Just working on a timeline

On a personal note, I just can't get over all the objects people think they have to have when they have a baby. (I went to my niece's baby shower yesterday and that was pretty much a hoot, and I'm not going to Gay Day today but some others in the family are) Here's a hint: all you need is clean diapers and some receiving blankets. Babies do not need stuff. You can put them to sleep in your lap, in your bed, on the couch with pillows around so they don't fall off . . . You feed them from your body, until they demand food, and then you mash up your own food and feed them that. If they've got dry skin or seborrhea, use olive oil. Except for the medical care -- they need all these well-baby checkups and vaccinations (yes, they need those vaccinations, they do, they do!!!), and unless you have insurance or qualify for a program that adds up -- babies are really very inexpensive. They do outgrow their clothes a lot but that's what hand-me-downs and thrift stores are all about (the baby did receive a pile of hand-me-downs from a friend, which was good). But high chairs, cribs, vast amounts of equipment, are all wasted money and productive capacity and wasted pollution credits. I will except from this a car seat, a baby backpack or snugli or sling, and a bicycle seat.

I splurged on a second-tier almost-antique Dreden Plate quilt, and Emma gave her a book called "baby-gami" because it has unbearably cute pictures of wrapped-up babies, and Frank gave her a rhinocerous -- not big enough to be a Safety Rhino, but cute.

Anyway, today I spent the morning creating a timeline for the chapter I'm inching toward the finish of. I only wrote a few words, but the total is 59129, now. I'm still not sure how the denouement goes. I mean, I know what happens to each of the little threads running through the chapter, but the way that presents in the written story is delicate and complicated and I'm not sure of it yet.

Oh, and Mothers and Other Monsters is out! I ordered it last week and I have it now. So for all you hopeless Maureen McHugh addicts like me, here's your fix . . .