More Than a Number

When a baby is born, the people that aren’t at the birth get a phone call or an email telling them of the event. A typical email reads like this:

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our baby boy/girl, John/Jane Doe, at 9:31am. Baby Doe weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well.

So, what do you really know about this baby? Not much. If the family was quick enough, you received an attachment on the email of the red, squished up newborn wearing a hat obliterating your view of the hair color. The newborn’s eyes are probably closed or are squinting so much that you couldn’t tell the color if your life depended upon it. Sure, you may nicely say to the mom or dad, “Oh, he/she looks like you.” But, can you really tell that from a baby who has been completely crammed into the womb for 40 weeks?

Even me, blogging faithfully about Finwe have really only told you that he eats well, that he’s growing, and the physical accomplishments of the past three months. Do you really know anything of his personality? No. Do I?

Finally I can tell you something about Finwe’s personality. He is a people baby! With the exception of nighttime, Finwe loves people. Any person will do. If he’s fussing, any face near him will calm him. He smiles and coos. He responds this way to my children, T, Phill, the ladies at the gym childcare, the cashier at the grocery store, my neighbors; basically anyone who talks and smiles at him gets the same back. This is wonderful to me. Neither Inwe nor Larien were like this. Inwe was always most comfortable with Phill or with Pop Pop. Larien was comfortable with me, just a bit with Phill, and mostly okay with T. (T is the babysitter for those of you who forgot. The totally awesome, super wonderful T who has helped us out since she was 13. She’ll be 17 in February. Wah! She’ll graduate and move away one day! AAAAGH!) Finwe is okay with everyone as long as it is not near 8pm. He may not stay this way, but it sure is nice to have him like this now. And, I like being able to tell you a bit about his personality.