its amazing the excitement generated by the birth of a child. a carousel of visitors have dropped by to pay homage--always bearing gifts--then, not wanting to impose, traveled back home after an introduction and each in turn having a brief dance with the queen. i adore visitors. thankfully, my grama overcash has been here the past week to help maintain some semblance of order to the castle. not 
only has she kept the place hospitable for callers, she has helped make for a smooth transition from a family of 3 to a family of 3 with infant royalty.my sister, josefina, will turn 3 next tuesday. while she has been a great welcoming presence to my arrival, i sense sharing the title of "queen" in our house has not been easy for her. this is where my grama has been the biggest help. toddlers require routine to live happy, carefree lives. unfortunately it seems all the circumstances of the universe conspire to interrupt that routine to the dismay of parents everywhere. however, grandparents--themselves creatures of habit--have no reason or motivation to oblige the toddlers' routine. indeed, it is their right and privilege, as holders of the grandparent title, to avail the whims and fancies of their grandchildren: skipping naps, buying rollick-inducing sugary snacks, introducing new toys, etc.heroically, my grama was able to resist the temptation to indulge her instinct and help josefina get accustomed to the new order of things. as much attention as i need, i can certainly understand josie's difficult adjustment to not having mom or da immediately accessible. we thank grama for spending so much time with us this week.one of the happy diversions from routine this week was a visit from
my cousin rendan, uncle t and aunt dawn. they arrived this afternoon after a weekend at the beach. josefina was super-hyped and fortunately had just finished a nap when rendan arrived. something about this guy drives josie into a whirlwind of excitement and delight. she and rendan have a such a good time together it leaves us babies and adults weary for having just witnessed it. rendan is like a big brother and i hope i will have as much fun with him as josie does.
~~greta
having had a few days to reflect on things i began to form a philosophy on my existence. first of all, where did i come from? my mother? God? a random collection of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen? these are all fine answers, but, really, where did we all come from? naturally, this was 
the first question i asked of my neighbor in the hospital nursery. question marks hang thick in the air in any hospital, but no area so thick as over the bassinet of each newborn child. incidentally, my neighbor's answer was, "sheboygan," so it was clear i would have to look elsewhere for an answer. luckily it was my big sister, josefina, who gave me a start in my journey toward a personal philosophy.
infanthood is a tough gig. don't let anybody say different. while the entire adult world is oohing and aahing over the "little baby" saying we have it so easy because we have somebody else do everything for us--whether it be feeding us, bathing us, or wiping our tiny little 
bums--we are quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) suffering through an explosion of knowledge the likes of which we never see again until perhaps death. apart from the physical trauma we sprites go through at birth, mentally, each new moment of life is a forced recognition of something never conceived before. each learned item leads to a question that further adds to the comprehension of the universe. at this stage of life, the theory of special relativity can be pondered on the same level as the theory of 'what goes in baby must come out.' i'll tell you, it is an exhausting and frustrating time. colic, you say?
no, that baby is crying because she is trying wrap her head around the idea that a subatomic particle can seemingly occupy more than one specific area of a space at the same time.
i have the distinct advantage of having an older sister who, early on, believed that a newborn lives entirely in each moment and knows nothing outside that moment. i have found this to be true, but i can expand on that to say with each moment comes that much more self-realization. trouble is, with the 
every realization of identity, the more the physical and psychological realities of the human body limit our ability to learn. in other words, we actually get dumber as we age.
josefina, and hermann hesse, taught me that knowledge can be attained independently or it can be communicated, but wisdom cannot be communicated. while i believe one can achieve wisdom through reflection, you also need time and experiences. so, i guess 
you could say what separates seniors from babies is the ability to achieve wisdom. to finally get back on point, i haven't been around long enough to figure out where i came from. in fact i may never know until i am old and grumpy and fishing through an icehole in wisconsin. hmmmmm... maybe that baby in the nursery knew something after all.~~greta
thomas wolfe once wrote "...you can't go home again." this is true in the sense that the only home i've known up to recently was the aqueous envelope from which i sprang. though nine months is not long to settle into a place, it was a most agreeable home for such a small space. here's a shout out to my old neighbors liver (luv ya like a brother!) and the kidney twins!!
the point i was eventually coming around to was that i actually did come come home today. we left east cooper hospital through the front door in grand fashion with a volunteer escort and a parade of momma's coworkers. i found the hospital to 
be a comfortable stay but when we burst forth into the steamy charleston afternoon i wanted to cry; in fact i did. my da pulled the limo 'round to collect me and had chilled the inside to an acceptable 2 degrees celsius, so all was well for the ride home. we arrived at saint margaret street to a fine reception with my big sister josefina representin'. grama and papa overcash welcomed us inside and we quickly fell into a routine of eat, sleep, evacuate... repeat.
~greta
the breaking of waters is the poetic euphemism people like to use for the amniotic fluid... ah well, nevermind. because of this my mother lugged me outta bed at 3:30am to make the trek to the hospital determined to have a wee bairn by lunchtime. as we crossed the cooper river to mt. pleasant i was so moved by the water i came up with this little ditty...Flow gently, sweet Afton! amang they green braes,Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise;My Mary's asleep by the murmuring stream,Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.actually this is verse by Robert Burns about a small river that flows through the southwest of scotland. this was part of the inspiration for my middle name; which could not have been given at a better time. here i was a good half-hour after birth and i am subjected to the final parental negotiations of my ex-uteran tag. so, no longer a glint in the eye or a spark of an idea, with a squeak and a whiff of dry-erase marker, my name and vital statistics were etched into reality:greta afton overcash
06.06.2007
11:58 am
mt. pleasant, sc
7 lb 5 oz
19.25 in
brown
blue
some explanation of my name for the curious (those not interested should skip to page 24 now):
greta has a nordic ring to it, and rightfully so. it is common in scandinavia and germanic-speaking countries and is a diminutive form of margaret which came from the original greek name, margarita. my parents like to tell people the name is a nod toward the germanic heritage of the overcash clan, or maybe that it was borrowed from the street we live on: st margaret street. none of these are 
true, in fact the main reason for the name greta is because, well, they just liked it. after months of trying to find a name to recognize the impression scotland made on my parents, my dad discovered the name afton while going through a list of scottish rivers. turns out it was a fairly popular first name in the early 1900s in the US and several towns are named after the river... probably because it was made famous or infamous by robbie burns poem, "sweet afton" (1791). so, there we have it: greta afton. by the way, the name overcash, as everyone knows, is anglicanized german and was originally something like oberkirch in olden times.
~~greta
only has she kept the place hospitable for callers, she has helped make for a smooth transition from a family of 3 to a family of 3 with infant royalty.
my cousin rendan, uncle t and aunt dawn. they arrived this afternoon after a weekend at the beach. josefina was super-hyped and fortunately had just finished a nap when rendan arrived. something about this guy drives josie into a whirlwind of excitement and delight. she and rendan have a such a good time together it leaves us babies and adults weary for having just witnessed it. rendan is like a big brother and i hope i will have as much fun with him as josie does.
