"I thought it was a raisin!"

Remember these guys? The California Raisins! I had all four of them!

(More on the raisin at the end of the post...)

Caroline passed a major milestone tonight! She officially has a belly button now! Her cord "stump" has been loosening up over the last few days, and I kind've just figured it was coming off either tonight or tomorrow. I made sure I told Darren to be extra careful when he changed her diapers, and definitely NOT to pull it off, no matter who loose it looked. So while I was taking a little nap before the "midnight shift", it fell off during one of her diaper changes. I have to admit, it makes me sad to think that the last piece of what connected Caroline and I through the womb has fallen off. I told Darren that she's a "big girl" now! I think I'll probably say that at least once a week over something new that happens. I also informed him that now that she has a real belly button, he'll have to live in fear of the day that she wants to get it pierced! I like to make him think about things like that!

Okay, so now for an explanation of this post title. As most of you know, I am an only child. Because of this, I didn't know anything about babies growing up. However, there were a few times throughout my childhood when we lived in the same city as my Uncle Dixie and Aunt Caryl, and their 3 daughters, Julie, Lori, and Lisa. My cousin Lisa was born when I was in 2nd grade and we lived in Florida. I remember going to visit her as soon as she came home from the hospital. This was probably my first experience with a newborn. A few weeks later, my cousin Julie (who was probably 4 or 5) told me about Lisa's belly button "falling off". Naturally, that scared me. I couldn't imagine something like that happening! Then she said the words that have "haunted" me for years..."I thought it was a raisin!" Only now, 20-some years later, do I finally understand what that means!