by Cathy
I loooove babies.
They coo and goo and gah and smell delicious. Yes, they also pooh and spit up and scream and fart and yell and are a blubbery mushy mess. But when those babies are able to control some of those bodily functions and can sit up by themselves and become aware of the people around them - that is when they get to be the most fun.
I'm fortunate to have the option of being around not one but TWO babies these days. One is the little girl of my sister, my one and only niece. The other is the baby boy of my daughter's dance instructor. I say that I am fortunate because some baby-loving people aren't always lucky enough to personally know someone who has a baby they can sit comfortably with and hold and play with and spend some quality time with. For this, I feel fortunate.
One day as we were sitting at the dance studio passing around that little baby boy like a hot, smoochable potato between all the moms who are gushing over it and clearly, getting their baby fix on, the baby's dad brings a blanket and lays him down on it in the hopes of getting him to go to sleep. (Yeah, in a room full of baby-lovin' moms, good luck with that buddy.) But even HE got carried away with the baby's cuteness as he huddled over that slobbering, mushy pile of heaven on all fours babbling baby words and throwing big, teethy smiles his way. (Again, way to get him to get some shut eye, dad.) As he did his little daddy show, the baby looked him squarely in the face and acknowledged his dad's efforts by returning an ear-to-ear grin with every word and smile. And with such a smile came a chorus of "Awwwww" from the gaggle of moms watching and longing.
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| How does this... |
Then one of those moms quickly brought us back to reality.
"Remember how easy that was? I remember when they used to smile at every little thing you said and did. Now, all I get is an eye roll."
All of us let out a collective YESSSS!! Riiight???
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| ...turn into this?!? |
What happened between the smile years and the eye roll years? Their friends? The Disney Channel? What could make these sweet, gullible, innocent little creatures turn into annoyed, attitude-riddled beings? Why can't they just smile when they are spoken to or when asked to do something like they did when they were little? Why CAN'T it be THAT EASY??
I think it was Phyllis Diller who was credited with some variation of the following genius line:
"We spend twelve months trying to get our kids to walk and talk and the rest of their lives telling them to sit down and shut up."
Now if we could just get them to keep that smile from turning into a look that is the visual equivalent of listening to nails on a chalkboard - THAT would be a parenting accomplishment that even Phyllis Diller wouldn't scoff at.
