Since this is the place where I post things that I could never share on Facebook (or with my mom), I wanted to write about the strong feelings of ambivalence (in its precise definition, in that I feel very strongly both positively
and negatively) I have about taking the baby into the field with us. Mostly, things are going reasonably well. I can run half days of actual work in the field while prioritizing an afternoon nap back at the field station for the baby, and these field mornings are run at a balance of about 25% field work, 75% baby-chasing/carrying. That said, I've seen some amazing things so far, and she's been an absolute DREAM in the car (we drove her 11 hours on April 1st with only a couple of stops - she didn't cry once, unbelievable).
However, every once in a while, something happens where I'm like, "I am the stupidest person alive for bringing a baby into this." It's amazing how many little things are no big deal for adults (and thus, things I didn't even think of when weighing whether or not to bring her [i.e., whether or not I could come on this trip at all]) but are much scarier for babies. Today's example: after two bad afternoons of failed naps in the tent, I decide that it's perhaps too hot outside and she needs to nap in the bunkhouse - fair enough, I set up a cot mattress on the floor so she can't roll off and hurt herself, a nice fan blowing air on her, and lay down on the floor with her to nurse her to sleep. She's been playing with some (very) old tennis balls that we found lying around, and I idly notice that some stray balls have now collected underneath one of the beds in the room (I'll add here that this is the same bed she and I slept in the first night we arrived since we got in too late to set up the tent). Then my focal point shifts to a dark spot slightly above the balls - and I suddenly realize that there are approximately a dozen redback spiders (a Lactrodectus species, just like black widows) hanging on webs underneath the bedframe. I jump up, grab the baby, and go find husband. An hour's worth of bugspray and spider stomping ensues. Turns out that redbacks aren't really so bad for adults - not aggressive, bites rarely require hospitalization, etc. But still, it is totally unsurprising that an old-sheep-station-turned-field-station would have resident spiders, and still totally true that it's the wrong place for a baby (and her rolling tennis balls).
So all in all, I'm waiting until the trip is over to make a final judgement about whether or not this was a good idea. I will say that Maya *loves* being out here. She loves the animals, she loves the adventure, she loves the new people. She's learned a ton of new words. She can recognize her first two birds by ear, an Australian Magpie and Australian Raven. Granted, these are probably two of the loudest and most easily recognizable Australian bird songs ever, but still - that blows my mind. She hears them and proudly announces "Mah-pie!" or "Rway-bee!" before I've even processed that I indeed heard it, too - incredible. They always say kids are like sponges and will learn anything you teach them, but goodness, she's 15 months old!
Thus, I leave you with a handful of photos of fieldwork thus far :)
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| Baby on sand dune |
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| Baby learning how to handle a frog |
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| Notaden nicholsi |
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| It rained (a lot), so some traps have a TON of these! |
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| A dasyurid! |
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| One of our trap lines |
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| We caught a giant varanid - Varanus panoptes |
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| So pretty! |
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| The humidity means her curls are out of control :) |
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