Taking advice to heart

As everyone knows, people just cannot resist giving pregnant women advice. It doesn't matter if it is someone who knows you or the person behind you in the grocery line, people (especially women) seem to assume that you will not responsibly bring this baby to term without their golden words of wisdom. Most of the time, I smile and say "thank you" and go about my business.

This was the case when a random woman in the airport said, "I hope you're reading to that baby" when I was about 25 weeks along. I have heard that babies who are read to while they're in utero can recognize the book after they're born, although I've never actually seen the scientific literature. I can understand that the cadence of your voice is different when reading than when simply talking, and maybe the baby can pick up on that. But I can't help but think that what the baby hears in the womb is a lot like what Charlie Brown hears when adults speak- more like "whaah whaaah wah waaah wah" than "I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like it, Sam I am."

Then last week I was reading (to myself) a wonderful book of poetry by Calvin Trillin. Well, it's only wonderful if you think the current presidential administration may have gone wrong once or a billion times in the past eight years. Sometimes I need to read poetry aloud to get the rhyme and meter right and fully appreciate it. I figured that, just in case Hannah is listening and comprehending, it wouldn't hurt to help her develop an appreciation for literature and at the same time put in a plug for the liberal democratic perspective. (After all, I have to do something to counteract the shotgun shooting I did last month.) She was pretty active while I was reading- I'm going to assume she was trying to get her hands together to applaud. This one was especially popular:

Further Words from George W. Bush
After He Said to FEMA Chief Michael Brown,
"Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job."
A qualified guy, I wish I had added.
Your resume's super, even if padded.
We wanted the best to lead FEMA's forces.
And who would know more than a man who knows horses?
You saw that the storm was more than some showers,
And sent off a memo in four or five hours.
You found out that life in the Dome was not Super-
And only a day after Anderson Cooper.
A heckuva job! You know how to lead 'em.
We hope to award you the Medal of Freedom.

From A Heckuva Job by Calvin Trillin