Tonight we're going to go see "Hairspray," which is D's payback for going to see Harry Potter with me. My husband loves musicals, and I love science fiction/fantasy. Hurrah for gender reversals! I have to admit, Hairspray looks pretty good. And I loved Rent. I just feel uncomfortable with otherwise normal-looking people suddenly breaking into song in the middle of the day. D's theory is that, if societal norms allowed it, people would erupt into singing and dancing all the time. Isn't that sweet?
One of my friends calls Baby "the mermaid." I love that. Does anyone know any names in other languages that mean "mermaid?" This same friend, by the way, sent me a book of 5o THOUSAND baby names. This is a fabulous book, and it has sent D and me into a tailspin of uncertainty with respect to Baby's name. We thought we had it -- but now, eh, we're not totally sure . . . . In some ways, it's such a momentous decision that I am paralyzed; in other ways, I feel like whichever name we pick will simply be hers, and she will be so great that the name will be great no matter what it is.
There are a lot of Mexican construction workers employed around the neighborhood, finishing off the houses. Consequently, there is an enterprising woman in a food truck who drives around the area midday, offering what I assume amounts to Mexican home-cooking. Her truck is very recognizable, not least because she drives like a maniac, and the guys eat there every day; yet, she feels the need to blare a horn whose noise is so shrill, so protracted and so tuneless as to make me wish she were driving General Lee. Why, oh why? And how much longer will it be until the only cacophony in the neighborhood comes from the voices of playing children, family dogs and droning lawnmowers?
I hate the prospect of creating a baby registry. My beloveds are planning a shower, so I have to do it (or risk their wrath), and I know it makes things easier for everyone. I just hate "superstores," anything ending in "R Us" or "Depot" or whatever, and when we went to Buy Buy Baby to get Baby's crib ordered, I felt completely overwhelmed by the ceiling-high rows of crap designed to appear absolutely necessary to your baby's normal development, safety, or psychological well-being. It's much worse than the wedding registry. That stuff -- china, crystal, linens -- is stuff that you really want, and that you've lived with your whole adult life, formed opinions about. This stuff -- Diaper Champs, sleep sacks, unbelievably complicated arrays of strollers -- is stuff that makes me feel inadequate a priori; what do I know? I am taking my Baby Bargains book (thank you, Kristen!) and going to buy exactly what they tell me. Because I have no flipping clue. Even D, who has been there before, twice, is a little lost, because things in Babyland have changed so much since R was born just 4 years ago. What a racket!! It makes me want to do all organic cloth diapers, unpainted wooden toys and homemade baby food.
1 comment:
Hear hear. While we avoided cloth diapers (really -- the amount of chemicals required to get them clean and sterile again amounts to about as much toxic waste as disposables), we did do homemade baby food (yum!) and wood toys as much as was practical (which mostly means for son #1, and not so much for son #2).
As for baby names... well, doesn't 50,000 seem a little... overwhelming? We hemmed and hawed so much over son #2 (and further, we were convinced he was a she, so boy names got short shrift), and then in the end, when we saw him, the names just didn't fit, and so we went with something else (he has my father's middle name as his first name, and my father's first name as his middle name).
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