ahhhh, these babies...

I don't understand people who aren't obsessed with their children. I am, I admit it. How can you not love these teeny, tiny humans who even as infants have their own personalities and odd quirks, and as they grow become more and more individualized... and they came from your body. Made from your blood and eggs and the endless spicy mexican dinners that you ate during the nine month gestation period. Its remarkable, really.

My husband has a friend who just had a vasectomy. He is 28, unmarried. He does have a girlfriend, and he stood there with her, a week after the procedure, telling us how free he feels now. Do I REALLY see the wistfullness in his girlfriends eyes, or is it just my astonishment that someone would decidedly turn against procreation? She tells us that she has dogs, she doesn't need children. In the way that people who have dogs and not children do. "Oh they are my babies, I can't live without those little fur babies!!" And I stand there, all knowing. Knowing that they have no idea. He asks us "I hope you don't think I am odd?" "Of course not!" My husband proclaims. "Much better to know that you don't want them and take care of it now, than to have them and regret it forever." Maybe thats true. But I think he is odd. I can't help it.

But my daughter is so funny. One of the funniest people I know. Grownups included. Just a few moments ago, I was on the floor wiping up the bananas that the baby threw down. (want to talk about quirky!! That kid is one, and will not eat a banana slice that is not completely round. He throws the half circles that I made in my haste to get his snack on the table right on the floor, only eating perfectly round, yellow, unbruised banana.) My husband walks through, head high as husbands do, not noticing the floor at all and steps on a chunk of unrounded banana. "OH GEEZ!!" he proclaims, as if he has stepped in poop, and sticks his foot out at me, the washcloth woman. I look at him, and said "I am cleaning the floor! Go wipe your own foot!!" and my daughter, quietly drawing, pipes up "Yeah, dad. What are you, two??"

My son is chubby, soft and sweet. He rarely says "mama" or even "byebye". His favorite word is "HI". All day long, its "HI!! HI!!! HI!!!!" Walk out of the room to get a drink and walk back in, and he is waving frantically, "HI!!!" as if he has not seen you in a week. I like to think this is going to be a permanent part of his personality. Embracing what is coming, not worrying about what was left behind.

Aren't hellos always better than goodbyes, anyway?