Not only did I have a chance to meet good friends while I was traipsing all over Illinois with my family, but I also saw my cousin Trina and her brand new baby boy. We piled Trina and her two sons into our car and headed out for lunch yesterday.


Trina’s two-week-old son started fussing very soon after being strapped into his car seat and loaded into our car. The cry of a newborn, angry baby is a cry one doesn’t forget. He was very angry, and he wanted what he wanted when he wanted it! And of course, Trina couldn’t do much for him while he was strapped in for that brief period of time it required for us to drive to the restaurant.


I was quickly reminded of the terminology I have heard in the attachment arena when referring to kids who cry, and cry, and cry… and no one comes. Blue babies. They cry until they turn blue, and then they cry some more.


I looked at this little boy and tried to imagine how anyone could ignore such a persistent, vulnerable and pleading cry. Or how could someone shake a baby, or bounce them off the wall? How selfish and drugged or drunk or mentally ill must someone be to vent their wrath on such a vulnerable creature as a baby?


And I tried to imagine what this little boy would think and learn if he cried like that, persistently, and nothing happened. No one cared.


I looked at Beth holding this baby, and seized that moment to compare and contrast his first two weeks with her first two weeks. She was already in an orphanage, perhaps with a propped up bottle. Certainly not her own special mommy…


But this little guy is lucky. He ate well while the rest of us ate well… and he snuggled with his mommy most of the time. His big brother adores him, and, well, the pictures tell it all as to what his mom thinks about him.