Hooray! I have taken my last final and DTS has let out for the summer. I have been pounding the keyboard for the last couple days, catching up on projects that have languished in my inbox for far too long. I talked to Melissa Dewey yesterday and she commented that things must have been busy during the semester because I didn’t post much on my blog.
Not having a television, it is hard to imagine where all our time has gone. However, throughout the day, this breathtaking little beauty comes crawling or cruising into the room insisting on attention. She is quite pleased to absorb every spare second we will give her. She is still a perfect little angel. Quite honestly, it is hard to be the least bit objective about her. After all, she is so much more cute and loveable than anything else.
When Jen and I are not working, Kayla enjoys keeping our keyboards from experiencing any loneliness.
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We also have a few games she enjoys playing. A favorite is peek-a-boo, which sounds a bit like pah-poo. We now have a number of words, including da-dee, ma-ma, uh-oh, and mmm. The later is just what you’d guess, “Yo, big people, how about sharing that food down here, eh?” Speaking of size, she has gone from 19″ (birth) to 25″ (6 mos) to 28″ as 11 months. It is good to see that all the food she eats is going somewhere other than into the Diaper Genie.
About a month ago she became highly mobile (crawling and cruising) so now she gets into everything. We like the toilet paper to stay on the rolls so the bathroom doors stay closed. We let her play in all the cupboards that don’t have glass or toxic cleaners in them. The cupboard doors used to have little pads on them to keep them from slamming. While unattented, she enjoys removing them, so now we don’t have a door left with them. They got in the way of, slam, slam, slam, which is far more fun than, dull thud, dull thud, dull thud.
When we are not otherwise occupied with Kayla, our work, or my homework, we learn how not to destroy Kayla’s chance of ever having a “normal” life. We have graduated from What To Expect When You’re Expecting to What To Expect: Your First Year. Now that Kayla is in her 11th month and the shelf of baby books is full, its time to step up a notch. I have started with with Making Children MIND without Losing YOURS by Kevin Leman. He’s the same guy that wrote Sex Begins in the Kitchen which is another book I enjoyed reading.
Kayla got a present in the mail today from Mike & Deb Surls. It was a small box which alone provided a good 25 minutes of entertainment.
The contents were a little more mysterious. Enclosed was a very cool Aerobie Superdisc (frisbee) which I suspect was for Jen and I. However, also enclosed is a package of blue washcloths and a blue receiving blanket. Our theory is that the blue items are the first gifts for Junior 2.0, and the Surls are rooting for a boy. I would like to have a boy and if we get one this time around I won’t have to twist Jen’s arm for number three. But if its a boy, then daddy gets the big snip snip. I am of two minds.
There is more news to post, but there’s also 173 emails and two inches worth of papers to finish dealing with.
I’m guessing I keep finding all this boy stuff for a reason.
But then again, a full quiver is a good blessing from God.
snip snip…hmmm
here’s my question, at what point on planet earth did the “snip snip” procedure become normal protocal. The thought of that is rediculous, and I realize the thought of having unplanned kids can’t be rough as well…
But come on, they didn’t do this back in the day when the procedure was not around, and they got by…of course they didn’t have dishwasher’s either…
i just dunno about that……
One of the most insightful things I have learned this last year is not to impose 20th century views on history. If you go back even a hundred years, you will find that the infant mortality rate was much higher than it is today. Today, only about 3 in 100 infants die in developing countries. A hundred years ago that figure was closer to 30. (UNICEF is a good source of info like this)
If you go back four or five hundred years into the middle ages, you’ll find that medieval people bred like rabbits. They would have as many as twenty children in the hopes that 2 or 3 would live to become adults. Preferably, one was male so that he could inherit the family land. Those that did survive childhood had a much lower life expectancy. Living to your fortieth year was longer than average and 50 was not common. There was little scientific knowledge in medieval times.
The discovery of bacteria and virii was also an incredible step forward in terms of enhancing human lifespans. The use of soap created a remarkable decrease in illness and child mortality. It helped protect us from the “evil spirits” that made us sick, which were really microscopic organisms. Also realize that until the 20th century, life for an infant was pretty dangerous. The mother had other children to watch, boiling pots on open fires (for laundry and food), no child safety gates or cribs, and no sealed bottles from gerber. When mom was working, the baby had to be nearby, even if that was outdoors with snakes and insects.
For a good idea of what life was like then, take a trip to sub-Saharan Africa (pretty much anywhere except S. Africa) and see first hand what life in the non-developed world is like. Homes are filled with children whose parents are already dead because they refused to believe that AIDS or virii in contaminated water is what was killing them. Failure to embrace science because of their tribal customs kills them by the million. Infant and child mortality is also endemic, mainly because of inadequate knowledge. They have no need for a snip snip because ignorance and lack of food and medicine kills them soon enough.
You and I are fortunate. We grew up with a vast body of scientific knowledge behind us. Our view of the world is colored by standing on the shoulders of the giants who proceeded us. Our doctors and the researchers creating the wonder drugs that keep us healthy and strong into our 70th and 80th years have increased the population of the planet not just by preventing death (infant and child mortality) but also by prolonging our lives. If our baby survives the first few months in the womb, it will almost certainly become a reasonably healthy adult that lives a good long life.