Wednesday, February 1, 2012

On the Growing Anxiety of Mothering an Infant (again)

Baby cakes and baby faces, and oh, the baby shoes with baby laces. 
Baby blankets and baby socks; baby tick and baby tock. 
Baby laughed, and baby cooed; mommy wept, and daddy swooned. 
Baby this and baby that; baby peed and baby shat. 
Baby came, and when she came, mama's brain went the way of rain. 
But baby grew, and mama too, and now they laugh and are rarely blue,
but there are days--rainy and warm--
when mama's head still feels like a storm.

7 comments:

gackzoldberg said...

have you landed on the name Baby? or does Baby just look better than TBA on a cake?

Nicole Callihan said...

Actually Zack, we've been having the hardest time with names! You may be onto something. Baby Callihan's got a nice ring.

margot said...

Margot is a good name ;-)

Richard Hefner said...

Ah, rhymes... something I can wrap my head around. Love that great use of past tense in there.

Speaking of rhymes and baby names, I was listening to the old fiddle tune "Sally Ann" yesterday and thought Sally Ann Callihan has a nice ring to it... or Mary Ann Callihan... or some other variation.

Nicole Callihan said...

How about Dickie Ann, Pappy? And yes, Margot, Margot is a very good name. We'll figure something out!

Richard Hefner said...

I think you just blew my mind with the Dickie Ann. Let's save her some grief right up front and not tag her with that. Anything Ann would be better than that (Margot Ann, Gackzoldberg Ann, Nicole Ann... I could go on forever). But I digress.

How about Shy Ann Callihan, or Cheyenne Callihan... oh yeah... now we're talkin'.

Zoe Ryder White said...

Ah! Stormy-headed mama! Love this. I betcha her name will announce itself soon. Though I have to say, Dickie Ann does have a certain ring...