Babies Inc.

I can still hear my mother saying, "Karen has loved babies ever since she was a baby." My sister, the neonatal nurse practitioner, knew she wanted to go into neonatology since she was in the second grade. People would ask me as I was approaching the end of high school "what do you want to do?" After I would shrug "I don't know," my sister, approaching the end of elementary school, would pipe up, " I am going to be a neonatologist."
There is a reason I chose to teach middle school. What do you do with a baby? I can't discuss To Kill A Mockingbird or "Thank you M'am" with a baby or ask him what he thought of that NPR segment on the history of the banana. What do you do with a baby? With three babies?


Enter Rachael: Rachael, Summer, and Seth came to visit us for Presidents' Day weekend. Rachael and my sister are similar in that Rachael has always loved babies and young children too. She has been teaching nursery school since she was in first grade, I believe. She gave me new activities to try with the babies. For that I am grateful, but not as grateful as the babies. I constantly read and sing with them. We play body part and color and alphabet games; we even have puppet shows. However, I have been getting the feeling lately that they are growing rather bored with me. They sometimes look at me with eyes that seem to be saying "Spice it up, Mama." So, now that Rachael has come, we now have bouncing games, object permanence amusements, and lots of tummy time fun. We even made a batch of baby food to freeze until the babies start solids next month--butternut squash. Yum.


Of course, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with Seth and Summer too. We have missed seeing our good friends. We had lots of good discussion and fellowship, as we always do. Summer and Rachael were both kind in fielding many of our questions about what is coming next in the baby development world. We even managed to discuss a little literature and politics.
Seth is a great baby. He has a head of wild hair and a sweet disposition. It was nice to have another baby in the mix. We were even witness to Seth cutting his first tooth.

Come back soon, friends.

Photos: The top photo is of Summer and H with Seth and Lucia after our walk to the barn. The middle one is of Rachael who seems to have worn poor Mazie completely out. The bottom photo is of Elliott and Seth hanging out in the Bumbo chairs.