Once my baby hit the ripe old age of three months, the mysterious and unpredictable malady of teething was all of a sudden a convenient yet viable diagnosis for any abnormal and/or unpleasant behavior. Excessive drooling, refusal to eat, runny nose, first-thing-in-the-morning fussiness, mid-day fussiness, evening fussiness, middle-of-the night fussiness … you get the idea.

So for three months now, we’ve been using this handy, catch-all excuse to visitors or family members whenever she seems the slightest bit undesirable to hang out with. “Oh, she must be teething,” we’ll say as she whines and squirms in Grandpa’s arms. “Poor thing.” [more]

To anyone who doesn't understand why we need newspapers, an article in last Sunday's Washington Post Magazine may make you reconsider. In it, Gene Weingarten looked at some tragic cases of parents forgetting their infant children in the car, with fatal results. [more]

In one of my classes last week, we talked about the concept of universal truths--known also as absolute truths--and about the need human beings have for each other. An absolute truth, by the way, is an unalterable and permanent fact, and we all have different understandings of what absolute truths are in our own lives. In my class we talked about how humans need connections, and that it's impossible for a person to exist in isolation and flourish and survive. [more]

Yesterday afternoon I held a week-and-a-half-old baby for a long while, marveling at his tiny fingers and feet, and the way his hair lay in flat wisps across his scalp. I held him tentatively at first, then with more certainty, and watched his body twitch the way newborns do when they are fast asleep. I held him, and I held my breath, too, worried about what I would feel.

Earlier in the afternoon, Scott had called on the way home from a tennis match. He proposed a quick visit to my sister-in-law's later that afternoon to see the new baby. [more]

I was sorting through some bins of old clothes recently, in an attempt to do some summer cleaning. I had already made a big run-through of the bins a few months ago, but there were still a good many clothes to sort through, and I wanted to pass some along to our neighbors across the street. I have mixed feelings about sorting through baby clothes and toys. When I was pregnant with T., a local friend dropped two bins of clothing off at our doorstep one day, and her daughter was barely two. [more]