Survival of the Fittest

This morning I met my youngest daughter at the Babies R Us store. (She is the one pushing the stroller when she was only a baby herself)

Her baby is due in a few months and the thing to do is register for gift suggestions for the upcoming Baby Shower.

We spent what seemed like all day in there marveling over all the equipment available for one tiny baby. I go through this with all ...and each year it seems we have new and improved this and that.

It is interesting to imagine how much money one could easily spend for one tiny baby who would actually outgrow everything in only a few months. Amazing as everything there has a very handsome pricetag.

Thinking back, another amazing fact is how we struggled through babies without all this stuff. HOW did they survive?

Notice the stroller in the above photo. It was as good as it could be in the 70's. Just a little padding on a seat on wheels. No protection from the sun, and for sure, no napping...not in that thing. Would have given anything for a double stroller. They were not on the radar screen at the time.

All these other things, we really didn't miss. They grew fast and soon didn't need much equipment.

We really had a good time with the girls as they grew. Back then safety regulations for automobiles were not established. Cars didn't even have seat belts. We had no idea their lives were at risk each time they were in the car.

We also didn't have car seats for babies.

For baby sleeping, I had a portable baby bed that was placed between the back of the front seat to the back of the back seat. The baby slept or stayed there. The older children could be where-ever they wanted.

By the time they were age 2, they could stand in the front seat and hold on to my right shoulder as I drove. Stopping, or braking, I would simply hold my arm out to brace them from falling forward. It worked. It wasn't safe, but that was the way it was. We didn't worry or even think of having anything else. Thank God, we all survived.

At Easter time one year, we 'adopted' four baby ducks to raise and return back to the National Park Ranger Program. We lived in the Tide Water area of Virginia along the Cheasapeake Bay where the Mallard duck population was dwindling over a few years. This was attributed to predators raiding the nests and taking baby ducks. The Park Randgers went around the lakes looking for nests and gathering eggs, which they hatched.

We saw their story in the newspaper and thought we would add this little adventure to our girls lives.

We were surprised by how many people came to adopt those newly hatched ducks. They were so tiny ducks and only a week old. $5 per adoption was the cost, plus enough food for one day. Hundreds of little ducks were adopted that day. We adopted one for each daughter or raise.

What a great project.

The girls made a pond for them with a little swimming pool and fed them twice a day. They were ours to keep for 6 weeks with an assigned date to return them to the Park Rangers. After their growth and return, they were placed into a survivor adaptation for week or two before released back to the wild.

Look at this photo~ My 2 year old feeding her baby duck the day we returned them to the park. Amazing fact~ all survived.

iJune