It's going to be a long month

Hm. It's only the first of November and I'm already posting a post of nothing at 8pm. It's going to be a long month.

Something that won't help the posting situation is that Small Boy has walked away from the afternoon nap. This happened about a month ago and it's thrown my life into complete turmoil. NaBloPoMo is the least of my concerns; did Small Boy really have to give up the nap just before the baby comes? I mean, is that the best timing in the world, or what? And to make matters worse, he will not nap but cannot really get through the day without a nap: the two hours from 5:30 until bedtime are long and cranky. Dinner falls into that time zone, and he doesn't eat particularly well when he's tired and cranky and his table manners, such as they were, have taken a serious nose-dive, as has his consumption. Given that he's already a bean-pole, this then troubles me, and I really don't need more anxiety at this point.

I've already decided that I hope this next baby is thoroughly fat. Although Dr. Norwegian always declares himself very pleased with the Small Boy, though he tells me that he is seeing more and more overweight children in his practice and he's always happy to see a boy built like Small Boy, I still want a plump baby; I still wish Small Boy weighed a kilo more than he does. I think there is a deep-seated almost genetic instinct to want to see your baby plump and round; it must harken back (did I really just use the phrase "harken back"?)to a time when an extra layer of fat really would have been a form of protection, a visible sign that this baby could survive the winter, the flu, the crop failure. It would have been seen as a sign of robust health.* It would have been reassuring.

* And of course a nice plump baby can have health problems either completely unrelated to weight and diet or connected to them, but I still think the first instinct is to see a plump infant and think: thriving.