I was listening to some radio show on NPR this morning about why not enough black people went to see the new movie Fat Girl and they asked someone in the panel about having kids. Her advice was that looking backwards on her kids that you should enjoy the moments and not always be looking for the next big milestone. So today I was just enjoying spending time with Madeline. She was very smiley today and we played a game of plush colored ball catch. Madeline can’t actually catch the ball but she does swat at it and if I bounce it properly and she is in the sitting position, Holy crap… she can sit without falling over and doing a face plant!, I can get the ball to stop on her knees. Otherwise it bounced off her chest, she gave me a little giggle or smile, and the ball rolled back into my hands. I read some books to her. My favorite is the baby words book because all it is are pictures of things we see every day like “bottle” “hand” and “crib” and I think she is recognizing both the book and some of the pictures. We had a good time singing Alouette as I rattled off what little French words I knew for body parts and pointed at them while I sang.

When I had a few spare moments because she dozed off for a while I got back to thinking about what the alien transposer on vacation in a human body would really want to do while he was living a “human life experience”. I think this sort of thing would be one of the selling points in the brochure for an extended vacation as a human. “Live as a human for a hundred years. Feel the excitement of birth (Cut to scene of birth) and life maturing among social creatures as a biped. Experience the emotions love, fear, and confusion. (Cut through various scenese of childhood and Britany Spears videos). Reproduce with a beautiful mate and watch your own child grow and bond with you. (Cut to scene of me playing ball with Madeline). Grow old and proud (Cut to elderly proud looking people) Sign-up now to visit Earth where human forms await transposer travelers for a the trip of a hundred lifetimes through an age where petroleum is plentiful and the atmosphere breathable. Start living your full human life today.