Babies

Four lives starting out in four different continents kept us laughing and sighing as we saw how different and how similar early lives unfold. This documentary has no commentary, just subtle music and thoughtfully placed image cuts. We had just been to the perinatal clinic for a 20 week ultrasound of our baby. The nausea of the beginning and the kicks of recent weeks have all made it real to me that we're having a baby, but somehow seeing the profile of our little one really brings it home. We're having a baby!

Ryan had the rest of the day off, but it was pouring rain, and we were not up to the entertaining and playing referee required to spend the afternoon at home. Never having seen a movie as a family (except an IMAX at the museum), and already having babies on the mind, we went back to our driveway to catch a signal and find movie times, Babies being everyone's choice. Dietrich liked tucking his legs into the seats and nearly folding up. Elliott would have liked to help in the reel room, but settled into his seat, too. After a few questionable previews (ah ... but this is a PG movie, why the R previews?) we peeked into the lives of four families as they adjusted to life with a new baby. One family spent nearly no time indoors. Two mothers worked and sat and nursed side by side with their little ones as they played with whatever was near them. Two other families navigated city streets, walk-up and high-rise apartments, mommy-and-me yoga and music class. Their babies played with books, toys, and their parents' gadgets. The fourth family lived in a yurt where baby learned from (and handled the taunting of) his brother while his parents took care of cattle. All the babies experienced their worlds and mastered what they could. They learned to explore and eat and eventually, triumphantly, walk. The differences in sense of time and space could not have been more diverse between the families, particularly between the babies in the city and the ones in the rural areas.

After several minutes of the baby in Namibia, playing with the rocks while his mommy wove, the next frame goes to a baby playing with her daddy on the floor. But in the background is her mommy, resting on a couch, reading a book, "Becoming the Parent you Want to Be." I have read my share of books like this, to be sure. And there is always going to be part of me that wants to be a calmer, more energetic, more creative parent. But watching how the babies who grew up without books and classes and parents reading about being better parents became just as curious about the world as the babies who were read to made it all seem pretty silly. So here's to living in the outside world, watching our babies grow up, and enjoying them.