Babies

The E Street Cinema in DC just started a weekly "Rattles and Reels" showing. At 11:00 on Wednesdays caregivers can bring their babies to see a movie in a child-friendly atmosphere. Yesterday they were showing Babies. It was wild.

I have never sees so many babies in one place in my life. I am talking about the real babies there to see the movie, not the film. Amelia and I got there kind of early and sat beside a small group of moms and babies on our blanket on the floor between two sets of seats. When we got there, there were maybe 10 or so moms and babies. This was about 10:45. Then more people came in a steady stream. Then more people. More people, clustering around the door. More and more and more.

It got to be a little chaotic. Many of the early birds, like me and Amelia, were sitting on the floor, but we were kind of in the way of people looking for seats. The people who were sitting in actual seats tended to choose first the seats at the end of the aisles (for reasons that, if you are a parent of young children, are obvious to you). So then you had people with babies climbing over other people with babies. And not to mention the baby transporting devices. Baby carriers everywhere, and the strollers! Amelia and I left the movie a little early, and there were strollers parked along the walls outside of the theater, double or triple parked, for a stretch of at least 50 feet.

Crying. There was a lot of crying. And shushing, coughing, sniffing, sucking, giggling, cooing, shrieking, babbling. But there was pretty much not a second of the movie in which there was no crying.

It was great, though. I did get a little stressed when so many people kept filing in. As a city movie theater, the E St showing rooms are not that big, and it started to feel a little overcrowded. But in the end everyone got pretty much settled and it was a good time. In my opinion, the movie itself was neither great not horrible. I was kind of distracted throughout (feeding Amelia, helping her practice crawling, doling out toys and banana puff halfs) so I couldn't do the cultural studies critique that I normally love to do while watching documentaries or reality TV of any kind. Plus I had read a review in the New Yorker that kind of ruined the movie for me. Mostly it was just fun to watch. The film really just focused on the babies. There was very little talking or focusing on the adults. There was hardly any attention given to pregnancy or childbirth, which I especially liked. Just babies: babies sleeping, staring, sitting, playing, crawling, jumping, learning, being. The whole experience led me to realize something about myself: I really like babies.

I really do. I like their little faces, the strangely wise eyes of newborns and the chubby little cheeks of older babies. I like how they are always striving to do something new, and how they are so attentive, and how they express whatever they are feeling at any given moment with no reservations whatsoever. I like their little hands and their soft, soft skin. I like talking to them. I often find them much easier to talk to than their parents. I just really like babies.

It's kind of a strange thing for a mother of a baby to realize. Obviously most parents love their own babies, and obviously I think Amelia takes the cake in any baby cakewalk, but it was funny to actively notice how much I enjoy the company of other babies.

It makes me pause again in thankfulness of Amelia. It suddenly seems like she is changing and growing so fast. You can't pick up the same baby twice. I would freeze time right now if I could...