Look at me… the jumbo lamby-kins on the right. I have that lovely Doris Day vaseline-on-the-lens glow, don’t I?
Ignore the little dude with the four teeth and fresh green apple.
Yeah, okay… he IS a hunky punkin. Waddever. His greatest asset, as far as I can figure it out, is that he generally has some leftover yummy organic something or other out in plain sight on his person.
Can I have a lick?
Because I think I’d like apple juice, if someone would just give me a chance.
TOES! Such beautiful tootsies, and sometimes one discovers a morsel or two tucked away there, too. I think he stashes them for a snack later in the day, just in case.
In addition to being tasty, the kid’s an okay dancer.
You just have to get him started, and before you can holler “Buddha Baby!”…
… he’s hokey-pokeying like Michael Jackson himself.
I do enjoy his company, though. My size sometimes intimidates old ladies and little kids, but this one has some street mojo going on. He knows a serious “bring it!” attitude can compensate for a lot of weight difference.
Plus, he’s got a wooden train piece, and he’s not afraid to use it.
This is a lot easier to pull off, of course, when you have reliable air cover.
Ha! Did you see that? I scooped the vanilla yogurt puff crumb right offa there in the millisecond she was pulling his sleeve up.
Frankly, I can’t taste the difference between the organic and the conventional ones, myself.
In truth, he’s as much interested in my body parts as I am in his.
This is understandable.
I have very beautiful body parts.
I’ve heard it said that Payback’s a bitch. I had always understood it as commentary about some dog’s mother.
I have a different take on it now.
Well, here’s another thought to tuck into your little daily blue bag of happiness:
“He who licks last licks longest.”
It’s just that when one gazes for even a few moments at a newborn like Noah, you’re witness to a range of facial expressions so rich in meaning for us older human beans, it’s tempting to ascribe to a five-day old whipper a whole human lifetime of rich experience and deep emotional response.
For instance, even in his sleep, he manages to look like an empathetic listener with years worth of social worker training. I think the double chin also adds to his air of quiet dignity and maturity, don’t you?
And seriously, who likes to get up on a Monday morning?
Sometimes, though, he looks just like a newborn baby trying to keep his eyeballs lined up straight and thinking through what it’s gonna take to get that first knuckle of his fist into his mouth without accidentally punching himself in the nose.
One whiff of a gas pain later, and… Poof! He morphs into a zaftig matron standing in front of the bakery counter, debating between the croissants and the butter tarts.
Ooooohhhh… they all look so good! Which to choose?!
Maybe they’re just pucker-up exercises for when he’s going to need those expressions for real, like his first bite of fresh lemon, or first attempt at whistling “The Flight of the Bumblee Bee.”
The wiki-style literature on the subject will tell you that these facial expressions are “accidental,” or “practice,” or “subcortical in origin.” However, the heavy-hitter multi-syllabic research studies on the subject may say otherwise. (Or they may not. I have no idea what the researchers found out. This is seriously the most dense language on the subject of baby smiles one can imagine. Even though it is clearly in English words I have in my active vocabulary, I can’t even understand the title of the paper. Go ahead… I dare ya.)
In any case, one second later, you watch as he gets those eyeballs in sync, and the irises adjust to the light, and the focus rings line up, and …
… Hey! Hi there!! Can I TELL you how happy I am to be in your arms, Mum?
Maybe the whole interaction it isn’t about “baby smile practice” at all. Maybe babies are God’s way of getting us big dudes to practice OUR smiles so we’re pleasant right from the start with our 24 x 7 hip adornments, and once we put the baby down, nicer with each other.
We’ve been talking a lot about babies here lately, and about what it’s like to go from being just your family, to being just you, to being somebody’s parent.
We’ve been talking a lot about Kate, too.
We’ve talked about how transparent and open and vulnerable she can be…
… and how focused and creative she is…
… and how you can see the Love of Heaven in her eyes.
Always could.
She’s a really hard worker and doesn’t quit until the task is done, yet she ALWAYS takes time for what–and who–is important…
… who is everybody.
EVERY BODY.
She is a beautiful woman.
Always has been…
… and now that she’s just days (hours?) away from having a baby of her own to talk about…
Woohoo! rickandkathy.com turns 150 posts old today!
Forget about number of page views, subscribers, bounce rate, or any other supposedly revealing social media ROI metric.
We now have 150 separate memory-jogging gems on topics that we’ve experienced, thought, seen, sung, played, endured, painted, cooked, eaten, and photographed in the past 16 months. It’s a permanent record of what we’ve wondered about, chuckled over, or railed against, together. And it’s a wonderful record of how we’ve grown as individuals, as a couple, and as even as a community of returning readers who are gradually getting to know one another through the comments you leave behind. We’ve learned in new ways how to collaborate on a joint project that combines our collective writing, photographic, painting, web, and social-media savvy skills. The exciting part is that it leaves room for our individual styles while resulting in a single, consistent voice. Now that‘s a return on investment worth getting excited about!
So, in celebration of having hung in there this long and all the lessons we’ve learned along the way, we thought we’d share with y’all a few of our own favorite blogs.
This is a blog I discovered this week that went straight to the Top Ten on the hit parade, with a bullet.
Okay, so we were a little late to the party known as Zen Habits, and they had run out of the cocktail sausages by the time we got there. However, there is still some excellent chill-out refreshment, thought-provoking ideas, and interesting experiments in human interaction available for late arrivals.
In his own words:
It also happens to be one of the Top 100 blogs in the world, with about 190K readers, is uncopyrighted, and goes well with anything chocolate. Zen Habits features three powerful articles a week on: simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment.
And it’s all ad-free, with no cookies, Flash or spam.
I love that last line. What would that have even meant a generation ago? But I also love what it means about Lou’s take on blogging: it’s as simple and accessible and innovative as is his approach to life.
Loved her.
Then wanted to pinch her head.
And now I’m back to appreciating much about Ree Drummond, aka “The Pioneer Woman.”
The pinching thing was just part of my own growing pains as a blogger. She makes it seems so dang easy and fun, and the worst part, daily. Curses! As a blogger role model, she sets an impossibly high bar for frequency, quality, and the ferocious loyalty and rush to comment of her millions of readers.
However, as a first-person writer and fabulous photographer, she’s predictably humorous, sweet yet authentic, and blissfully uncontentious. There’s no bellyaching or political debate, but rather a guaranteed ray of daily sunshine. And some days, it’s great to know where to go to get a little.
Penelope Trunk has Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism where the person has a high IQ and virtually no social filters, and writes a blog that self-describes as “advice at the intersection of work and life.”
The result is writing that is breathtakingly, even shockingly, honest. For that reason alone, it’s incredibly interesting to read her perspectives on life and career. She writes exactly as she sees things. Ironically, her “disability” enables her to approach her craft with an authenticity that eludes most of the rest of us. Trust me: you’ve never read anybody who writes like this.
Three random titles of her posts should about sum up my fascination with her:
Dushka Zapata is Penelope Trunk without the Asperger’s.
Kate is the Martha Stewart/Mother Theresa incarnation of The Pioneer Woman, but without the budget or babies.
Yet.
No matter how many great blogs we come across, though, this one remains our favorite.
Having our blog frames the happenings, vignettes, and vistas of our days as precious elements in the story of us that’s unfolding. It motivates us to capture and preserve what’s important, hilarious, beautiful, or delightful in our life together. And it gives us a vehicle to share those moments with family, friends, and welcomed strangers who wander in through the side gate to our garden party.
