Perspective
I guess it’s really true that the second child gets short shrift. That’s already happened in numerous ways, from lack of documenting every single detail of the pregnancy to lack of pictures of every single expression she makes.
Here’s a small sample of things that never would have happened with Erik.
1) I never would have left him unbuckled in his bouncy seat, EVER. Thus I never would have walked in and found him face flat on the floor. How does a newborn flip out of a bouncy seat?
2) I never would have let him cry without checking on him for more than 15 seconds. Thus I would have found him, face flat on the floor, a lot sooner.
3) I never would have forgotten his blankie. Thus I never would have had to wrap him up in a dishtowel at a MOMS Club potluck.
And that’s about all I’ve got tonight.
I’m the new editor of our MOMS Club newsletter and am quickly re-learning the number one lesson that three years of editing Mosaic Minds taught me. People will never meet deadlines. And the Mosaic Minds people wanted to be writerly. How am I ever going to get the new board members to give me their two paragraph biographies? They were due yesterday. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but I keenly remember the other lesson of Mosaic Minds–get the writing in front of as many eyes as possible before publishing. There will be stupid typos and errors no matter how many great editors look it over. I am not working with a bunch of writers on this project, so I really need to get it out early to the other board members and beg them to look it over for reals instead of just saying “looks great!”
Did you guys hear the scare about sun screen? It causes cancer or something? Will someone research that and get back to me? I just hear rumors and don’t really have time to look it up myself. I have been *gasp* cleaning and organizing my house while the baby sleeps. I am not the best housekeeper by any stretch of the imagination, but lately I’ve got a hankering to have things put in drawers instead of in piles all over my house. I don’t want to end up being a hoarder. Not that I would. I am ruthless about giving this away on freecycle, but we still have too much stuff. Or maybe we just don’t have enough room? One of these years I’ll have my dream McMansion and we’ll have so much room I won’t have to have piles. Except? I know that the more room we have, the more junk I collect.
Speaking of getting rid of stuff, my mom took all Erik’s old 3T and 4T clothes back to Oregon. I was sort of torn about giving them to my sister since I know she things Erik dresses like a dork and I figured she wouldn’t use them. I guess she doesn’t have quite the same fashion sense when it comes to her step-grandson.
My mom confused me yesterday by referring to the “four kids.” It turns out that my sister’s step-son dropped his 3 year old off two weeks ago and hasn’t been back for him. My sister has been in contact with the mother of the kid and she said she might “drop by to say hi.” Uhhhh. So they just abandoned their little boy with my sister? She shouldn’t even have custody of her three kids because she can’t take care of herself! Granted, her house is a much safer environment than their place, but that’s not saying much. It makes me so angry that these people are able to reproduce and give their children such shitty lives when I know so many people who desperately want children and would make fantastic parents. Reason number one why I can’t believe in God any more. No God I want to believe in would do that to innocent children and the people who would take good care of the innocent children.
Isn’t that just a cheery note?
Speaking of not believing, I find that aggressive atheists are just as annoying as aggressive religious people. I guess it’s the first time I’ve ever encountered aggressive atheists. I don’t like to be told what to think by any one, even if I agree with the sentiments. Why can’t every body just believe what they want to believe, as long as they don’t hurt other people? Of course, that’s a big part of the problem. People can’t just let others be. They have to try to control the world to make it fit their own moral code.
I can’t even control a four year old, so how am I going to control the world’s moral code?