Be My Little Baby

Being a baby isn’t all wonderful. Sure, you get to sleep and eat whenever you want while everybody makes a fuss, but you are dependent on other people for absolutely everything. No, thanks! Adding to our family ten years after I thought it was done got me thinking about what babies mean to a family dynamic. And considering pregnancy at forty takes an eternity, I had a lot of time to do that thinking. Since I am the oldest child by only fourteen months, I do not remember getting a sibling for the first time. I do remember the birth of my other brothers and, once I got over the fact that they weren’t girls, remember really loving that they arrived. I grew up in a religious tradition teeming with babies, and I feel fortunate to have spent so much time with new humans. So, babies are a part of my story, but I didn’t know how one would factor into my childrens’ stories. After all, I already had one child living on her own, one child almost driving, and one child who had spent a decade being the baby herself. Who throws a new baby into the mix?! But throw we did--and she has been our world ever since. As a tiny person, she gravitated to Gyo Fujikawa’s Babies, and still loves it. I think Scarlett’s favorite part is the illustration of the big brother holding the little baby. She has a “bruver” and he loves his baby, too.

http://www.amazon.com/Babies-So-Tall-Board-Books/dp/0448030845

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyo_Fujikawa