Aching for Life

Recently I've been reading this fascinating and unexpectedly uplifting book - The Scientist in the Crib .  Fascinating because of the scientific studies of babies (and the ingenious and extremely dedicated ways in which they conduct experiments), and uplifting because every wonderful discovery about babies confirm again and again that our God is good and glorious and designed us to enjoy and reflect His goodness and glory. It echoes some of the thoughts I had written about earlier . So many baby books, especially the more old-fashioned ones, portray babies as oblivious and indiscriminating. Yet the authors of the book - preeminent child psychologists - show us that even newborn infants are highly discerning. Far more than black and white graphics or rattles or rotating toys, young babies prefer the human face, the human form, and can tell the difference between various emotional expressions and act accordingly.  And the most wonderful thing of all is that even the limita

Zeke at almost 5 months, reading Guess How Much I Love You with Ryan   My days are quiet now, since we've re-nested back in Palo Alto after a summer in LA and having friends visit from Hong Kong. Zeke, now five months old, has settled into a rhythm once again and is actually napping and sleeping at night in his own crib, in his own room.  Hallelujah.  There are moments when I miss holding him close to me bed, but then I am reminded that 95% of the time, we weren't really cuddling.  It was just me desperately trying to put him back to sleep and Z doing a horizontal river dance while nursing. We are both sleeping much better. I guess what I'll actually miss the most will be staring at his sleeping face - those mornings when (somehow!) I would wake up before Zeke, and Ryan would still be dozing in bed, and I would slip out and grab the camera and take pictures of both of them. My sleeping boys. I still sometimes watch Zeke as he sleeps, but now it's largely throug