Babies

I like babies. I’m not one of those obsessed girls who starts cooing and saying things in baby voices 30 seconds after I see one, but I do like them. I mean, what’s not to like? They smell good, they’re cute and as far as friends, they carry very few risks. I’m not concerned that a baby will talk about me behind my back, tell my secrets or even say anything potentially hurtful to me. As far as I can figure, having a baby for a friend is a pretty win-win situation.

So, on Sunday mornings I volunteer in my church nursery with the babies. And I really enjoy it. When I tell people I do this, they always seem to think it’s such a great thing that I do, but really, I do it for pretty selfish reasons. I like playing with babies for a little over an hour every week. If there was such a thing as a church nursery for puppies, I’d probably opt to do that because, well, puppies can be a lot more fun than babies. And with puppies, it’s socially acceptable to nuzzle your face in their necks. Not so much with other people’s babies.

I’ve been working in the room with some of these babies since they started coming just a few weeks after they were born. And it never fails to surprise me how much personality babies actually have. I think I kind of had the Angelina Jolie mentality of babies being blobs. But they’re not. In fact, I feel like I’ve learned some stuff from these babies. Stuff like if you scream loud enough someone will definitely offer you food. And seeing new things (whether they’re just a new toy or otherwise) can make life seem much better. Babies are like little geniuses.

But the thing is, after my hour, I am one happy person to place those precious little bundles back into their exhausted looking parents arms. I happily return to my life where my only dependant is a ten-pound dachshund who, while she often seems as much of a handful as a baby, can be given a rawhide bone to entertain her for hours on end. And, since rumor has it you can’t just give babies rawhide, it’s probably best that for now my baby time is relegated to Sunday mornings.