As I mentioned before I have made a practice of talking to my wife's pregnant belly a couple times per day. I 'm hoping that hearing my voice in utero will not only help stimulate the baby but also help him develop some sort of affinity for me once he's born.

It has helped me to personalize my friendly fetus and has made him more real to me. While I don't often say much of any value, I realize recently that I don't like to stop talking to him without saying goodbye. Weird, I know, but I feel like I'm on a phone call with a friend and I don't want to just hang up on him. So I've developed a little catch phrase of my own for wrapping up pregnant tummy conversations.

Although not quite like Cronkite's "and that's the way it is," I have adopted a sign off of my own. Cronkite would probably scare the crap out of a child anyway. So now every time I talk to my baby I wrap up my monologue with "I hope you grow happy, healthy and strong."