So Beck and I were talking about the upcoming weddings, and we noticed that basically everyone we knew at Rice now has a little tot running twixt their skirt hems. Seriously - Matt/Ebbitt, Jay/Felicia, Ryan/Carrie, Cheryl/Jeff, my friend Steve/Cheryl recently (congrats!) all have little kids now. And then we talked about the dangers of this, how sometimes a gathering of 30 year olds turns into a let's sit in a circle and watch babies, and it's not exactly the most thrilling of evenings in the history of the world. This is not a rag on Rice friends or anything, this is just a pattern we've noticed when in social situations with cute little kids; it's near impossible not to drop conversation and just watch them explore their astygmatized universe. But if you are sans kids and as a consequence sans whatever evolutionary hormones make you go braindead to all things other than child-rearing, it's not exactly thrilling. Beck's general concern was that hanging out with people in a couple of weekends will be limited to this type of circular child-watching ritual.
(Note that this is not the worst type of social circle - that would be a vet party circle, which I unbelievably cannot find accounted for on ye olde Ballad. Suffice it: vet parties where everyone is sitting in a circle and discussing, what else, vet school, are the lamest of the lame. At least babies make a variety of sounds).
But then Beck noted that on the other hand, she doesn't mind sitting and staring at malcolm for hours on end. Which led to my explanation:
"You see, Malcolm's the problem. We're bored by other people's kids because we've been exposed to a superior baby product."
So congrats, Mal, and to Sarahstophe Enterprises Inc.: it seems that in this age of consumerism, you and your child have set the market standard.
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