America's Most Wanted Babies

The week of April 25th saw the birth of three of America's most wanted babies, at least in my little world. First off was a dear friend who spent a long time trying to get pregnant, and who I was urging to look into surrogacy. I even introduced her to some members of our surrogacy "alumni" society, and wouldn't you know, she found out that her last ditch, last embryo IVF procedure had been successful just a week or so later. At the same time as I was talking to my friend about going to India, I was contacted out of the blue by a woman in California whose husband had met my cousin's husband and discussed their struggles to have a baby; my cousin's husband gave them my name, I talked to the wife, and they dropped everything and jetted off to Delhi for a quick trip that resulted in a baby boy in the middle of last week. And finally, the week ended with the birth of a sweet little girl to a friend of mine from Boston who decided, after years of looking for the right man, to fulfill her dream of a child while she could. All these babies are so wanted and treasured, and I'm thrilled to have witnessed the parents' dreams come true. Again I realize how lucky we are to live in at a time when medicine, technology, and societal norms have come together to make it possible for those of us who lack perfect "equipment" to achieve our dreams.

Back in my immediate world, I was away for 5 days for business, and came home to what felt like a smarter, more clearly communicating, exceptionally sweet little boy. Some developments over the last month:

• On several mornings, Micah's crib held a naked little boy who figured out how to strip off his PJs (and one day, his diaper) before we arrived.


• He's mastering the art of stacking things into "towers" very patiently.


• He now loves slides and has started to climb playground equipment more confidently -- does everything more confidently, in fact.


• He loves to hold hands and walk down the block (sometimes making me "march"), and knows which houses the other kids on the block live in.


• He loves to "help" daddy with yard work especially if it involves a shovel or stick.


• He missed his chance to fulfill the role of the youngest child at Passover because, a minute after I changed him into his dress clothes before dinner, he promptly vomited 3 times and went to bed before the seder. Performance anxiety? Or an after-effect of swallowing a fairly sizable rock the day before that passed smoothly into his diaper?


• He still says "bye-bye" to inanimate objects.


• He switched from calling my mother "maga" to "grandma" overnight.


• He now calls the pacifier "paci" and it is even more indispensible.


• The question "Was dat?" has returned, and he will repeat new words that interest him.


• He's been scolded at daycare for throwing food and biting other children .


• He loves peering under the couch to find our scardy-cat cats, and knows their names.


• He still has an outie belly button that's clearly not going away on its own.


• He loves looking a photos, and can name relatives he's only met a few times and identify pictures of mommy and daddy from the days when they were much younger-looking. He also identifies himself as "Mah-kah."



• He loves "this little piggy", getting tickled and nuzzled, and getting chased around the circular path through our living room and kitchen.



• Just today, he brought two stuffed monkeys that were in his crib to breakfast, and tried to give them his pacifier and feed them some of his breakfast. How cute is that?