Our Little Monkey arrived two weeks ago, which seems as good a reason as any to write down a few trifles that I have noticed in my first days of fatherhood. Doubtless, these are not original thoughts in the grand scheme of things, but they are for me, and what’s a blog for if not for self-indulgent musings.
Babies don’t have an intrinsic scent
Having heard much of “new baby smell”, I sniffed his little head when he was brand new, and got nothing. Admittedly, I don’t have an acute sense of smell, but I got not a whiff of anything distinctive. He does smell now, though; of milk and freshly laundered cotton, two pleasant smells which mingle agreeably, certainly.
Babies are hairy
Or, at least, our baby is. Not in a Teen-Wolf way, he just has very fair, downy hair in unexpected places, like the top of his ears and on his shoulders. (Incidentally, IMDB patrons, what’s with the low 5.9/10 rating for this eighties classic? And as an aside to my aside, The Incredible Suit tipped me off about IMDB’s brilliant ‘parents guide’ feature, which is a real treat.)
Babies are little humans
Okay, it’s obvious that two Homo sapiens have another little one, but from the start Toby has been sneezing and yawning like a pro, which seem like quite complicated things for such a little chap, even if they are just instinctive responses to certain stimuli. His big eyes are now starting to do some good looking at things, and his face is practising frowns and appealingly lop-sided smiles. But I think the thing that makes him seem ‘human’ rather than ‘baby’ is the level of communication that is developing between the three of us. If he’s hungry, then before he gets worked up, he mimes sucking and pokes his tongue out a bit (although, despite the best efforts of Mrs. Monkeyshines and I, he won’t respond to our tongue-poking with some of his own, sadly); if you’ve got him against your shoulder, then he bangs his head against you to indicate a rumbling belly. If these subtler means don’t result in the desired end, then he starts wailing, which will certainly do the trick…
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