♬ Big Girls Don't Cry ♬
So says Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. (And, the Google tells me, Fergie as well.)
Lately I've been wondering if he was being prescriptive or descriptive. Big girls don't cry. I've always just assumed the line was meant as a subtle admonition to the listener: you want to consider yourself a big girl? Well then you don't cry because big girls don't cry.
Now three months into this whole raising-a-little-girl thing, I'm beginning to wonder if the song was really just a matter-of-fact description of the relationship between volume and volume. Big girls don't cry. (They don't cry.) It's not that you shouldn't cry if you want to be considered a big girl; it's that not crying is a feature shared by big girls. Some friends with (shall we say) larger babies provide circumstantial evidence. These children always appear content just melting into the back of their stroller seat.
As for Charlotte, well, she's not the largest baby around. She's weighing in at twelve pounds now, like a good Thanksgiving turkey, and maybe that is Exhibit A in the case. She's been fighting the bottle recently, crying all the way. I was teaching at 8am in July so we were trying to catch her early in the morning. It was working fine for a while, but last week she went from being just a resistance movement to more tactical offensive maneuvers.But, after a few days off, we tried again today. And? Success. Unquestionable success. Three ounces with nary a peep whimpered. WWFVS?
