“But a frantic inspection of the boys’ department revealed no suits to fit the new-born Button. He blamed the store, of course – in such cases it is the thing to blame the store.”
“I once heard Alan Watts observe that a Chinese child will ask, “How does a baby grow?” But an American child will ask, “How do you make a baby?” From an early age, we absorb our culture’s arrogant conviction that we manufacture everything, reducing the world to mere “raw material” that lacks all value until we impose our designs and labor on it.”
“Deborah and Zakariyya stared at the screen like they’d gone into a trance, mouths open, cheeks sagging. It was the closest they’d come to seeing their mother alive since they were babies.”
“And I like how the guru of the towel dispenser doesn’t laugh at them, or even shake his head sagely on its big brown neck. He just smiles, hiding his tongue. He’s like a baby. Everything he sees hits him and sinks without bubbles. He just sits there. I want to be like that. Able to just sit all quiet and pull life towards me, one forehead at a time.”
“‘Please!’ Mahmoud cried. He sobbed with the effort of fighting off the man’s fingers and hanging onto the dinghy. ‘Please, take us with you!’
‘No! No room!’
‘At least take my sister!’ Mahmoud begged. ‘She’s a baby. She won’t take up any room!‘”
“And then one day, after the longest (and somehow, shortest) nine months of your life you get to take part in a miracle. It’s a blur of pain (which you promptly forget) and joy (which you remember forever). And then, suddenly, you’re cradling a tiny bundle in your arms.”
″ ‘Yes I know who you are,’ said the baby bird. “You are not a kitten. You are not a hen. You are not a dog. You are not a cow. You are not a boat, or a plane, or a Snort! You are a bird, and you are my mother.”
″‘If only I knew for sure what the baby will be like’, I said.
‘Take a chance Peter,’ Dad said. ‘The baby won’t necessarily be anything like Fudge.’
‘But it won’t necessarily not be anything like him either,’ I answered.”
“Mom opened her arms and Fudge jumped into them. He rested his head on Mom’s shoulder, shoved his fingers into his mouth, and slurped on them. I know it’s stupid, but just for a minute I wished I could be Mom’s baby again, too.”
“When Mrs. Frederick C. Little’s second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse. The truth of the matter was, the baby looked very much like a mouse in every way. He was only about two inches high; and he had a mouse’s sharp nose, a mouse’s tail, a mouse’s whiskers, and the pleasant, shy manner of a mouse.”
“It’s an elephant-bird!! And it should be, it should be, it SHOULD be like that! Because Horton was faithful! He sat and he sat! He meant what he said and he said what he meant... and they sent him home happy, one hundred per cent!
“I felt a touch sorry for him because it might be his last day of being the baby of the family and his coddling days could be done. He was too small and knowledgeless to know it, though, so I guessed the loss couldn’t hurt him.”
″‘Never mind girl,’ she said to baby Kahu. ‘Your birth cord is here. No matter where you may go, you will always return. You will never be lost to us.‘”
“In a house the colour of the sun and the shape of a lightning bolt, a baby woke up in his cot. Not just any baby. He was a superbaby- son of superheroes, Captain Lightning and Madam Thunderbolt.”
“In the pre-war rural world of the English countryside, The Crowstarver tells about a close-knit farming community and the ways of animals and birds. But this is a story of country life with a difference. Joy comes to a childless shepherd and his wife when a baby found lying in the straw of a sheep pen becomes their very own child. As he grows up it becomes clear that Spider is not “normal”.
″‘That robber baby had better come soon,’ he said, ‘I’m old and rickety, and my robbing days will soon be over. It would be fine to see a new robber chief here before I’m finished.‘”
“But Matt did not want to hand over his daughter. He stood there gazing in admiration at her clear eyes, her little mouth, her black tufts of hair, her helpless hands, and he trembled with love.
‘You, baby, you’re already holding my robber heart in those little hands,’ he said. ‘I don’t understand it, but that’s how it is.‘”
“Hari went to her and said, “Let me get the medicine for you. Let me hold the baby.” She looked at him in surprise, then shook her head, saying, “No, no—I can do that,” and he turned away, knowing he could not help her.”
“There she was, hurrying over the last hill facing the mountain. She always glanced behind her, never trusting the empty trail as she raced ahead, carrying something. M.C. knew the story by heart. He knew she ran for freedom. She carried a baby.”
″ ‘What a lovely egg,’ said Father. ‘If there is one thing I am fond of for breakfast, it is a soft-boiled egg.’ ‘Yes’, said Mother, spooning up egg for the baby, ‘it is just the thing to start the day off right’. ”
″ ‘S is for sailboat. T is for tiger. U is for underwear, down in the drier…’ Frances stopped because ‘drier’ did not sound like ‘tiger’. She started to think about tigers. She thought about big tigers and little tigers, baby tigers and mother and father tigers, sister tigers and brother tigers, aunt tigers and uncle tigers.”
″ Mrs. Bird smiled. ‘I used to hate it,’ she said. ‘But a mother bird can change her mind. You see there’s no nest like an old nest for a brand new bird!’ ”
“It’s not very common for people to die when they are young. But sometimes it does happen. It could be because the person has a serious disease... or it can happen in an accident, like a car crash. Sometimes a baby is already dead when it’s born. This could happen to a kitten or to other baby animals as well.”
“Laugh and be good, and after dinner we will make him a nest on the floor in a corner, and he shall sit in his nest and see a dance of eighteen cooks.”
“Hush-a-bye baby, on the tree top,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall;
Down will come baby, bough, cradle and all.
Hush-a-bye baby, Daddy is near;
Mammy’s a lady, and that’s very clear.”
“Hushy, baby, my dolly.
I pray you don’t cry,
And I’ll give you some bread
And some milk by and by;
Or perhaps you like custard,
Or maybe a tart, -
Then to either you’re welcome.
With all my whole heart.”
“Rock-a-bye baby,
thy cradle is green;
Father’s a nobleman,
Mother’s a queen.
And Betty’s a lady,
And wears a gold ring;
And Johnny’s a drummer,
And drums for the king.”
“That baby came complete. Their value was innate from their first breath. Their value did not depend on external things like wealth or appearance or politics or popularity. It was the infinite value of human life.”
“The blackness grew grey and paler grey, and miles and miles of monotonous gum samplings lay between the train and the sky. Up burst the sun, and the world grew soft and rosy like a baby waked from sleep. Then the grey gathered again, the pink, quivering lights faded out, and the rain came down - torrents of it, beating against the shaking window-glass, whirled wildly ahead by a rough morning wind, flying down from the mountains.”
Her sister Willa is pregnant and Annie is overjoyed when she comes home to have her baby. Annie tells Willa the names of local plants and Willa tells Annie about the ghost, murdered by highwaymen, who is said to haunt the old forge nearby.
“He was the most excited baby dragon that ever lived. My father was in a hurry to fly away, and when the dragon finally calmed down a bit my father climbed up onto his back.”
“Tom had been preparing himself to play the grateful guest; but-
‘But there are bars across the bottom of the window!’ he burst out. ‘This is a nursery! I’m not a baby!‘”
“I’ve lived in the Home for a long time, all my life, in fact, because my parents couldn’t keep me when I was a baby. No one’s ever told me why, at least, not exactly. Just something about ‘the circumstances were not right.’ I don’t know what that means.”
“That means that today you’ve become a big girl. Everybody’s baby teeth get loose and come out when they grow up. A nice new bigger and better tooth will grow in when this one comes out.”
“Several walnuts grew in the park, though none were very close. She went to look at the shell- but looked with great astonishment. There was a baby in it.”
“Mrs Koala had not thought of a name for her baby. Now, she thought it quite time he was christened, so one day she talked the matter over with his father. ‘Shall we call him ‘Walter’ or ‘Bluegum?’ she inquired. ‘No,’ grunted Mr Koala. ‘Let’s call hum ‘Blinky Bill.’ So Blinky Bill he became from that moment.”
“This little baby was the funniest wee creature. He was only about an inch long and covered with soft baby fur, had two big ears, compared to the size of the rest of him, a tiny black nose, and two beady eyes. His mother and father always had a surprised look on their faces, but they looked more surprised than ever now as they gazed at their baby.”
“I would come along in the evenings, and take him out for a walk. I’ve got a pouch just like yours, and I’d tuck him in it and hop along very gently, so he wouldn’t feel the bumps.”
“To Baby
Oh, what shall my blue eyes go see?
Shall it be pretty Quack-Quack to-day?
Or the Peacock upon the Yew Tree?
Or the dear little white Lambs at play?
Say Baby.
For Baby is such a young Petsy,
And Baby is such a sweet Dear.
And Baby is growing quite old now-
She’s just getting on for a year.”