Holy moly guys, it's been a year and a half since I have posted ANYTHING on my blog. Can you believe that? I'm not sure if that speaks more to my time management or to the hectic nature of my life.
Let me explain.
A lot has happened in this past year and a half. We have moved, we celebrated anniversaries and life got even crazier. A lot crazier. As in, I can't believe I'm about to say it here.
Drum roll please!
My husband and I are no longer just a married couple. We are now PARENTS (!!) to a beautiful baby boy!! We are so proud of him and so incredibly in love with him. But let me explain my hesitation in announcing it on my blog.
We have done everything possible to keep him off of social media. We did not announce our pregnancy on Facebook, there were no belly pictures on Instagram and there still aren't any pictures of him (nor will his name be announced) anywhere. (Ok, I lied. My Facebook profile picture is of me holding him in the ErgoBaby, but his face is completely concealed so really, no pictures of him up yet).
We did this for several reasons. The biggest reason was to preserve his privacy. It goes without saying that social media is an incredibly easy way for predators to target children of any age. I recently read an article about a man who actually virtually kidnapped this poor woman's daughter. He stole her pictures from the mother's Facebook account, posted them to HIS Facebook and claimed this little girl as his own daughter. Now, this may be seemingly harmless but it is creepy beyond belief either way. (Here's an interesting article about it http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/09/the-new-virtual-kidnapping-craze.html)
Aside from protecting his privacy and ensuring that the number of blackmail bathtub pictures are limited to photo albums that will be dusty and placed aside when it matters, we wanted to keep this time in our lives special. In other words, WE wanted privacy. We wanted to experience our pregnancy and birth and first months together as a unit without social media intrusions. We already have so many other distractions in our lives we didn't want one more thing to distract us from the miracle happening in our family.
You know how it goes, you post a picture and anxiously wait for people to "like" it or *squeal* comment on it (or is that just me?). This time, I wanted to savor being pregnant, feeling his little kicks and hiccups. Now I want to be the sole proprietor of that adorable little face, I want to hide his smiles from everyone because I am his mama, and those smiles are for only mama (maybe now I'm being selfish). He is ours, and those people who are close to us and who we consider to be family know all about him and come visit him. They get constant updates and especially my family oversees get to see him through WhatsApp and email.
Because knowing someone in person is much more valuable than knowing someone through a computer screen.
