babies

[asakiyume]

Babies like human faces, I'm told, but apparently especially other babies' faces. There were two baby girls in the arms of family members, sitting in front of us in church yesterday, both about nine months old. On the right, the youngest of six siblings (a beautiful family--I've really loved seeing the kids get older and each new baby turn into a small child). This child had caramel-colored hair, tights with hearts on them, and a pink sweater, and at one point her next-up sister gave her a glittering, pink-flavored rhinestone bracelet to play with, which she proudly showed to everyone, including me. (I was gratified to be included.) Next-up sister was the baby seems like just days ago, but now she's a little person with her own style. I was reminded of the phrase in Esmeralda Santiago's When I was Puerto Rican--"Someone's coming to take your lap." Next-up sister wasn't showing any hard feelings, though.

Anyway, this friendly, outgoing baby caught sight, over to the left, of another baby girl, a more-shy-seeming baby with brown curls and a beautiful dress with white designs of rabbits, ferns, and flowers on a blue ground. (This baby had only one sibling, an older sister, about three or four years old, who was playing with a set of plastic toy horses on the pew.) The eyes of big-family baby lit up when she saw this other baby. She smiled broadly and waved her arms and cooed. The other baby noticed, and a smile spread across her face too, and the two babies looked at each other like they'd just discovered a long-lost friend. They're just starting out their adventure in human existence, and here's a fellow traveler, a comrade.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

This is the most darling thing I have read in a month of Sundays.

[asakiyume]

:D
Free to all comers on a Monday!

PS I was thinking of you as I was writing it--how you love babies too.

[evelyn_b]

Thank you for posting this delightful baby story! <3 I hope good things are ahead for both babies.

[asakiyume]

My pleasure! I hope so too.

[amaebi]

Oh, I love this. And remembering The Little White Bird, I think those babies are fellow travelers recognizing each other even though likely they'll melt into assimilation with the adult populace....

[asakiyume]

Babies are wonderful mysteries ^_^

[sartorias]

I remember standing in a super long line (like over 200 people) when I got my passport in 1971. At that time everyone in Los Angeles had to go downtown and stand in line in a vast room. It took all day. (One day, if you got there early and were lucky.) Anyway, as the line inched forward, I noticed people with strollers. The babies, some separated by eighty or ninety people, all watched each other intently, ignoring the zillions of adults to-ing and fro-ing.

[asakiyume]

It really is like they're an alien other-race!

[osprey_archer]

Aw, that's adorable. I hope they become friends in the years to come.

[asakiyume]

If they stick around in town, they may very well!

[e_d_young]

Babies stare! I came across biracial twins (presumably, based on their looks) at the grocery store the other day and they couldn't take their eyes off me, like I was a never-before-seen alien. I was the same general ethnicity as their mom (presumably) and so I couldn't make out why they seemed to be astounded. Admittedly, I know very little about babies.

[marycatelli]

Can be hard to tell. Once at a con suite I distracted a fussy baby long enough for Mom to get coffee by putting a puppet before the baby and waving and waving and waving. That got the stare.

[asakiyume]

"This thing is like me? Or... not like me?" Baby trying to decide what category to put the puppet in. Or maybe just enjoying your moving it around!

[marycatelli]

Wasn't smiling. Was staring.

then, I've heard of a time where scientists were trying to determine whether babies determine whether someone is a child or an adult, and since they find children less frightening, the technique was to introduce some midgets. If the babies were frightened, they were judging by facial features, and if they smiled, by height. What the babies did was -- look surprised.

[asakiyume]

Little did you realize they were trying to communicate "Take us to your leader," telepathically!

[khiemtran]

When Liem was three or four, we were at a playground and a toddler pointed excitedly at Liem and said "A baby!""I'm not a baby!" Liem replied, thinking it was hilarious, but I wonder if maybe what the younger meant was that Liem still had a baby's face.

[asakiyume]

However unbaby Liem felt, the baby identified him as much more babylike than any of the other nearby folks, sounds like.

I suppose the baby could have decided that no one, including Liem, was a baby, but yeah; I think as you say, Liem still had something that the baby recognized as babylike about him.

[zyzyly]

So sweet!