Blah, blah, blah…

Because I’m lecturing on Hegel this week and, although it’s tempting to try to whip something up about how public reaction to the death of Anna Nicole Smith demonstrates the extent to which our culture really is a world of self-alienated spirit wherein our understanding of ourselves as self-conscious subjects can really be radically thrown by our recognition of a washed-up drugged-up former Playboy centerfold as another self-conscious subject (okay, semi-conscious, but nonetheless possessing of a consciousness – limited or otherwise – that might be negated by death… BIG SIGH…), although such Hegelian analysis of the death of a Trimspa model is tempting, my brain is too tapped out to do much beyond contemplating the unbearable cuteness of being that is demonstrated by the WonderBaby…

Hegel’s interrogation into the Phenomenology of Spirit can really be most effectively answered by a baby’s smile: I am aware of myself as mother because she presents herself to me as known. Also, because she says to me, with that smile: HEY! I SHIT IN THE TUB! FOR YOU!

… I haven’t much to say. And in any case, whatever it was that I might have said while under the influence of the complete works of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, E-Online and one too many glasses of blended scotch, you probably don’t want to know.

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Posted by Her Bad Mother on February 11, 2007
Filed under: Uncategorized


    42 Comments



  1. Kyla

    WonderBaby is indeed adorable. That level of cuteness mostly negates the pooing in the tub. *lol*

  2. slouching mom

    So, so pretty. Oh, my kingdom (such as it is) for a girl!

    BTW, I was a philosophy major as an undergrad. You are reminding me why I never picked it up again after college… Too many fancy terms for me.

  3. Mad Hatter

    Too cute.

    Wait for it though. Eventually the shame comes and she will cry that she failed you by failing to control her bowels in the tub and you’ll be all WTF where did she learn this thing called shame. And you will mourn. Enjoy your smiling tub dump.

  4. NotSoSage

    Oh, I sooooo do, though.

  5. Mona

    I bet WonderBaby’s also saying, “Come on in, the water’s fine…”

  6. Lara

    oh my goodness, she is too much. especially knowing she’s pooping in the tub. i’m sure the poop smelled like roses with a smile like that to go with it. ;)

  7. Sara

    Wonderbaby is gorgeous, as always, and the poop in the tub is temporary. Enjoy her! Before you know it, before your eyes, she’ll be nearly 10 and wanting “PRIVACY” in all things.

  8. Lady M

    >>unbearable cuteness of being

    If I ever do start a separate cuteness blog, I will beg to borrow your phrase and WB pictures!

  9. AdventureDad

    I’m so glad to hear WonderBaby shits in he tub as well. My 3- year old tson have never done that but decided o try it last week. Biggest shit i’ve ever seen was floating around the tub…

    By the way, that’s the longest sentence I’ve ever read:-))

    Cute photo as always!

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  10. Mocha

    I propose you combine the scotch, Hegel, and shit for a new essay. You know I’d read it and then say, “She writes a damn fine blog, that HBM. I want to be her.” In fact, I’d read it if it were just about the scotch n’ shit.

    [That title is now copyrighted and you must ask the express permission of Mocha Momma to use it. That's only because I saw the long-ass, no-vowel word verification waiting for me below.]

  11. Christina

    Leaving a log in the tub always evokes an extra special smile from a toddler, I’ve noticed.

    She looks mighty proud of herself.

  12. Beck

    My children have all chosen to impress me with their tub-pooping skills WHILE I WAS IN THE TUB WITH THEM. This cut back remarkably on the number of baths the poor dears got to have with me.

  13. Janet a.k.a. "Wonder Mom"

    I love that you take a philosophical slash comical approach to all you post. It makes me want to french kiss you …if you were a boy, I’d have a gigantic crush on you right now…ay! what the heck…I have a gigantic crush on you right now.

    She is hysterical with that smile!

  14. TB

    Thank god you included the fabulous photo of Wonderbaby. All the talk of Hegel’s philosophies of self-awareness were making ME long for a few glasses of blended scotch, in which I have cheap taste and a bottle of Dewar’s in my liquor cabinet as we speak.

  15. penelopeto

    at first i thought you were talking about the vag exercise guy (nope, never wondered why that would be on your teaching itinerary), but quickly remembered that that is keigel, not hegel.

    and ’shit in the tub’ is always good for a laugh, so thanks for that.

  16. kittenpie

    Hey, she’s beginning to look like a real sturdy toddler, isn’t she?! Amazing how that happens right under our very noses. Not sure how you live with the cuteness.

  17. binkytown

    Thanks for posting the pic. It quiets the sickning feeling that the ANS drama creates. What a beautiful little one.

  18. T.

    Classic. And now I’m smiling remembering my Bug. Who shit in the tub every damn time.

    While that may not have been your original goal in posting this ditty, it is a wonderful, er by-product.

    Give WB a squeeze for me.

  19. gingajoy

    you should totally do the Hegelian reading of Anna Nicole. that’s cutting edge pedagogy that is (and you never know–it might actually help your students get Hegel–I am NOT kidding).

    Of course. I’m more of a Wittgensteinian m’self…

  20. nomotherearth

    Stunning picture. An absolute classic.

  21. you da mom!

    Never read Hegel, but now that I know that Anna Nicole Smith and any number of pop culture burnouts can be analyzed by his passages, I might give it a try! ;)

    The poop in the tub thing…so that really happens?

  22. Julie Pippert

    I’d be under the influence of that cuteness too.

    What can I say to this:

    I am aware of myself as mother because she presents herself to me as known. Also, because she says to me, with that smile: HEY! I SHIT IN THE TUB! FOR YOU!

    except I LOVE it! BWAHAHAHA

  23. MotherBumper

    Well if that isn’t the cutest poop announcement ever.

  24. wordgirl

    A smile like that can help you deal with anything…even poop in the tub.

  25. mamatulip

    Tub floaters got nuthin’ on that smile. She lights up the whole room.

  26. Elizabeth

    I swear, HBM, that baby of yours has the most stunning features. I don’t understand Philosophy, at all, but I know unbearable cuteness when I see it!

    CNN went on forever today about “new speculations as to Anna Nicole Smith’s cause of death”. And how Zsa Zsa freakin’ GABOR’s husband could be the father of her baby. Rest assured, by next fall some college will have a Pop Culture class with A.N.S. as it’s main subject.

  27. Mrs. Chicky

    Hear that sound?

    That’s the sound of my ovaries exploding. Cutebabycutebabycutebaby! Gah!

    So what if there’s poop? Look at those pink cheeks! Gaaaahhh!

  28. Jozet

    Darn! That’s one cute baby!

    Is she spoken for? I mean, because I have a cute, younger man-baby who will be looking for a prom date in about 17 years. Things would be so much easier if I could arrange these things now and not worry that he’s going to marry some girl who is afraid of her own poo.

    How’s that for being philosophical?

  29. Ben & Bennie

    God, I love your writing. The “semi-conscience” comment almost made me soil my screen.

    Bathtub = Big Toilet

  30. Kelly

    What a delightful creature to have washed upon your shore.

    (Even if she came with a trailing turd.)

  31. Exiled to Canada

    So am I the only one who just assumed that WB was mispronouncing “sit” and was not having a bowel movement in the tub? OUr little guy calls a clock a cock and for the longest time said what sounded like bitch for bridge. Need less to say we get some strange looks in public.
    That is the cutest smile ever! She is getting so big!

  32. crazymumma

    Even Hegel would say aaaawww.

  33. BOSSY

    Um, Bossy says yeah to all dat.

  34. Lisa b

    Issue that baby a graduate degree. That is one hell of a thesis statement.

  35. urban-urchin

    i have her future boyfriend here. that baby is lethally cute.

  36. Jennifer (ponderosa)

    Those eyes! What beautiful eyes!

  37. Surviving Motherhood

    Wow! look at those eyes!

  38. The Mad Momma

    Ah! we went through that a few months back and now i am hysterical about putting him on the potty before the tub!!! Each time I see wonderbaby I wonder if she is real because she is just such a perfect little doll….

  39. Pattie

    Cute as always!
    How was the scotch!
    :)

  40. Anonymous

    oh wonderbaby is so sweet. what a pecious little girl.and you know the saying.poop happens…LAVENDULA

  41. the weirdgirl

    I love you!

  42. DadEO

    This a great video on Poop in the Tub for parents. From DadLabs.com.
    http://www.dadlabs.com/general_parenting/bathtime101_poop_in_the_tub.html
    Enjoy!