said Sophie, "to see if they're done!" Sophie liked watching the screen on the ultra sound machine, but It was a little scarry, because it was sort of dark, and she didn't know if it hurt Mama. and the technician running the machine didn't want to talk to Sophie, and nothing on the screen looked anything like a baby. But when Margaret came in, and the technician left, everything got better. Margaret moved a wand over Mama's big belly, tallking the whole time about what they were seeing, how good it all was, how soon baby would come, and were there any questins. Because Margaret was so kind, Sophie wasn't afraid to ask, "where is the baby?" "Right here," Margaret pointed at a blob on the screen. "I'll show you." She took a yellow marker from her pocket and drew on the screen. "Here's the baby's little butt, then along here is it's back, see? And on around here is the head, and down the forehead, face, belly, and back up over the bent knees to where we started." Sophie looked at the drawing with wonder in her big green eyes. "Mama," she breathed, "Jelly Bean."