You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy!
New parents and their new babies.
That first smile. That first crawl. That first projectile vomit.
It’s so fresh, so unique, baby has that new car smell. And new parents can’t lap it up fast enough.
Look at the baby she’s gumming her biscuit. Look at the baby she’s holding that rattle by herself. Look at the baby, she’s breathing autonomously.
Thanksgiving brings families together and invariably, someone has a brand new baby.
I love brand new babies. They usually smell clean and fresh. They are cute and cuddly and you want to blow fart noises on their tiny clean stomachs just to hear them laugh.
When you look in a tiny tykes eyes, the world is pure and the human race full of fresh possibilities.
A new baby energizes a room with love and simplicity and hope.
But baby-vets are not newbies. They are battle tested tough. they’ve changed a thousand diapers and suctioned baby snot out of a tiny nostril.
Veterans of the birth are immune to the new baby luster. We have danced the developmental jig with a nod of the head and reassuring smile. We have seen the roll, the crawl, the gleam in the eye before.
Like the obscure and often hidden Yanamamo Indians in the Brazilian Rain Forest, birth veterans strap the newest member of the tribe on their back, in a palm leaf papoose, and soldier on. We swing through the trees while chasing monkeys with poison darts. We are veterans! We don’t get caught up in cute when there is a job to perform.
Any baby after the first baby is a wee bit less exciting, a tad less stellar, a little bit less jaw dropping.
Baby one gets a thousand pictures. Baby 2 gets 250 pictures and a gift certificate to Rooms to Go. Baby three gets a 8 x 10 glossy and a promissory note to go on a Carnival Cruise on his or her 10th birthday.
Some would say the luster is off the pumpkin by baby 3.
By the 3rd baby, it’s OK to eat yogurt out of the dog’s dish. With the 3rd baby, the 5-second-rule is always applicable. With baby number three, parent teacher meetings can be missed because of Monday Night Football.
Veterans of the birth are like a momma polar bear pushing its cub into the ice flow. She loves her baby bear, but it’s time to hunt and get on with the task at hand. Veterans of the birth are this momma bear. They move forward in the developmental child game with quiet satisfaction. Like the Russian wheat farmer, worn by the wind and tired by a life of plowing icy hard dirt, the birth veteran is proud and quiet and realize a child rolling over is a milestone that should be celebrated with quiet mental applause. It is a wonderous thing, like a perfectly formed rudabega emerging through the dung.
We veterans of the birth rarely squeal or cheer or clap. A 9 month old sitting up is hardly a night at Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus.
But to the new parent, a child rolling over is a meteorite shower on a summer night. It is explosive and exciting and sure to prompt shrills of delight.
Did you see that?
Can you believe it?
Do it again.
New parents are renewed and hopeful and excited by the tiniest, almost imperceptible character trait. I love watching these new parents as they discover the world through their child’s eyes.
Get the camera, they constantly chirp.
Flash. CLICK. Flash. CLICK. Flash.
Hundreds of pictures that all sort of look the same to normal people. But to new parents, shot 687 looks amazingly different than shot 688.
“Look, her eyes are open. Look she’s breathing so quietly. Look she’s sticking her tongue out. Look she’s staring at the ceiling. That’s awesome.”
I am excited to see their enthusiasm. It reminds me that excited parents are good parents.
Seeing these young parents makes me want to look at child 3 and re energize. Maybe blazee isn’t acceptable. Maybe so what doesn’t cut it. Though I’ve seen this developmental stage before, new parent enthusiasm reminds me that each child is a unique human with its own direction.
Veteran parents can learn from the new parents.
So thanks for bringing your new baby to the Thanksgiving Feast new parents. It made me stop and think and inhale the uniqueness of each child.
And that is crazy.