It was a beautiful, sunny day today, and I’d already finished my worst chore of the day, so I thought we could run out to playground. Noah could do some swinging, and I would get a bit of a walk with my ipod on the way there and back. He really loves the swings, and we play all kinds of games where we high five as he comes near, or I tickle him as he gets close, or we sing There was a baby on a swing, and Noah was his name-o. So he’s grinning and squeaking, and looking adorable in his little hat.
swinging
Then this older lady who was trying to gather up the two kids she was with (grandkids?) came by, and she says, “At least he isn’t crying.” What? All I said to her was that Noah loves swinging, but I can’t stop wondering what would bring such a negative comment out of her. Does she think babies are usually crying? Or that I was talking to him so much because I thought he was on the verge of tears? Or does she recognize me from around town sometime when Noah was crying? I think Noah cries a lot less than some babies- we take him out to restaurants or to people’s houses, or hikes that he hates, and there’s almost never a problem. But why would any baby cry at the playground with their mommy? He’s a good kid, and she’s mysteriously pessimistic, and I should just leave it at that.
Our other playground news was that on Monday, Noah saw his friend Sam drinking from a bottle. Then Sam’s mom let Noah play with the bottle. So that afternoon when we got home, he just up and drank from a bottle. After refusing to, and fighting me for months until I gave up on bottles altogether. Peer pressure! He’s had one more since then, and I think on Monday I’ll bring a bottle to the playground so that Noah can have it when he sees another baby having one.
Variableclouds 
Eileen said,
September 25, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Noah needs a sippy cup! That’s how all the cool big kids drink 😉
Jennifer said,
September 27, 2009 at 6:51 am
In my experience, most of the time when people talk to strangers in the park, they’re talking about what’s on their mind, which may only be tangentially related to their current surroundings. She was probably thinking about kids in general, or the ones she was with, when she said that… I doubt she was making any real comment on Noah, and probably didn’t even mean it to be negative.
Of course, the only way to test this would be to run onto her repeatedly at the park, and sometimes make Noah cry in her presence, and observe her reaction…
Also, the bottle thing makes me giggle. Noah’s conformist tendencies are such a contrast to his usual determination.
Jennifer said,
September 28, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Oh, and I forgot to ask – what is the worst chore of the day? I’m guessing washing diapers…
variableclouds said,
September 29, 2009 at 9:20 pm
it was fixing the toilet. It was pretty easy, but the tank looked all gross on the inside, so I didn’t want to do it.