What Will Please The Baby?

The baby is two days shy of being seven months old. It’s remarkable how much babies continue coming online after being born. Your baby is born, in the usual way, and you take him home, and you think you have a pretty good idea of your baby. Then a few months go by and you realize that your baby has actually been asleep the whole time, even when his eyes were open and he was yelling at you. The baby is really awake now, and full of teeth and decided preferences. He knows how to make his displeasure known, frequently and at great volume. But what does he like? What pleases the little ladling?

Pretending to sneeze is very good. He loves this. Occasionally I have experienced a genuine sneeze in his presence; oddly enough, this gets no reaction. He prefers artifice, like Dorian Gray. The more affectedly you say “Ah-choo” the better he likes it.