Newborn babies...

...are like ugly-cute little aliens. It's not every day I get to see a 1-week old and some 3-week olds, and I really admired the moms for being willing to bring them in. I anticipate that I'll still be lying around the house, moaning and feeling sorry for myself, one week into it.

I'm glad I saw them, too, because now I have a better idea of what to expect. I really don't mean this to be offensive, because they were cute, but they were definitely kind of weird, too. Their little knees didn't unbend all the way, and their skin was reddish and chafed, and their wee faces were constantly changing into expressions they clearly had no control over. They would squinch up their eyes, and roll their tongues around in their mouths, and open and close their mouths randomly, and their poor little eyes looked all glassy and unfocused, and their limbs would sort of flail about uncontrolledly. Gerber babies definitely do not represent the reality of a newborn.

I really and truly don't mean these comments to be insulting. This is just what it looks like to be a newborn, I learned. You are kind of out of control and you haven't developed your eye contact or limb coordination skills yet. It's not your fault--you'll get there! They were funny little guys. I thought their screams were sort of cute and funny, too, though maybe I won't think that in the middle of the night, three weeks into it. They would wake up and immediately start screaming, even though there wasn't any reason to scream; they had no sense of the larger picture. No perspective. For some reason that seemed funny.