![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kids, don't try this at home
Mar. 12th, 2003 02:01 pmA week or two ago I was at Amazon trying to pad out my order to $25 so I could get free shipping. (Yeah, we all know that dangerous story, don't we?) I found a children's book in the bargain section that was only $5, and it had such a cute title I had to buy it.
It's called Benjamin McFadden and the Robot Babysitter, and it's about a little boy whose parents go off to Mars and leave him with a robot babysitter. It tries to make him go to bed, so he reprograms it to want to have fun instead. Needless to say, hijinx ensue. :) It's very Sorcerer's Apprentice. And so cute! With really funny illustrations. I can't wait to read it to chickpea and lecture him sternly on not trying that stuff with *his* babysitters. ;)
Every time chickpea kicks me I have to stop whatever I'm doing and put my hand there. When he's active and kicking a lot, I can feel it very strongly against my hand. I feel it and try to imagine what body part it was. I try to picture what kinds of gymnastics he's doing in there and what prompted it -- was it something I did or said, some noise or music that's audible to him, the position I'm sitting in, something I ate that is just now getting into his system? Or is he just awake and in the mood to wiggle around? What does he think about when he's whacking my insides with his little fists or feet, elbows or knees? When I feel his movements jerking against my hand it's amazing to me to think that these sensations are caused by a completely separate human being, already with his own personality and behavior separate from mine, but not yet autonomous, still fully dependent on me. I sit for ages with my hands under my clothes, just waiting for the next sign of movement, whether it's a tiny flutter easily mistaken for gastric rumblings or a definitive thump that couldn't possibly be anything else.
And then if someone happens to walk in, like a coworker, like just happened as I was composing the above, I have to yank my hands back out and try to look innocent. Hee! D'oh. ;)
It's called Benjamin McFadden and the Robot Babysitter, and it's about a little boy whose parents go off to Mars and leave him with a robot babysitter. It tries to make him go to bed, so he reprograms it to want to have fun instead. Needless to say, hijinx ensue. :) It's very Sorcerer's Apprentice. And so cute! With really funny illustrations. I can't wait to read it to chickpea and lecture him sternly on not trying that stuff with *his* babysitters. ;)
Every time chickpea kicks me I have to stop whatever I'm doing and put my hand there. When he's active and kicking a lot, I can feel it very strongly against my hand. I feel it and try to imagine what body part it was. I try to picture what kinds of gymnastics he's doing in there and what prompted it -- was it something I did or said, some noise or music that's audible to him, the position I'm sitting in, something I ate that is just now getting into his system? Or is he just awake and in the mood to wiggle around? What does he think about when he's whacking my insides with his little fists or feet, elbows or knees? When I feel his movements jerking against my hand it's amazing to me to think that these sensations are caused by a completely separate human being, already with his own personality and behavior separate from mine, but not yet autonomous, still fully dependent on me. I sit for ages with my hands under my clothes, just waiting for the next sign of movement, whether it's a tiny flutter easily mistaken for gastric rumblings or a definitive thump that couldn't possibly be anything else.
And then if someone happens to walk in, like a coworker, like just happened as I was composing the above, I have to yank my hands back out and try to look innocent. Hee! D'oh. ;)
