Time to Contemplate.


Now that the furniture is finished and the kitty adventure is over I find myself back to a more relaxed schedule. It’s a good thing, too. It took Penny and me 2 days to recover from the trip to Jacksonville and Gainesville. Here on the third day I am doing some catch up on the front yard landscaping that I ignored while finishing up the crib. I’ve made a long “To Do” list of things I have to accomplish – but except for some hurricane preparedness stuff nothing has a deadline. We are, of course, keeping an eye on Jacksonville awaiting Karen and Tim’s baby.

I’ve also been thinking about Karen’s pregnancy and life in general. We are now seeing our daughters moving through their adult lives doing things that we have done. It is a sort of passing the torch to the next generation. Just seeing Karen pregnant evokes so many different feelings in me – love, concern, happiness, wonder… I’m fortunate in that Karen expresses her thoughts and feelings so well in her blog. At least I know how she feels about it.

Just for fun I did an internet search on quotes about babies. So here is, for Karen, an exploration of what a new baby does to your life through quotes and experience.

Knowing what the final weeks of pregnancy is like you can gain some perspective from Irma Bombeck:

“If I had my life to live over, instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished ever moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle. “

Many baby quotes are appropriately full of hope and wonder.

“A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for"

”A baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race”. ~Barbara Christine Seifert


“If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.”- Vincent van Gogh


“A woman can learn a lot from holding a new baby. It is life beginning again—sweet possibilities! No problem in the world is big enough to be remembered.”
- Susan McOmber


Of course, everything has it’s down side.


"Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it." ~ Marshall McLuhan


"Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare." ~ Ed Asner

"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit." - Bill Cosby

“Now the thing about having a baby - and I can't be the first person to have noticed this - is that thereafter you have it.” - Jean Kerr


But there is a great deal of satisfaction, too.


"Getting a burp out of your little thing is probably the greatest satisfaction I've come across. It's truly one of life's most satisfying moments." - Brad Pitt


"Babies are always more trouble than you thought - and more wonderful." ~Charles Osgood


Your world will never be the same.


"Children reinvent your world for you." - Susan Sarandon

But you have to admit:

“ Babies are such a nice way to start people.” ~Don Herrold

There are quotes like this from a parent’s point of view:

"It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't." ~Barbara Kingsolver


Unlike the quotes Penny and I found about marriage the overriding sentiments in baby quotes are positive. A new baby just fills the world with joy and hope.

So, Karen, I end with one last quote:


"If your baby's "beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time," you're the grandma." ~ Theresa Bloomingdale