I have a new niece!

I am happy to announce that my brother’s wife gave birth to a baby girl on June 12 by Cesarean/cesarian/caesarean section.

My only other niece is my sister’s 13-year old first born. I went to the hospital on Wednesday to visit them.

What do I get them as practical gifts? I felt it would be shameful somehow to go empty handed.

Words alone are not enough sometimes. I went to two shops but could find only very expensive or trivial items.

One shop had a manicure set for babies, toilet seats for toddlers, and one-piece jumpers. The other had baby shoes and other clothing priced in the several thousands!

Then, as I moved along the street in search of appropriate gifts to fit my pocket book, a sales assistant in a nearby shop came out asking if she could make some suggestions about what I wanted to buy.

Like an angel, she guided me through the purchase of liquid antiseptic/disinfectant and a pack of diapers for my niece, an energy drink and a pack each of powdered milk and chocolate for the recuperating mother.

That exceeded my budget, of course, but I was happy with the reception the gifts received from my brother, his wife, and her mother.

In fact, the week-old baby could not stop smiling at her uncle, it seemed, as she popped her limpid pools open on and off to look at me as I carried her while she slept.

There is nothing quite like hospitalization under health insurance except under a corporate account - private room, free food, free childbirth, free surgery, free medication.....

They were both discharged yesterday after my niece got her ears pierced – two days ago - and after she had received her oral polio and BCG vaccinations.

My daughter’s immunization card had no definition for BCG; so I had to look it up in Webster’s dictionary off line.

BCG actually stands for bacillus Calmette-Guérin or simply the tuberculosis vaccine. It was named after the French physicians Calmette and Guérin, who developed it in the 19^th century.

I have made it a tradition to buy something for my children each time that I spend on other children. This time would be no different.

So, as a small “thank you” for the shop assistant’s help, I also bought many things and gifts for my children to use after school.