What I'm thinking about today

I find it very surprising that after 10 years, there is still a ridiculous amount of media attention on the JonBenet Ramsey case. And was there really someone who devoted the past 10 years to finding the killer? Wow. If only there was nearly that much effort put into the other 7-800 child homicides that occur every year. Other than the obvious (JonBenet's race, socioeconomic status and her cuteness), was there a reason why her death deserved that much more attention? With all the new developments about the JonBenet's case, I am reminded of the horrific murder that occurred almost 10 years ago and how grave my responsibility is to protect my children. There are vicious predators out there everywhere preying on weaker, innocent, vulnerable little children. When psychologists want to get to the root of adults' psychoses they ask about an individual's childhood, because that is when we form the basis for how we look at the world and our relationship to it. Each child is so fragile and so precious.

Last weekend we visited a good friend from church who just had her second child, Naomi. We have all stages of families at our church: single and available, married without kids, married with one, married with 2, married with 3 and soon, married with 4. It's just a matter of time before the number of members IN diapers outnumber those who are potty trained (including us adults).

Anyway, I find it relieving to watch experienced moms nurture their second/third/etc.. child. You see, once we've experimented on our first child and stopped obsessing over every little change/development/ Academy of Pediatrics recommendation, raising another baby becomes almost second-nature. There's less stress, less second-guessing, less anxiety and just more enjoyment. On the other hand, it's also sad because so much effort and thought was put into deliberately planning every decision of our firstborn's life. And then with our subsequent kids we're constantly cutting corners and taking shortcuts. They get leftover clothes, leftover names (we all have a name picked out for our firstborns), leftover toys, and even leftover time (the 10 minutes left after picking up and dropping off our firstborns at school, ballet class, swimming, etc.., and running errands). I'm already so relaxed and unstructured as it is, I fear that were I to have another child, s/he would come out with a name like Reef (after my favorite flip flops), run with scissors and register for the Green party. Anyway, I had a momentary lapse again after holding baby Naomi, but I assure you, there will be no more babies coming out of me.