I'm just an Avatar wooing my flying thingy

Getting to know a new baby is a bit of an odd experience. You meet, and its like "hi, I am your parent. The plan is that we know eachother indefinitely. I will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars raising you, which you won't appreciate until sometime in your twenties, if even then. We will try not to screw you up too bad in the process".

Then a sort of one sided courtship begins. As a parent, I already love the wrinkly squirm buggy with my whole being. But she has a little "jury's still out on you" attitude that will no doubt fully manifest itself in the teen years. I drop everything for the baby. When she cries, I jump. 3am? No problem. Ruin my body for you? Worth every dimple. I would pull out a breast in aisle 8 of safeway if her adorable little tummy so desires. A baby will fart, crap, pee, and barf on you worse than the worst drunk booty call you can imagine and you'll still call the next day.

Meanwhile, this person you are getting to know will initially only want to sleep, then wake up famished and demand to suck on your boobs. Then while you do all the household chores, this person stares at you blankly before falling back asleep, or whining. This may sound disturbingly like other courtships from your past. But unlike an ex-boyfriend, a baby is trainable.

So what's with the Avatar title? At 3am, during a feeding, this analogy seemed totally sensical. My boobs are like the Avatar's braid thingy, and when I am nursing this little baby we are connected on a level unique to our relationship. We were once connected by umbilical cord and now I provide the food that sustains her. She knows my smell and my voice and its the sort of connection that forgives poop up the back, sleeplessness and stretch marks. In turn she forgives my morning breath and grumpiness. Its a very primal courtship and I feel lucky to experience it.

More later, I have to snuggle with my adorable little poo factory.