Oh look, a baby!

A long time ago (before I even had thoughts of having a child) I read somewhere that, according to a study, babies recognize other babies by the size of their eyes. (The size of the eyes of the one being seen, I mean. As in, "It has big eyes; it must be a baby like me.") At the time, I took this with a healthy dose of disbelief and scorn ("I can't believe what passes off as science!") But now that I can make my own observations, I am not so sure. It is certainly true that babies, including the young of other animals, do have rather large eyes in relation to their faces. Nevertheless, I am still skeptical regarding the causality implied in the claim, in part simply because I do not remember the arguments put forth to support it. However, the fact of recognition seems to be supported by the babies I have recently had the pleasure of interacting with. Recently, at a party there was a one-year-old who seemed very fascinated by Shreya. Well, actually everyone at the party was very interested in Shreya, but the toddler seemed particularly enchanted and she tried to offer Shreya her toys and otherwise engage her attention.


When I take Shreya along to meet other moms and kids, she also often seems to stare intently at the other infants, and sometimes reaches out for them. Most of these times, I don't happen to have a camera with me (and have my hands full holding Shreya anyway) but here are some pictures of Shreya with Adelaida  (thanks to Adelaida's parents).




For those who asked, Adelaida is the same baby in the Yin and Yang picture. Her parents, Dale and Marie seem to share our fondness for hiking, board games and sushi, so hopefully Shreya will see a lot of Adelaida in the years to come!