Affection for Babies

This might sound odd, but I was kind of worried to see Ellie and Matthew in New York. My concern was, now that Abby was around, that maybe I’d feel a weird loyalty or something like that to Abby that causes me to care about her to the exclusion of other kids. You know, before, Ellie was like being a parent by proxy. Now that that’s not there, what it would be like?

Happily, I found I felt as much affection for Ellie as ever, although the nature of it is different now. And I find myself strangely protective of Matthew. Weird word to use, but that’s the emotion. I kind of want to popularize giving him the nickname Squirmy, since that’s exactly what he is, but I don’t think my sister likes it. (SN. Have you ever thought about, if you and your friends all had G.I. Joe type callnames, what they would be? Wouldn’t that kind of be an interesting exercise?) Anyway, yeah, much love, if not more.

In fact, for me at least, having a kid has made me more affectionate of other kids in general. I’ve actually picked up the bad habit of kissing babies that aren’t my own. It’s just so hard to resist. I got the OK from Elbert for Emelia and Ben for Jonah, but I think they think it’s kind of odd. Like, Ben said OK, but his face said “OK… wierdo.” I should stop.