Remember Elian?

Upon finding out that Big E had purchased a major home appliance using Belly as her only criterion, Ton Ton became very concerned. He had expressed some mild discomfort in the past, like when she told us to register for an extra playpen just for her, and the time he heard her talking to Uli about adding "Belly's wing" to her house. But this time, he was for real afraid. He even confessed to having nightmares in which he came home from work to find out Belly was staying at grandma's and visitation hours were over.

I reassured him that his concerns were legitimate, and suggested we have a family meeting where he could voice his opinion. I would set the whole thing up, and I would try my hardest not to laugh. I have a problem with inappropriate laughter.

When I told Big E that Ton Ton (and I) wanted to meet with her and Uli, she immediately said, "Why does your husband have a personal vendetta against me? What have I ever done to him?" Then she called my father to tell him they were being ambushed. Uli, the voice of reason, told her to calm down and reminded her of Elian Gonzalez and what happened when his extended relatives overstepped their boundaries. They agreed to the family meeting.

We sat around our living room and Ton Ton started. He spoke about how important it was for us to have grandparents involved in Belly's life, and how much we appreciated how excited they were...and that we just wanted to make sure they understood that Belly would live with us, and that we would be making the decisions about baby. I nodded my head in agreement, and held back chuckles. Uli then spoke and said that he agreed with us completely, and that they just wanted to help and would never want to take our place in Belly's life. Big E remained stoic.

Ton Ton prodded some more, hoping to elicit a satisfactory response from Big E. He talked about how he did not want Belly to witness confrontations between him and her, and how he wanted to get his feelings out in the open before baby, to avoid any future problems. Still no response from her. Uli reassured us everything would be alright.

As they were leaving, Big E asked me to give her more baby clothes to launder in her new special washer and dryer...