Thursday, June 30, 2005

another thing to which i had previously thought myself immune


(Sunday AM, left to right: niece, great niece, clown finger puppet, me)


(Sunday PM, left to right: Johnny, me, University of Iowa 'Tiger Hawk' emblem)

The lifecourse reckoning of my sentiments toward the pitter-patter of little humanoid feet:



Somewhere along the way, infants stopped seeming like this oddly-shaped fleshy burden and started being fun. I still don't really understand it.

14 comments:

dorotha said...

that's pretty disturbing.

dorotha said...

wait... i don't understand what your desire is being measured in. is that a percentage? so you are 60% "interested" in having a kid? what does that mean?

Ang said...

Yeah, they're especially fun when they're barfing all over you and won't stop crying.

jeremy said...

Dorotha: It's not a percentage. It's a Bayesian thing.

Ang: The noise has always been one of the things that have made me thought children are For Other People. I don't like noise, and it seems that children make it.

dorotha said...

oh. hippie stats.

Tonya said...

I always thought I'd have 3-4 children and even married someone who wanted the same thing. We ended up with just one child and in many ways I am relieved. When I spend time with friends in 2 or 3 kids, I find myself overwhelmed by the noise and activity level. If you have only one child, it greatly cuts down on the noise problem because there's no sibling for them to fight with. Also, not all noise is equal. I don't like the noise that OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN make, but I don't mind the noise my son makes. Final point -- if anyone ever gives your child a toy that makes noise, you must get rid of it immediately. If it makes noise and lights up, you should blow it up on the spot.

Anonymous said...

You see Tonya, that's where you simply either, 1) save the toy to give to their children, or 2) buy and even bigger, louder, flashier toy for their children as a form of revenge.

(forgive me, still in a haze of having had my nephew overnight, due to an emergency. First time in 10 years I've had that small a baby overnight...)
-jnsys

Anonymous said...

children are a joy even at their noisiest...what else gives you the license to act as a "child" and not seem weird or immature? they allow us to stay young in spirit and in mind.

Anonymous said...

I see a small spike at around age 14. What was that about?

BTW, both babies are cute, but the grandniece is a gorgeous child. Great genes!

Tom Bozzo said...

Keeping our house free of electronic noise-making toys has been one of our top parenting priorities. One or two items, I'll admit, have been made to disappear. Usually, though, simply removing or declining to supply the batteries is sufficient. The kids seem happy enough to supply their own noises, which are far less annoying as long as they aren't whining. (Pace Tonya, listening to my own whining toddler is not clearly less annoying than listening to someone else's whining toddler, though that may be a matter of intensity versus duration of annoyance.)

goesh said...

That is a wonderful picture. I really think it is a child's joy of discovery and learning about things that makes adults feel so young themselves. They are so spontaneous and open to learning and mastering.

jeremy said...

I've bought my grandniece various noisy toys, which is especially interesting since I wouldn't want them for a child of my own. But, they seem so much more flashy than mere stuffed animals, and what's the point of being the wacky greatuncle if you aren't going to be flashy about it.

Ann Althouse said...

Jeremy, why are you so three-year-increment-y about your life?

Corrie said...

RE: "Dorotha: It's not a percentage. It's a Bayesian thing."

WTF? I don't remember nothing about unit-free scaling having anything to do with Bayesian statistics. It has been a few years, though.