We took our mandatory tour of the maternity ward First Touch Birth Center at the Northfield Hospital today. Though warned, in a deeply ironic way, not to bring kids, we brought Julia anyhow. She was a model citizen the whole time, except for that one point where she demanded (unsuccessfully) to be permitted to eat a raisin she's dropped on the floor, just a few feet from a laboring bed where countless pints of god-knows-what had been spilled. The tour was interesting and useful, though largely only in a "the main desk is right here; the rooms look like this" way. More than anything else, I was struck by how much the whole hospital, including the immaculate maternity ward, resembled a nice mid-range hotel. It'll be especially odd for me to be coming and going during Shannon's stay - bringing Julia back and forth, going home to take care of things, bringing large Heath Bar Blizzards to the patient, etc. In contrast, Julia's own delivery was a decidedly stationary event.
Julia took in all of the waiting and watching and walking around the ward with her usual aplomb. On the way home, though, she asked pipsqueakingly from the back seat, "Where's Baby Sister?" She clearly thought that the visit would entail taking care of that whole thing where "Mama getting bigger, bigger, bigger!" Not yet, kid.