Karen's Baby Read online

  For Eddie Peterson,

  the Cat Man of Park Slope

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 Rachael or Joseph

  2 No More Babies

  3 Baby Presents

  4 The Baby-sitters Club

  5 Karen’s Baby

  6 Sisters

  7 Bears and Balloons

  8 Going to the Hospital

  9 Daniel

  10 The Littlest Baby

  11 Daniel’s Mezuzah

  12 Hats for Sale

  13 The Sad News

  14 The Baby Sale

  15 Waiting for Daniel

  16 Welcome Home, Daniel!

  17 Kristy

  18 Danny

  19 The Dirty Diaper

  20 The Fairy Godsister

  Oh Baby!

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  Rachael or Joseph

  Here is what I want more than anything in the world. A baby sister or brother. I am not picky. Either one will do.

  “Mommy? You know what I would name a baby?” I said. “I would name it Rachael or Joseph.”

  “I thought you would name it Susan or Tony,” said Andrew. Andrew is my little brother. He is four going on five. I am seven. And I know that sometimes people change their minds. I had changed my mind a lot about names for a baby. But Rachael and Joseph were my final choices. I was not going to change my mind again.

  “Rachael and Joseph are very nice names,” replied Mommy.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  It was a Friday afternoon. I was in the kitchen at the little house with Mommy and Andrew. I am Karen Brewer. I am in second grade. I wear glasses, and I have blonde hair and blue eyes and some freckles.

  My mommy and daddy are divorced. They live in two houses now, the little house and the big house. Besides Andrew, I have stepbrothers and a stepsister and an adopted sister. But no baby brother or sister.

  “Mommy, could you please have a baby?” I asked.

  “Karen, we have talked about this before,” said Mommy. “It is out of the question. No babies. Besides, you have a little brother.”

  “But Andrew is not a baby.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Andrew. “I am not a baby.”

  “Nancy gets to have a baby,” I pointed out.

  “That is her parents’ decision,” said Mommy.

  Nancy Dawes is one of my two best friends. She is seven, like me. And soon she would be a big sister. Her mother was going to have a baby at any moment. And Nancy would get to name the baby. It was a very exciting time.

  The doorbell rang then. I ran to answer it. Guess who had come over. Nancy Dawes. She lives right next door.

  “Hi! Is your mother having the baby? Is it coming?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” said Nancy. She stepped inside.

  “Boo,” I said.

  “Well, it will come when it wants to,” said Nancy. “Babies do things when the time is right, you know.”

  Nancy and I went to the kitchen.

  “Hi, honey,” said Mommy to Nancy. “How is your mother feeling?”

  “She’s fine. She went to the doctor today.”

  “Is she sick? Is the baby sick?” I cried.

  “Oh, no. She just has to have lots of checkups, that’s all. That is what happens when the baby is almost ready to be born.”

  I thought Nancy seemed awfully calm for someone who was about to become a big sister. I was more nervous than she was. Her mother could start to have the baby at any second. That was why I had been calling Mrs. Dawes on the phone so often.

  I decided it was time to call her again.

  “But I just came from my house,” Nancy reminded me. “Mommy is not having the baby yet. She is reading a book.”

  “The baby has to start coming sometime,” I replied. I dialed the phone. “Hello, Mrs. Dawes? Hi, it’s me, Karen…. What? … It isn’t? How did you know I was going to ask? … Oh, okay. Okay, ‘bye.” I hung up. “The baby is not coming yet,” I said. “Boy, Nancy. You are the luckiest person alive.”

  “Well,” said Nancy. “I do not think I could be lucky and dead.”

  No More Babies

  Nancy seemed calm about the baby, but I think she was excited inside. She was just trying to act grown-up. A new baby is a big deal, and Nancy knows it. Everybody knows it. That is why I wanted a baby brother or sister of my own so badly.

  Just before dinner that night, Mommy drove Andrew and me over to Daddy’s house, the big house. We were going to spend the weekend there. Andrew and I have two families and two houses. This is how that happened. A long time ago, when I was a little kid, I lived in the big house with Mommy and Daddy and my brother. But then Mommy and Daddy got divorced. They decided they did not love each other anymore. And they did not want to live together. So Mommy moved out. She took Andrew and me with her. (Daddy stayed behind in the big house. He had grown up there.) Mommy moved us into the little house. After awhile, she and Daddy got married again. But not to each other. Mommy married Seth. He is my stepfather. Daddy married Elizabeth. She is my stepmother.

  These are the people in my little-house family: Mommy, Seth, Andrew, me. These are the pets at the little house: Rocky, Midgie, Emily Junior. Rocky and Midgie are Seth’s cat and dog. Emily Junior is my rat.

  These are the people in my big-house family: Daddy, Elizabeth, Kristy, Charlie, Sam, David Michael, Emily Michelle, Nannie, Andrew, me. These are the pets at the big house: Shannon, Boo-Boo, Goldfishie, Crystal Light the Second. (It is a good thing the big house is a big house.) Kristy, Sam, Charlie, and David Michael are Elizabeth’s kids, so they are my stepsister and stepbrothers. Kristy is thirteen and I adore her. She baby-sits. Charlie and Sam go to high school. David Michael is seven like me, but he does not go to my school. Emily is my adopted sister. (I named my rat after her.) She is two and a half. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from a faraway country called Vietnam. Emily does not talk much, but Daddy says look out, she will someday. Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother. She feels like another grandmother to me. Nannie helps take care of all us kids. Shannon is David Michael’s puppy, and Boo-Boo is Daddy’s fat old tomcat. Guess what Goldfishie and Crystal Light the Second are. Goldfish. (Duh.) They belong to Andrew and me.

  By the way, I have a special nickname for my brother and me. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I thought of those names after my teacher read a book to my class. The book was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) We are two-twos because we have two families and two houses, two mommies and two daddies, two cats and two dogs, and two of lots of other things. I even have two best friends. They are Hannie Papadakis and Nancy. Hannie lives across the street from Daddy. (And Nancy lives next door to Mommy. Remember?) Hannie and Nancy and I call ourselves the Three Musketeers. We do lots of things together. We are even in the same class at school. Ms. Colman is our teacher. We love her.

  Most of the time, I like being a two-two. Now was one of those times. Mommy said she and Seth were not going to have a baby.

  But I had one more chance. I could ask Elizabeth to have a baby. Sometimes having two mothers comes in handy.

  Guess what Elizabeth said.

  No.

  She said, “I’m sorry, honey. Your father and I do not plan to have a baby. No more babies. We have enough children.”

  Baby Presents

  The next day was Saturday. As soon as I had eaten breakfast, Hannie came over. We like to get an early start on the day. (Sam saw Hannie and said, “Is she here already?” But we ignored him.)

  Since the weather was very cold and windy, Hannie and I decided to play in my room. We also decided to invite Nancy over for the day.

  “I have to call her house anywa
y,” I said. “I have to find out if the baby is here yet.”

  Hannie and I called Nancy from the kitchen. Mrs. Dawes answered the phone.

  “Hi,” I said. “It’s me, Karen…. It isn’t? Darn. Well, may I speak to Nancy, please?”

  An hour later, Hannie and Nancy and I were sitting on my bed. We were trying to think of something to do.

  “I know!” I cried. “Let’s make presents for Nancy’s baby.”

  “Yeah!” exclaimed Hannie.

  “But remember,” said Nancy. “We will have to give them to the baby after he is born. Or she,” she added.

  “I know. No baby things in your house until the baby has arrived safe and sound,” I said. “That is okay. If we wait we can give our presents to the baby in person. Anyway, it will probably take a long time to make presents.”

  “What could we make?” asked Hannie.

  “Oh, lots of things,” I told her. “We could make a mobile, or a picture to hang on the wall, or an alphabet book, or a decoration for the room.”

  “Cool! Let’s find your stuff,” said Nancy.

  Nancy meant our art materials. In both of my houses are boxes full of scraps of material, balls of yarn, tubes of glitter, stickers, crayons, paints, scissors, glue, old magazines, and more. We are allowed to use the materials to make whatever we want. We just have to be sure to work on newspapers and to clean up our messes.

  My friends and I moved into the playroom. We looked at the supplies.

  “I am going to make a mobile,” said Hannie. “To hang over the crib.”

  “I am going to make pictures of Mommy and Daddy and me,” said Nancy. “We can put them on the wall. That way the baby will know everyone in his family. Or her family.”

  “What are you going to make, Karen?” asked Hannie.

  “I have not decided yet. There are so many things. Let me see. I could knit something for the baby. A hat, maybe. Or a sweater. I know how to knit.”

  “Could you really knit a sweater?” asked Nancy.

  “Well, no,” I admitted. “But maybe I could knit a blanket. I made a scarf once. A blanket would just be like a bigger scarf.”

  Hannie and Nancy and I got to work. Hannie cut out squares of cardboard. She began to color designs on them. Nancy drew a picture of her mother. She drew it carefully. She used a pencil. (She erased a lot.)

  I found a pair of knitting needles and some red yarn. It took forever to knit one row. It took forever to knit the next row, too. By then, Hannie’s mobile was half finished. Nancy had begun drawing her father.

  “The baby will be ten years old by the time this blanket is done!” I exclaimed. “I better make something else.”

  I found some felt. I found some more yarn. I cut out pieces of felt and sewed them together. “Hey! This pouch is the perfect size to hold a bottle!” I said. “This could be a bottle-warmer.” After I made the bottle-warmer, I made a felt hat.

  After the felt hat, I was tired of making presents. So were Hannie and Nancy.

  We put the art supplies away. We cleaned up our mess. Then I telephoned Mrs. Dawes. “Is the baby here yet?” I asked.

  It wasn’t.

  The Baby-sitters Club

  Nancy and Hannie and I did not know what to do with ourselves. We were not exactly bored, but …

  “Kristy?” I said. Kristy was in her room. She was stretched out on her bed. She was reading a book. I think she was doing homework.

  “Yes?” Kristy looked up. Nancy and Hannie and I were standing in her doorway. “What are you guys doing?” she asked.

  “We aren’t sure,” I said. “What are you doing?”

  “My homework. I want to finish it early. I am having a sleepover tonight.”

  “You are? Where?”

  “Here. My friends in the Baby-sitters Club are coming over.”

  “Cool!” I cried. And then I got a great idea.

  I asked Daddy and Elizabeth if I could have a sleepover of my own. Maybe the Three Musketeers could have a party that night, too.

  “I suppose so,” said Daddy.

  “We might as well get everything over with at once,” said Elizabeth.

  That night the big house was bursting with people. Everyone was at home. Then the guests came. Hannie, Nancy, and Kristy’s friends — Mary Anne, Dawn, Stacey, Claudia, Mal, Jessi, and Shannon. (Shannon the person, not Shannon the dog.)

  “Karen,” said Daddy to my friends and me, “promise you will leave the big girls alone. Please do not pester them.”

  We promised.

  But guess what. The big girls let us come into Kristy’s room. They were putting on makeup and stuff. They looked like Lovely Ladies.

  “Nancy,” said Kristy, “when is your mom going to have the baby?”

  “Any second now,” I answered.

  “Soon,” answered Nancy.

  “What are you going to name the baby?” Mary Anne wanted to know.

  “She keeps changing her mind,” I said.

  “Marilyn or Mark,” said Nancy.

  “Have you ever taken care of a baby?” Claudia asked Nancy.

  “No, but I know all about babies.”

  “Really? Because we could give you some tips on babies and baby-sitting.”

  “You could?” I cried. “That would be great. I need baby tips. I mean, Nancy does. What do we have to know?”

  “Well,” said Jessi, “always test the milk before you give a baby a bottle. Make sure it is not too hot.”

  “I knew that,” said Nancy.

  But I did not. I decided to write it down. I might need to know it.

  “And never, ever leave a baby alone on the changing table,” said Stacey. “He might roll off. Never leave a baby alone in the bath, either.”

  “I knew that,” said Nancy.

  I wrote: Never leave a baby alone.

  “Remember to support the baby’s head when you pick him up,” said Dawn.

  “I knew that,” said Nancy.

  I wrote: Support the baby’s head.

  “Karen, why are you writing this stuff down?” asked Kristy. She was smiling. “Are you going to baby-sit for Nancy’s brother or sister?”

  I shrugged. “You never know.”

  “I do not think you are old enough to baby-sit.”

  “No, I guess not,” I replied. I stuffed the paper in my pocket. “Come on, let’s go,” I said to Hannie and Nancy. “We do not want to be pests.”

  My friends and I left the big kids alone.

  Karen’s Baby

  “Please pass the glue,” said Nancy.

  I passed her the glue.

  “Please pass the glitter,” she said.

  I passed her the glitter.

  “Please pass the … the …”

  “Nancy,” I said, “there is nothing left to pass you. Everything is at your end of the table. You are surrounded.”

  “Oh.”

  Hannie and Nancy and I giggled. When we had woken up that morning, the morning after the slumber party, we decided to work on our baby presents again. Daddy said Hannie and Nancy could stay until the afternoon.

  So my friends and I were busy in the playroom. Nancy was working on her portraits, Hannie was finishing her mobile, and I was starting another bottle-warmer. It was going to look just like the first one, except I would use different colors of felt and yarn.

  Suddenly Emily Michelle ran into the room. “I help!” she cried.

  “No, Emily!” I did not want Emily to help. She is too messy.

  Emily did not pay attention to me. She climbed onto a chair. She took the glue from Nancy. Then she turned the bottle upside down and squeezed.

  “Emily! Look what you did! Bad girl!” I scolded her.

  And Hannie exclaimed, “She just wrecked part of my mobile!”

  “Here,” I said. I sat Emily in my lap. I handed her some crayons. “Make a picture. Make your own picture,” I told her.

  “No-no!” Emily jumped up. She grabbed at a pile of felt scraps. She grabbed at
a box of markers. She grabbed at a stack of paper.

  “Em-i-lee!” I shrieked. “Now you are ruining everything. You are messing up all our piles. We just organized our stuff.”

  “Karen? Does she have to play with us?” asked Nancy.

  “No,” I replied. I left the table. I ran for Elizabeth. When I told her what Emily was doing, Elizabeth came into the playroom with me.

  “Okay, Miss Emily,” she said. She lifted her up. “Time to find something else to do. Come downstairs with me.”

  “No, no, no, no!” cried Emily as Elizabeth carried her to the steps.

  “Goodness,” said Nancy. “My baby will not behave like that.”

  My friends and I tried to work some more, but we could hear Emily shrieking around the house. “Let’s go to your house, Hannie,” I said.

  So we did.

  At Hannie’s house we decided to play jacks. Sari sat down with us. Sari is Hannie’s little sister. She swatted the jacks and sent them flying.

  “No!” cried Hannie.

  We decided to watch a video. Sari pressed all the buttons on the VCR.

  “No!” cried Hannie.

  “My baby will not behave like that,” said Nancy.

  “The new baby will be perfect,” I agreed.

  “You never know,” said Hannie.

  * * *

  That afternoon, Andrew and I returned to the little house. We ate supper with Mommy and Seth. Then I went to my room. I found a piece of paper. I began to make a list. I wrote: Darlene, Maria, Chantal, Rebecca, Hilary, Sue, Christine, Danielle. Then I made another list. I wrote: Henry, Timothy, Eric, Justin, Brad, Richard, Will. They were lists of names for my baby. Maybe, I thought, if I keep wishing for a baby, and if I plan for a baby, then I will get a baby brother or sister, just like Nancy.

  Sisters

  I was working on my bottle-warmer again. I had finished the second one. I had started a third at the little house. I could make them pretty fast now. So after school on Monday I was sitting in the playroom at Mommy’s. The art materials were spread in front of me. (They were on newspapers, of course. I never forget the newspapers.)

  “What are those?” Andrew wanted to know. He was standing next to me. He was peering at my project.