truly scrumptious

I forgot to mention before that I went in to weigh Isaac yesterday and he was 13 lb 10.5 oz, meaning he gained 15 oz in 12 days. Also, he is 25 inches long now. His schedule lately has been: wake up, eat, poop, get diaper changed, play, cry, eat, sleep, repeat. I guess all the eating is going somewhere. I just wasn't expecting quite that much weight gain.

Great Grandma was wondering if when Isaac folded his little hands across his chest the other night if he might be praying. I think that is quite possible. Isaac is such a good little guy.

Tonight we went out to Elmer's to eat, courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. It was good! Isaac was a little cranky though so we came home early. These other people were there with their baby and he was only one week younger than Isaac, but they were feeding him mashed potatoes! Um... guys... not supposed to do that yet. Anyways.

Also, I don't want to seem single-minded, - but hey, it's my blog about Isaac and therefore about baby things too- I always feel bad for some reason when I see other babies eating/drinking formula. I just feel sorry for them, even though I know sometimes people can't breastfeed for whatever reason. There's just something about breastfeeding that makes you feel like you are giving your baby the best possible start in life, and there is research to back this up. Breastfed babies have less ear infections, and less ear infections generally means less speech delays, and less speech delays helps out even into school age. So, props to those whobreastfeed your babies (I think you probably all do/did). That's what those things on your chest are for anyways. I remember reading that the breast is not mature until you are pregnant and it starts preparing for lactation. It's so obvious, but it had never occurred to me in that way. I guess our society views breasts differently than some other ones, although I'm sure there are many others that also think an exposed breast is really not cool. I personally don't feel like it's all that exposed when they latch on, but then again I can only see it from one angle. I think it's also something you might change your mind about once you have a baby, because I remember not being sure about mothers who breastfed in public before. Then again, not everyone does change their mind. I have also realized that recently, and now am pretty sure it depends on your cultural context. However, I also would give the evil eye to people whose babies would scream and cry or be loud in church and they wouldn't do anything about it. I was kind of a mean kid, I suppose. It is a little distracting, but also nice when everyone just ignores it and focuses on the Mass rather than on everything going on around them. Has anyone else ever gone to Spanish Mass? It always seems to me like the Hispanic community is extremely child-oriented. It's a very good way to be in my opinion. There are many child-friendly people around in general, but there are also a lot who aren't so child-friendly. Those people make me just a little sad, mostly if they are older than me. I can't say I've met too many of them since having Isaac though, so I feel pretty lucky.

I guess the reason I may think about some of these things differently than others is that I am no longer sure of my exact cultural context. I know I am European-American, and am influenced by that. However, our family is also decidedly African in some ways. Overall, we mix and match and make it up as we go. With your first child, I think everyone does that to some degree.

Alright, that's about all for tonight. Now I have to start writing a paper about apraxia, and it can't be about how it affects language/communication. Dangit. That would have been much more professionally relevant, but oh well, I guess we're supposed to branch out or something. Maybe it will help me stop getting apraxia and ataxia and dysarthria all mixed up in my head.