Kick It.

On the recent occasions that I have encountered Baby Laura I've noticed that she spends a great deal of time kicking and squirming. At first I thought she was uncomfortable or displeased about something, but after a while it became apparent that kicking and squirming is what she does. It then dawned on me that she's most likely doing this as a means of developing her muscles in order to use her limbs to walk, hold things, point, eat food, etc.

In short, this baby is training herself to become a functioning human being. No one told her to do this. She probably doesn't even really understand what she's doing, but she's working constantly none the less to become one of us. Her body and brain naturally just develop in order to transform this bundle of helplessness into one of us.

Doesn't that just totally freak you out!?

It freaks me out every day. The knowledge that one day my niece; who is currently immobile and speechless, will one day be someone like me: a complex being full of ideas, problems and aspirations going through some sort of existential crisis. Sitting in an apartment writing a blog post at 2 in the morning panicking about her own niece and what it all means.

If this is how I feel as an Uncle, I can't even begin to imagine how Father B and Baby B's Mom and anyone else who has ever brought a child into this world feels.

Keep kicking Baby Laura. Learn to talk. Then you can tell me.