Oh, Shiny!

Monday night I get a text message: This gorilla is in labor.

Backstory: As I zipped up my suitcase in NYC in February, getting ready to head to the train station to Casey Jones my way up to Boston where I was staying with Eric and Annie, my cell phone gave the DING! of an incoming text message. It said, "this gorilla is in labor," and the number was Annie's. It was a month early for her, but that's not unheard of, and I had seen the photographic evidence that said this kid was on the fast-track. But my very first thought? "Sh!t, where am I going to crash??" So I called Annie, who said she hadn't sent me a text message. There was a pause as she pushed a couple of buttons on her phone, followed by, "Eric! When did you learn to text message?" Needless to say, it was a false alarm.

Monday night, though, was the real deal. I texted good wishes, sent word south to Em, and sat back to wait. OK, I went to bed, but whatever. Tuesday, no word from Boston, an excited g-chat with Em, but we figured we'd hear when there was news. Wednesday, no word. I g-chatted with Em on the Metro ride to the opera, and then left a message with Eric - what news? He left a message while I was ensconced in the restaurant, but Em talked to him, too - the baby had been born the night before (!) and all was well. Except for the fact that he still didn't have a name. Details, people, and it's not like they didn't have anything to call him - what's wrong with Egg Tooth? I have a tiny cell phone pic from Annie with that monniker.

Today I got an email, his name is Andrew, and this is what he looks like:
How ridiculously beautiful is he? He already looks like he's thinking about something that will lead to trouble. Now, his initials? A.D.D., so we're going to hope that doesn't say anything about his attention span, but that it instead ADDs up to some mathematical genius - he gets it from him father. Momola, however, thinks that he spells attention deficit for his parents - why else would they forget to name him for 24 hours? Therefore, in keeping with a current family joke, Momola is referring to little Andrew as "Shiny" to mark his ability to distract.

I'm planning my visit.