Baby Comes Back

It’s tempting to get into the details about baby’s trip to California and Hawaii, but instead let me say that she was the most even-tempered member of the large clan she visited and traveled with, and that strangers sang her praises everywhere she went. “What a good baby” was the most common compliment she received. When we walked through first class boarding our flight home to Rhode Island a woman in one of the big seats said, “She is the cutest baby I have seen in a long time – I was watching her before we got on the plane.”

It would be untoward to be proud receiving these kind words, but it would be false humility to act as though they mean nothing. One thing they confirm, to my mind, is that baby is thriving in the environment of attachment parenting that her mom and I have chosen for her.

By the way, her second word (and first confirmed by any witnesses other than myself) came out at LAX just after sunrise Monday morning. “Mama,” second syllable strongly accented, erupted from our darling’s mouth, despite a nearly complete lack of any coaching. Mama was too excited to let it sink all the way in, but she will.