Friday, December 28, 2007

And His Name Shall Be Called Wonderful























I thoroughly enjoyed spending time playing with my six-month-old nephew, Drew, whom I met for the first time last week. My brother and family were in town for only three nights and left on Sunday, so it was a whirlwind visit of infantile cuteness.

While being around a baby (who incidentally contributed to a nasty cold I came down with) didn't totally cure me of my desire to procreate, it didn't necessarily intensify that slow-simmering desire either. Despite the fact that Drew was so charming and endearing, it also became obvious how parenthood would be more of a full-time, here-and-now, focus-thyself kind of "job" than I've ever really undertaken in my entire less-than-commited-or-responsible life. It may sound ridiculously naive of me to make such a simplistic, obvious pronouncement as "Wow, man, parenting is, like, biiig...", but I just don't spend a lot of time around people with small children, so I'm a little more clueless, ok?

It felt very appropriate when, a day or two before Christmas, I really listened for the first time to "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from Handel's Messiah. The music actually gave me chills, it was so beautiful (and really, I'm not strictly speaking a huge fan of choral music).

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
I hope everyone had and is having great holidays, in whatever form those may take.

4 comments:

Salty Miss Jill said...

What a perfectly lovely post, and what a cherub your nephew is!

Happy holidays to you, sweetness! I'm so happy to have met you this year. We WILL get together for that dinner party/food orgy one of these days!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoSMJ

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I had that same feeling when the Niece Audrey came upon the scene. As Edina once said, "You have think about somebody else all the time, darling!"

Your nephew is cute. Not as cute as my niece, but cute.

LadrĂ³n de Basura (a.k.a. Junk Thief) said...

I prefer being the eccentric uncle with both kids and dogs, enjoying them while they're cute and sweet and sending them back to their tenders when they start to scream, poop or act out. Fortunately my biological clock is digital so I don't have to listen to it tick and can just watch it flicker in the dark.

BigAssBelle said...

what a sweet little angel. i love babies!!!! i really love it when they go home with someone else :-)

it didn't necessarily intensify that slow-simmering desire either. Despite the fact that Drew was so charming and endearing, it also became obvious how parenthood would be more of a full-time, here-and-now, focus-thyself kind of "job" than I've ever really undertaken in my entire less-than-commited-or-responsible life.

it is an ENORMOUS job and one i've never had the urge to undertake. i am grateful, especially considering my incredible fertility (i keep my cotton tail tucked inside my pants at all times), that i never actually had a kid because i realized early on that i'm just not cut out for that kind of selfless day after day all the time unending sacrifice.

i've been called selfish by many women with kids over the years. i always figured it was a kind of jealousy.

reality is, from what i've seen in child welfare and juvenile parole, that few people are cut out for the unending sacrifice that good parenting requires, ergo the steady supply of people for therapists, AA, NA and the like.

it's lovely to be around little ones, though. my latest and last grandbaby is now 7 months old and what a precious little thing she is. the oldest is 10 and that's a shock. nothing like the rampant growth of children to make ya realize how quickly time passes. sigh.