Why babies are cute

A nurse who cared for my baby sister used to say, “G-d made babies cute so we would be willing to take care of them.” And my mom would respond, “Then G-d made Palomita extra cute, so we’d be willing to take extra care of her.”

Luckily it seems that twins come with that dose of extra cuteness too.

My, what cute babies you have. The better to care for them, my dear…

It gets better – a twins project

We now have 2-month-old twins, and have come to discover that there is a sort of informal parent-of-multiples It Gets Better Project. When other people (not parents of multiples) see families with a cute new baby, or in our case babies, they most often say something generic about how you should just treasure every precious moment cause they’re not small for long. I think in part these people are in denial about how hard it is having a newborn, but they also just have no clue how hard it is with two. In any case, every single time we talk to other parents of twins they always say “Just hang in there. It gets better. So much better! …” And while we love our children, we are hanging on to that thread of hope, because caring for two infants simultaneously is incredibly exhausting. 

Thinking about gun control in 2013

So after the Newtown tragedy, people started talking gun control again. And I kept thinking I should write up something about this. After all, it's actually in my field and something I've thought about. But the truth is, I haven't had the time or energy. Maybe I will some day, maybe not. In the meanwhile, I thought I'd share some of the articles I saw go by that were worth a read either because they offer a perspective you may not have heard yet, or because they are important for understanding the current debate.

• A Slate article on technology to make safer guns.
• The NY Times on how gun manufactures out-reach to younger audiences.
• The NY Times on lessons-learned from the now-expired assault weapons ban.
• An LA Times opinion piece from a conservative judge on the importance of an assault weapons ban.
• Along the same lines, a blog post on Arms Control Law, a blog that I read for professional reasons, and that is normally dealing with more international topics.
• A Slate article on federally funding gun violence research.
• A short piece on gun control from the New England Journal of Medicine.
• The Brady Campaign's short list of needed gun control measures.
• A NY Times article on the Obama administration's gun control recommendations.