The post in which I get all mushy about a baby
By Gina Spadafori
November 11, 2009
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Babies don’t amuse me. At all. There, I said it.
I love kids. Favorite age range: 3-10. I could hang out with grade-school kids all day, every day. (I swear the reason I don’t teach or coach is not the kids, but the parents. Parents make me crazy.)
But babies? Yawn. I make the appropriate noises — “He has his mother’s nose!” “Oh, look at that spit bubble!” “Precious!” — but in fact kittens, puppies, foals are all a ton more interesting because their development is so much more rapid.
Human babies? Only slightly more interesting than heads of cabbage, unless said baby is your own. And even then, I’m not sure.
That said, I am a total sucker for pictures like the one above, which is our Dr. Becker’s finger in the grip of his granddaughter’s newborn hand. Such an image, evocative of both the promise of the future and the link to the past … well, it just gets to me, it does.
:::sniff::::
I’m pretty sure that sniffing reaction you’re experiencing, Gina, is a biological imperative.
I *loooove* babies as long as I can hand them back when they get dirty or noisy. I gather that only happens once in a while.
Comment by Phyllis DeGioia — November 11, 2009 @ 1:11 pm
Hmmm….Gina, we have soooo much in common!
Comment by Liz Palika — November 11, 2009 @ 1:38 pm
I love babies; especially the one in the picture, my granddaughter. She will have a life filled with animals which makes her even more special!!!
Comment by Joan Seda — November 11, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
Sad to say, I don’t love babies especially crying ones when I’m out and about. I tolerate dog barks better than babies crying. But the photo is sweet and the baby is sleeping - a good combination.
Nice to know the little sleeping child’s life will be filled with animals……a good start.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 11, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
That is a very touching and beautiful photo!
(But for me, give me the sweet smell of puppy breath any day of the week over the smell of baby powder.)
Congratulations to Dr. Becker! As Snoopy’s Friend said, so nice that the baby’s life will be filled with animals! Makes for a great childhood!
Comment by Bev — November 11, 2009 @ 2:26 pm
I had a rather disturbing encounter with a baby a while ago. Friends handed me their newborn, which I gingerly held. I made the same appropriate noises Gina mentions above, and then noticed my BF was hissing ‘cut it out!’ at me over the shoulders of the doting new parents.
After I’d shrugged at him, and rolled my eyes impatiently, he finally blurted out “Stop patting the damn baby on the head - it isn’t a puppy!”. I hadn’t even realized I was doing it, until he pointed it out.
Good thing I resisted the urge to ask them if they thought she was show quality.
I treated my own two kids the same way - there exists a photo of Nicole napping contentedly at a dog show inside a crate (hey, the door was open), and Ryan learned to walk holding onto the back of our Mastiff. It’s a sickness - my own mom once left me sleeping in a crate at the benched show at Westminster.
That said, yes - great photo :)
Comment by FrogDogz — November 11, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
Not a baby person, either, but gorgeous photos like that one are another matter.
Comment by Shelly — November 11, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
The hand knitted cap is the clincher.
Comment by Nancy Freedman-Smith CPDT — November 11, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
He finally blurted out “Stop patting the damn baby on the head - it isn’t a puppy!”. I hadn’t even realized I was doing it, until he pointed it out.
Comment by FrogDogz — November 11, 2009
Wait … you mean you AREN’T SUPPOSED to pet babies on the head like puppies? Really?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 11, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
Well, I had my own special connection with my granddaughter yesterday.
It was a first for me in that I saw her while talking to her—through my son’s netbook computer. She is in college and although I have seen her many times, I was able to experience for the first thrilling time talking and SEEING her and she did the same while she was is California and I was in Colorado.Wow-yyyyyyyyyyyy!
Babies are lovely—until they cry. A pat on the head is good. Could rub the ears a bit, don’t you think? Hmmmmmmm. :)
P.S. I was reluctant to write anything, but Gina knows I have a “big mouth” so she might allow this comment into the discussion, huh, Gina?
Comment by Colorado Transplant — November 11, 2009 @ 4:31 pm
Grandmas rule. Who am I to tell you what to do? :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 11, 2009 @ 4:35 pm
I’m not a grandmother but I’m sure when I am one I’ll be totally gaga over my grandchild, crying and all. Probably be music to my ears.
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 11, 2009 @ 4:44 pm
“Stop patting the damn baby on the head - it isn’t a puppy!”.
oh oh oh …thank you. FrogDogz, I needed that today! bwahahahahaha!
Comment by Phyllis DeGioia — November 11, 2009 @ 4:56 pm
To be honest, I did love my own kids—enormously—crying and all.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — November 11, 2009 @ 4:58 pm
Good thing I resisted the urge to ask them if they thought she was show quality.
***snort!!!***
Okay! YOU are coming over here to clean off my moniter!!!!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 11, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
Spay neuter your pets. That is all,
Comment by PBurns — November 11, 2009 @ 5:31 pm
What beautiful hands she has at such a young age… Future fingers of a veterinary surgeon?
Comment by anecdote — November 11, 2009 @ 6:18 pm
Utterly adorable picture. Almost makes me wish we had tried for a little girl to keep the boys in line. Almost!
Congratulations and Mazel Tov to Dr Becker and his family!
Comment by JenniferJ — November 11, 2009 @ 7:12 pm
For those of you who have trouble feeling mushy about the human babies, perhaps remembering that we’re all primates might help?
Comment by Dr. Narda — November 11, 2009 @ 8:37 pm
I’m with Phyllis; I like babies as long as I can hand them back when their diapers need to be changed. I even seem to have a soothing effect on them—that or they’re just scared quiet. I like other kids in the 8 to 12 range, and our 30-year-old horse-crazy niece is perfect now (well, she was pretty good at every age).
Comment by Kim Thornton — November 11, 2009 @ 8:56 pm
Horse-crazy nieces are the best. I highly recommend them, being blessed with one myself!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 12, 2009 @ 3:06 am
perhaps remembering that we’re all primates might help?
I read that, and my first thought was of those monkey babies people keep…*shudder*
Comment by FrogDogz — November 12, 2009 @ 6:54 am
I read that and thought “?????”?
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 12, 2009 @ 6:55 am
I was guessing Dr. Narda was thinking we thought baby monkeys were cute?
By the way, regarding the “petting” of babies vs. puppies. I mentioned this to a friend, and she said she always has to remind herself that you hold babies in a tummy-up position, not tummy-down like kittens and puppies.
I think she was kidding, but I’m not really sure … :)
In any case, this picture does make me smile. Of course, I do have the benefit of knowing the family personally, and knowing how over-the-moon they all are about this young miss can’t help but sway my own affection for her.
Seeing little Reagan Avelle also reminds me of how I felt when my niece was born. And since Kate is in her first year of college, it’s nice to remember how we all felt when SHE was the first grandchild/niece to a whole slew of doting relatives.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 12, 2009 @ 7:10 am
This photo is so endearing that when I woke up in the middle of the night I realized I was envisioning it. It’s just so sweet.
I have a very primal response to babies and simply melt - but being a non-human-parent, I never know what to do other than hold them and love them up. When they cry, I’m at a total loss about what is going on. Nonetheless, there are few things in this world equivalent to holding a sleeping newborn (two footed or four) in your arms.
Comment by Phyllis DeGioia — November 12, 2009 @ 7:15 am
Best of luck, Marty, Mikkel and little Reagan. That picture captures the moment so perfectly - thank you for sharing this with us.
I used to be in the not-too-crazy about babies camp myself - I thought they were damp and faintly rubbery.
…and then I had one. I would lay down my life for my son without hesitation now. We are also trying for another child - guess I have switched camps.
Hope Reagan gets to come home soon.
Comment by Dr. Tony Johnson — November 12, 2009 @ 8:22 am
Regarding my primate comment:
I was merely pointing out that we are animals as well, i.e., primates. Sometimes that helps me transfer the fondness I feel for non-human animals to the human variety.
Comment by Dr. Narda — November 12, 2009 @ 8:27 am
However, I think it’s okay to acknowledge that some people are meant to be parents, and some people are not. My own parents fell into that second category. But the societal pressures and unspoken assumptions that prevailed in their day led them to unquestioningly have a bunch of kids which they were woefully unprepared to take on the financial and emotional responsibility for.
I’d like to think that in this day and age it’s becoming more acceptable to say “You know, I really do think that only people who really love kids and want to have them should be having kids. Since I don’t particularly like kids, it would be much better for everyone - especially my potential offspring - if I don’t have any”. Whether or not that has changed for some people once they have gone through the experience is irrelevant. Not having children should be an acceptable choice, and respected as such.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 12, 2009 @ 8:41 am
Dr. Tony Johnson, my son was in the same camp, too. Not until he actually had his first did he like the babies.
Then, when he had his own, he became a great dad!
Best of Luck with the little one above, Mikel!
Comment by Colorado Transplant — November 12, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
Grandma has to brag:
My two granddaughters recently found a lost dog and called the owner to come and get the dog. No, they did not think of bringing the dog to the Humane Society.
They own two cats, no dogs, so I thought it was one of my proudest moments as a grandma!
Comment by Colorado Transplant — November 12, 2009 @ 5:07 pm
Not having children should be an acceptable choice, and respected as such.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 12, 2009 @ 8:41 am
That’s how it should be. But I, and many of my friends (all in our late 30s/early 40s), who are childless by choice, get criticized all the time. By family, friends, co-workers and relative strangers. I’ve been told I’m selfish for not having children, that a woman’s life isn’t complete if she doesn’t have children, that I’ll come to regret not having children, and other even less-complimentary things. And it’s even worse that I have a dog, of course, since that automatically means I’m one of those crazy animal people that treats animals like children (all evidence to the contrary).
I too like children, and adore those of family members and friends. But I don’t want any of my own. I just wish that that was accepted as a valid life choice!
Comment by K.B. — November 13, 2009 @ 9:45 am
I guess I just get tired of being told “You’ll change your mind when you have one of your own!”. Seems like a risky experiment (Will I change my mind once I’m a mother? What if I don’t?) with the child’s welfare at stake.
Furthermore, it sort of smacks of the whole “If she’s intact, you should breed her!” thing with dogs. If it’s okay not to bring more puppies into the world by breeding an intact purebred female (insert dog breed) just because she’s “capable of it” then it should be equally okay not to “breed” me!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 13, 2009 @ 10:31 am
Gina, you are a NUT. As in, insane. If you think the young of other species are more appealing than your own, you are an evolutionary loser. I bet you’d save a drowning kitten over a drowning infant. You are truly pathetic.
Comment by Sarah Larson — November 13, 2009 @ 7:31 pm
Yes, because your hater genes are so much more worth passing on. And your intolerance and desire to attack others for being happy is so much better an example to children than the nonjudgmental love they get in a home filled with pets.
“Sarah,” don’t you have anything better to do on a Friday night that post comment after comment after comment on how much you hate pet-lovers? (The first one was enough — I spiked the rest, since they were more of the same same same same same. Yawn.)
I was out with friends last night. You were posting pet-hate to a pet blog all evening.
Who’s truly pathetic? Not me, dearie.
“Sarah” = FAIL.
Buh-bye.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 14, 2009 @ 8:42 am
And thus, Sarah proves my point about those that think we who chose not to have children are somehow deficient. (And note the whole animal lover = human hater thing. I’m surprised she didn’t throw a reference to Hitler in there for the trifecta.)
She also proves a point about how nasty some can be, simply because someone else has made different life choices. Nice.
Comment by K.B. — November 14, 2009 @ 8:49 am
Thank heavens little Reagan Avelle doesn’t have a mother like Sarah. She’ll be raised in an extended family with love and tolerance for all. :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 14, 2009 @ 9:35 am
My mother and I were discussing the days before birth control. There wasn’t much “choice.” In fact that wasn’t even in most women’s vocabulary when it came to having children. We are so lucky to be able to assess our personalities and make our choices. I’m sure a lot of women had children without really wanting them. I love my children to depths of my being, but babies are hard work. Puppies are potty trained so much faster! I was never one to run across a room and ask if I could hold the baby. I’m still not. Some people are just not “baby” people.
I love the photo! Very sweet. Blessings and congrats on the newest member of the family. Sarah’s obviously not a “puppy” person. Too bad for her.
Comment by C.L.H. — November 14, 2009 @ 11:54 am
If I did not have Dr. Narda as by second-born, who could I have given the cat to that my husband objected to keeping?
Someday soon Dr. Narda will post to this blog, I assume. So babies could be a good blessing to some people that want them.
However, I understand that some women don’t want children and I am very comfortable with that.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — November 14, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
I am sitting on a post by the esteemed Dr. Narda, your second-born. It will go up on Monday morning. :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 14, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
Great!
See, it was worthwhile having her so I can read her post Monday.
Shame I cannot get my first-born to post or comment too, but he concentrates his attention on humans ills, so that eliminates that possibility.
Maybe I will teach my cats to make comments—no, I don’t think that would work, either. Ah, well————-! You have plenty of people to keep this blog at high speed—not to worry about additional additions, me thinks.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — November 14, 2009 @ 5:07 pm
In honor of Sarah and all the other trolls, a field guide! And a quiz for trolls too
http://www.cracked.com/funny-2724-trolls/
Comment by JenniferJ — November 14, 2009 @ 8:39 pm
Whoops, the troll guide is NSTW and contains some offensive terms and language. Sorry! I did not have access to the full post until right after I posted the link.
My bad. :(
Comment by JenniferJ — November 14, 2009 @ 8:45 pm
We’re getting a lot of pet-hate on this post from the bitter brain-dead twits who are not capable of understanding that it’s possible to care about more than one thing. Blah blah pet-lovers hate people, blah blah pets are stupid, blah blah.
Fortunately, the spam filter is grabbing Teh Hates and sending their comments to pre-oblivion. Unfortunately, the spam filter also seems to be grabbing other comments as well.
If you lose a comment, e-mail us and we’ll liberate it.
Unless you’re a pet-hating idiot, in which case, get a life. Or therapy. Or both.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 15, 2009 @ 6:36 pm
It was so wonderful to see Marty’s face when our little Reagan was born. This photo of his finger and Reagan’s meant so much to him. I believe it was in some way a symbol of how he is going to watch over her and guide her through life like he has our children Mikkel and Lex. Marty has been an exemplary father and I know he will be an even better Grandfather.
Loved your blog Gina! As you know our dogs have been number one in our house and now they will move over a little so Reagan has room. There is room in our hearts and lives for our dogs, our granddogs and our precious Eeagan to coexist. We love them all!
Mikkel was upset when people told her that her pugs would be left out or forgotten when the baby arrived. Not so! There is no limit to how much we can love, whether it is our own child or the pet that is in our lives.
By the way, Marty took over the job of walking Willy and Bruce, the two pugs of Mikkel and Pat’s while I helped Mikkel with our little Reagan. Marty did change some diapers too and of course held her as much as he could.
Comment by Teresa Becker — November 17, 2009 @ 10:59 am
As my Gram always said, “Love is not divisible. There is plenty to go around.”
Congratulations, Glam-ma!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 17, 2009 @ 11:47 am