Current Ruminations

Lauren will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. She's smiling often and is even starting to laugh more frequently. My favorite daily moment is when she smiles at me when she first sees me - sometimes it's as late as at the end of the work day when I come home. When I see that first smile, a new interfusion of emotions surge - full of accomplishment, hope, inspiration, and responsibility. Having said that, I contemplate Lauren's future with both delight and apprehension.

Sparkles of an Exuberant Mind - 3 Comedies That Make Us Chuckle

1. MARATHON MOVIE - When she's awake, it takes us 4 hours to watch a 2 hour movie. We watched Babel last night on DVD and with having to feed her, pay attention to her, and change her diapers, we often have to pause and/or rewind. Four hours later, we had almost forgotten who was even in the movie. We now watch DVDs with the English captions on - it helps us retain what's transpiring, even when it says, "(Man coughs)".

2. BLOW OUTS - Lauren's bowel movements have taken on a new importance. About one of every ten poops has her blowing out the side or back of her diaper. We use and will continue to stand by our brand of choice, Pampers Swaddlers 1, but given the blast patterns of some of her recent bombs, we may need a more secure device. We can't have her blowing out on any more people (upcoming blog entry from Lorraine). Remember the Gap Band's "You Dropped the Bomb on Me"?

3. OUR LI'L SAUSAGE - We're hoping that Lauren continues to exemplify the "plump and stretch" dynamic of rapidly growing infants - fatten up and then slim down as you "go long". As you probably have noticed in her recent pictures, she's become quite the butterball. She's always been "long" so her outfits fit her head to toe in length but left a lot of room across the width. Well, she's been filling out her width and many of her recently cute outfits now look like sausage casings on her. I'm mean, like spandex. When you can tell whether she has an "in-ie" or an "out-ie" bellybutton, it may be time to move up to the next size.

Confessions of a Worried Mind - 3 Distresses I Hope Will Improve for Lauren

1. THE STATE OF AMERICAN POLITICS AND POLICY - Today, we ordinary citizens sit on the sidelines of American politics and watch the unfolding tragedy of an imploding presidency. The majority of the world despises many of America's core values and doesn't appreciate the hubris in acting unilaterally and subjectively. May Lauren never have to live in anything like the past six years again, ever.

2. GLOBAL WARMING - Watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was a huge wake up call. In what state are we prepared to hand over the world that our children will inherit? I say that Al lets Hillary and Barack continue to beat each other up and sneak in at the end of the Democratic race with his new cool hipness. Gore in '08, yo.

3. QUALITY OF INTELLIGENT WORLD NEWS - Over the past couple of weeks, I noticed that "Britney gone wild" and "Anna Nicole body court battle" led the news broadcasts and splashed on front pages. Even my beloved The Economist featured Ms Smith's obituary (I've convinced myself it's The Economist proving they have a sense of humor). *Sigh*

Desite all of our fears, one look and smile from our little bean makes the world good again...