After having another baby recently I started thinking. Trust me, I have a lot of time to think because it seems like I am always up - either with one daughter or the other. It is quite the task. Anyway, so as I was saying, I started to think about how helpless human babies really are. Unlike other animals, it seems humans are pretty helpless when they are first born and need a lot of care, attention, and help until they are ... well, for the average child, until they are past the age of even 7or 8. Even then, humans (unlike other non-comparable animals) still need a lot of training, education, feedings, etc., that other animals do not. But as my husband so aptly pointed out, compared to others in the animal kingdom, humans are more versatile and can do a lot more in life than the other animals. He is correct in this assessment but still I cannot help but wonder if we as humans will evolve someday - past this helpless stage of not being able to do anything for ourselves.
It got me thinking about evolution and whether humans would evolve into something even more versatile than we already are. Unlike a giraffe which can walk within a few hours of birth or baby calf which can stand on its own within minutes, I wonder whether we humans will eventually evolve to the point where babies would be able to defend themselves or at least get neck control sooner, crawl or walk sooner, and what would that mean for the human race.
Okay, so I am up a lot and these are the things I think of but I think that the reason I am thinking of these things is because right now I am exhausted and in my mind, am hoping for a quicker development for my 2nd born because I want to see the light at the end of what appears right now to be a long tunnel. I want my new baby to sleep through the night, and I want her to have neck control and be able to sit up and start defending herself against her older, well-intentioned sister who thinks she is a rag doll. I know in a few years I will wonder where the time has gone but right now, I look at her - helpless, needing food and diapering all the time, and needing constant care, and I wonder... will we ever evolve past this?
