Paranoia

My mother warned me that this would happen once I had kids, and I very bluntly and cavalierly disagreed. And yet, her we are...

- I have officially become paranoid. -

In addition to what I like to think are the "normal" paranoias of first-time-motherhood (waking up each and every time the baby makes a noise, no matter how tiny; worrying about whether or not she has enough blankets on; obsessivly ensuring that everyone who comes within a 5 foot radius of her has washed their hands; checking on her during nap time just to make sure she is still breathing...), I now worry about other, less "normal" preoccupations.

Like this:

This sign went up recently in the open space behind our house. Now, I know that there are coyotes in the open space; I have often heard their cool-but-erie cries, although I have never seen one myself.

But when I saw this sign for the first time - unfortunately, while taking Leah for a walk in the stroller - it gave me pause. Should I take my baby on a path where coyotes might be lurking? As I read the "if a coyote approaches you" section, I envisioned myself doing each of these things as I desperately tried to protect Leah from a coyote that had somehow become the size of a grizzly bear with a taste for human flesh.

It was a few minutes before it occurred to me that I have run this path literally hundreds of times on my own and with the dogs, and have never seen anything more threatening than a bunch of birds, let alone a genetically mutated, oversized, flesh-eating coyote.

It is interesting, though, how having a baby changes your perspective.