Parenting: a Collection of Venn Diagrams
November 15th, 2012 by PotatoThe world was a new, scary place, divided at first into mommy and not-mommy. She just wanted to be swaddled and held, and to sleep the whole thing away.
Then she stared to get used to the world, and found it was kind of a neat place she could explore. She recognized certain snuggly people who weren’t mommy, but also nice. She smiled.
One day something clicked in her brain, and the world suddenly lost its scariness. It was an exciting and wonderful place, full of things she could put in her mouth. Plus, she had just figured out how to use her hands, things she could use to bring other things to her mouth to chew on and tongue. And when nothing else was around, she could put her hands in her mouth on their own!
She is now coming to the realization that the world is full of things she can’t put in her mouth. There are those that her mean parents won’t let her chew on, and also those that are physically impossible to place in her mouth for interrogation by her tongue. Indeed, I think the reason she hasn’t learned to crawl yet is that she spends the time on her face trying to find a way to eat the floor — and gets frustrated when it refuses to go in her mouth.
Wayfare thinks that right purple part should be a much much smaller sliver, if it’s showing at all. The set of everything in the world should perhaps completely intersect the set of things she wants to put in her mouth. “Have you actually found anything she didn’t want to put in her mouth yet? There may be something, but I haven’t found it yet. This morning she tried to put the following new things into her mouth: another little kid, the library carpet, and some man’s shoe. Turns out that Blueberry has the same reaction to other little kids as she does to the cat: A lot of arm flailing with her mouth wide open as she tried to lunge mouth first at the child.”
November 15th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Tooo funny! Well done. :)
November 15th, 2012 at 11:40 am
How old is your daughter now? The time when they are babies are so fleeting that you miss it later. If only babies weren’t so much work, parents would enjoy them more!
November 15th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
Thanks JP :)
She’s 7 months old now and the time is flying! It is a lot of work, but I think we’re enjoying it plenty!