05.29.2010
Happy birthday to a new baby born yesterday to our friends! I wish the new family much love, joy and wonderful memories. I can't wait to meet the little munchkin in the coming months.
05.16.2010
Went to Disneyland today with my sister to celebrate her birthday and I was astounded at how many newborns were brought to the park. Not just that, but there were a number of pregnant women there too. I guess an argument can be that when you’re pregnant you can’t stop living your life, but I don’t understand the newborn thing. In either scenario, you, the adult, are paying full price to get into the park. And it’s not cheap. Plus, someone doesn’t get to go on the rides because someone has to stay with the baby. So you’re ostensibly paying $72 to babysit your own kid. Couldn’t you do something else as a family that wouldn’t cost so much money? I can’t imagine going to Disneyland as a family until our kid is old enough to appreciate it (meaning, old enough to take in the wonder and “magic” of the place. A newborn sleeps, eats, and craps). This isn't necessarily a criticism cause, hell, it's not my money. People are completely entitled to spend their money and their time however they see fit. But I will say this, though. I was kinda glad I didn’t have to deal with a tired child at the end of the night. Getting out of the car and collapsing into my bed was about as much as I could handle. And knowing that moments like that where I’m taking care of just myself are maybe drawing to a close, I relished every second of it.
04.11.2010
We went out to dinner tonight with some friends and in the restaurant was a young family with a newborn. I’m terrible at guessing children’s ages and I often play this game with myself where I try to guess the age of the child and then seeing if I’m correct by either asking the parent for the age or trying to overhear any conversation involving the child’s age.
I guessed that this baby was about 2 months and eventually, as predicted, another guest asked how old he was and the mom answered that he was 2 ½ months. Score one for me! I was acutely observing the parents and tried to see any behavior differences between mother and father. Granted, I acknowledge that this might seem incredibly odd and maybe slightly scary that I observe people so much, but it’s what I do. It’s how I assess my environment and make decisions as to what I would or would not do or what I do and do not like. I’ve always been like this. There didn’t seem anything out of the ordinary with the parents and, I have to admit, the little boy was cute.
As the parents were getting ready to leave, I watched the mom put the baby into his carrier and I caught a glimpse of what the little boy was wearing and it got me thinking about how much money it takes to have a baby.
I recently had a conversation with a friend who’s expecting her first baby this year and we agreed that, in the first year, it’s not really that expensive because so many people get you stuff in that year – especially if it’s the first child – and that there just aren’t that many expenses.
But, the glance at the clothes and the carrier got me thinking otherwise. Sure, you get a lot of stuff at the baby shower…but what about after that? Don’t babies grow super fast? I mean, I have told Rob numerous times that I would love to have our future child/ren run around naked and shoeless for the first 5 years of their life. We’d save so much money! But I’m reminded that society wouldn’t really approve of that. Plus, kids’ clothes are so darn cute. Expensive, but cute.
The kids’ market (clothes, toys, furniture, etc.) has it made. I wish I had design talent to come up with something fancy and/or catching and useful to sell cause you’re (almost) guaranteed to make it. Aren’t I arguing against the very thing I wrote about a few entries ago about teens and the market place? Sigh…as I’m currently unemployed, thinking about a successful business venture sure sounds good to me right about now.
03.19.2010
Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been clipping different comic strips that I find hilarious (especially political ones). One of my all-time favorite comic strips is Baby Blues. I was digging through some memorabilia from my high school days and came across this one and I wanted to share it. I’m usually very good about writing dates down but, for some reason, I didn’t for this particular clipping. Looking at it closely, though, it looks like it was printed in 1991 and it comes from the Los Angeles Times. Back when that paper was super awesome.
Enjoy!
