Monday, August 4, 2008

Jaden Michael

Good friends Michelle and Brandon just had their first baby - Jaden Michael. He's 3 weeks old and well, quite perfect.
Lucky Auntie Lisa got a stellar smiley-shot!

This is going to sound odd I know - but just hear me out. As children, we humans find most everything to be amazing and mind-blowing and difficult to fathom, yet we gaze and ponder with wonderment. But as we grow up - things make more sense. The magnificence of many things fades away and we become, well frankly, a bit jaded. There are 2 exceptions to this rule for me personally. (Again, I reiterate: hear me out!)

~Animals ~Babies

I'm not kidding. When I went to the zoo as a child - the animals were cool. They reminded me of my picture books and I was good at reciting the sounds each one could make. But for some reason, as an adult - watching those fabulously powerful wild animals: hippos and lions and gorillas and giraffes - amazes me leaps and bounds over my impression as a kid. That I'm so close to them. That they are as fantastic as they are. That most of them could eat me or at least do considerable damage! Animals are far more incredible and amazing to me now that I'm an adult as compared to when I was a child.

Now we get to babies. As a child, I'd see a pregnant mother and knew a baby would come out soon enough and that was just cool and I couldn't wait to hold it. But as an adult - I'm completely and utterly mind-boggled that two humans can create another. That cells and DNA and molecular-magic happen to produce ANOTHER HUMAN. That DNA from 2 separate people combine to create another person and it grows inside someone's body. It just about blows my mind.

Especially when it happens to friends. And at our age - it's happening to more and more friends!!
Brandon, Mish and Jaden!

Instead of buying them more baby things that they probably don't really need - I always prefer to arrive bearing food instead of gear when meeting a newborn for the first time. New parents always need help feeding themselves!

So I slow cooked a pot roast all day, mixed up some Parmesan polenta and "marinated" broccoli salad the night before.
The "new parents" dinner - To Go
But my favorite part (and I think Jaden's too) was the pie. After Brandon sampled this strawberry-rhubarb pie and truly raved about it - I immediately knew what I wanted to make them for dessert when we came to visit the baby, who at that point, was over a month away. Anyone who makes fruit pies knows you must vent the top crust so that the bubbling, oozing, fruity-goodness can expel its steam. When I'm making a pie for a special occasion I try to theme the cut-outs. Maple leaves in the Fall, "A+A" for a dinner date with Amy & Al just before their wedding, stars on 4th of July...
"Jaden" for meeting Jaden...

Ahh babies. They are just so precious. And fun. And funny.

Right hook! ---- A piano prodigy already? ---- Bad ass Jaden, whuddup?

4 comments:

  1. I would imagine, that by some weird twist of fate you saw a giraffe charging your way, you would be concerned about it harming you. And I would also imagine, that without trying too hard, it could cause considerable damage to you. You are ever so much smaller than a giraffe, Lisa. Just cause they're herbivores doesn't mean they can't throw down!

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  2. Wow - you certainly read my posts!! Actually I had written "That most of them (perhaps not the giraffes) could eat me." until I started wondering if a gorilla would actually eat me and decided to change what I had written...without taking out the "perhaps not the giraffes" part. But by golly - since someone cares, I'll fix it!!

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  3. Gorillas are omnivores. They mostly eat fruits, leaves, stems, and shoots of plants, but they also eat insects. I suppose that a gorilla eating a person probably wouldn't happen, but I also would wager that given the right circumstances, one might be tempted to sample you. But they could rip your arms off and beat you with them without much trouble, that's for sure.

    And I totally get what you are saying about wild animals and creating babies, etc. Blows my mind, too. The baby part much more so now than when I was younger. Animals have pretty much always blown my mind.

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  4. thank, Lise! Yes, Jaden's fsvorite part was seing his nme in the ooey goey fruit goodness o your fabulous strawberry-rhubarb pie!! I think a close second was just seeing you guys and watching fun youtube videos -- maybe jaden csn meet mike's twin, uncle minh next!!! :)

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