Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Why do we love babies?

Well, now that I'm married, I'm starting to feel the pressure (mostly from mom) about having babies. Has anyone else noticed that when you finally feel relieved that you'll never have to deal with being asked "so when are you going to get married?" suddenly you become bombarded by "so when are you going to have little *insert your and your spouse's name here*s running around?" Consequently, this has gotten me thinking...

Why are we all so enamored with babies? I won't deny that I think they are the most adorable thing that humans (with some major help from God) can make, but really, why?

I recently (while on the honeymoon) read through this great art book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, in hopes of saving my futile attempts at putting recognizable objects on paper. Though I'm by no means the next Degas, I feel like a learned a lot about seeing things differently and placing them on paper in meaningful ways. Anyway, I bring this up because it talked a lot about proportions and overcoming your symbolic left-brain tendencies to draw symbols that represent objects, versus how they actually appear. The author also helps with common mistakes drawing human faces, and helps you look at certain proportions more clearly and relatively. I have some pictures posted of my 4 nieces/nephews (all under the age of 3) and quickly realized that baby's are completely out of proportion by comparison to someone we would consider to be handsome, beautiful, or even cute! Their heads are HUGE compared to their bodies, their arms and legs are very short, they have chubby bellies and cheeks... not to mention the smells and screams they are capable of creating. I don't think I'll ever understand what we find so delightful about their appearance, I just know that I'm excited to have one of my own :)

In light of all this, it's hard for me not to remember that episode of Seinfeld where someone (I can't recall now) had an ugly baby, of which us viewers never get a glimpse. Has anyone actually ever seen an ugly baby?

4 comments:

Laura said...

Someone told me I was an ugly baby once. I forget who. Of course, they didn't say the actual word ugly, they just implied it by saying I wasn't very cute. Alas. I accept consolation checks.

Lindsay said...

While my mom was getting her PhD she learned something about how when we look at babies our brain releases some sort of chemical/hormone that essentially makes us go gaga over them. Evolution's way of making good mothers out of us I guess (and fathers).

Jay McCarthy said...

I think it is funny how women always want to smell babies. Gross.

MommaMcCarthy said...

I've never thought of myself as a baby-smeller, but now that you mention it, they do have a very distinct, cute smell. Like milk. Which is sorta fitting, as I've always thought that newborn skin looked like colby-jack cheese. Anyway, I read this just now and it reminded me of the baby-smelling comment.