Banning Baby Bandwagon

I'm pretty sure at least 15 people I know have announced in the past week that they(/their significant other) are pregnant, or have announced what the gender of their coming baby is, or have actually had the baby. Add another week or two before that and the numbers increase. I'm pretty sure at least a 1/3 of my facebook friends(/their significant others) are either pregnant or just had a baby.

I can't post this on facebook because then my family will jump on it and assume I am pregnant and I'm not in the mood to combat all that. (And yes, that means I am not pregnant)

The point is, why on earth did everyone have to make it a bandwagon? I hate bandwagons.
Okay, not really, I just hate it when something I want to do becomes a bandwagon. Because I hate jumping on bandwagons. It takes all the fun out of it. Not that I have to be original -- I just don't want to be just like everyone else.

Except really...having a baby is no fad. I know I'm being silly. Anyone who falls into the category determined in the first paragraph would tell me that the third paragraph has nothing to do with them. And it doesn't, really. No one intended to all get together and have babies this year. (At least I hope not.)

But if John and I decide to never have children, I'm still blaming it on the sudden abnormal increase of baby-ness in my acquaintances lately.

Silk Puppy

Dirty Toes

I apologize if the following picture makes you puke. 

It just makes me happy. 

To me, this is the epitome of childhood.

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. 

Shoes are an encumbrance to the joys of running and playing. 

They were the first things rid of when I came home.

What is structure and protection when you can feel the cool of freshly watered grass

or the squish of mud

or the softness of new carpet?

Then again, children don't think about all that.

Perhaps I should stop romanticizing and just admit it.

I love my taking pictures of my niece Ella, and I think everything about her is cute.

And there is just something about those dang toes.

And her fingers...

Oh wait, maybe I'm just thrilled to see what I would have looked like as a baby, with "tiny little snakes reaching out of the blanket" (real quote from my sister-in-law about the first time she saw me)