The Day of the Iguana by Henry Winkler

we thought she laid eggs in it,” Ashley said.
    â€œTurns out, she laid them somewhere else,” Emily said.
    â€œWe just don’t know where,” Frankie added.
    â€œNow we do.” It was Tom, bent over the potted palm tree next to the front door of our apartment. “Here they are!”
    We all bolted over to take a look. A clump of soft brownish eggs was half buried in the dirt around the tree. There weren’t forty-five of them, but there were a lot.
    â€œLook, Dad,” I whispered. “Katherine’s babies.”
    â€œHank, if you think this is going to get you out of the hot water you’re in, you have a lot to learn, young man.”
    â€œExcuse me, sir,” whispered Tom. “The first one is being born. Maybe you’d like to watch.”
    We gathered around. It was truly unbelievable. A tiny iguana was chewing his way out one of the eggs. We saw his snout first and then out popped his little face. He blinked and looked around. He seemed to be looking right at me. I couldn’t believe that I was the first face he ever saw.
    â€œHi, little guy,” I said. He was so cute. He was more than cute. He was spectacular.
    â€œThis is a miracle,” Emily said. She had tears in her eyes.
    We all did. Even me.

CHAPTER 24

SIX THINGS I TOLD MY DAD YOU SHOULDN’T TALK ABOUT DURING THE MIRACLE OF IGUANA BIRTH
    1. Cable boxes or anything having to do with them.
    2. Punishments, or anything having to do with them.
    3. Anything having to do with anything other than iguana birth.
    4.
    5.
    6.
    You know what? I can’t concentrate on this list right now. There are baby iguanas being born as I write this. It is so exciting, I don’t even understand why you’re reading this list. Trust me. Hurry up and skip to the next chapter.

CHAPTER 25
    KATHERINE LAID TWENTY-THREE eggs in all. We sat around in a semicircle that we made with our dining room chairs and watched as nineteen iguanas hatched that night. Nineteen tiny little lizards poking their snouts into the world. I wish you could have been there.
    I guess the last four weren’t in such a hurry to come into the world. They must have been so comfortable inside their eggs. All warm and snuggly. Maybe their cable boxes were working, and they were just waiting for their favorite show to end.
    My mom came home from the deli in time to see all but the first two being born. She wanted to name every single one of them Spencer, which is what she wanted to name me before I was born only my dad wouldn’t let her. She invited Tom to stay for dinner. It turns out he’s not only an iggie expert but also a vegetarian who really loved her cauliflower casserole with mock tuna. It’s a good thing he ate it, because the rest of us were looking for a place to toss it. Even Cheerio turned up his nose at it.
    My dad did take me into my room for “the talk,” in between when Dexter and Barbara were born. He told me that I was going to have to pay back everyone for the cable box, but he didn’t ground me. He went easy on me because although I made a mistake, I did it in the name of science.
    Ashley, Frankie, and Robert had to go home after the first nineteen were born. It was almost midnight, and we had school the next day. My dad went to bed too, and took Emily’s guide book on Raising Your Iguana with him. I don’t know why he was reading it now—we had already given birth to nineteen healthy reptiles. What more did you need to know?
    Emily had fallen asleep in my mom’s lap. Maybe it was the miracle of birth that was making me feel all gooey, but she looked very sweet.
    Tom and I sat by the potted palm tree. We just watched in silence for a while as one of the four remaining eggs started to roll around a little.
    â€œHere comes another one,” Tom said. “Shouldn’t be long now.”
    â€œShould I wake Emily up?”
    â€œLet her sleep,” whispered my mom. I guess once