If I didn't know better, I might think that Aiden doesn't like me. I might wonder what I was doing wrong, or if maybe my face was too frightening for a baby to look at.

It's a good thing I do know better. Babies love me (along with animals and older people, although I'm now that I'm one of those, it might have changed). Just because Aiden starts to whimper every time I hold him doesn't mean I'm going to stop holding him. I tried to talk him out of it for quite a while today, but when the whimper turned into a bellow, Tammy took him back.

Past experience proves that the situation is bound to change. I've held babies and walked them around and played with them, and I don't remember one I couldn't charm. This one might take a little more convincing, and I might need a little more patience than I thought at first, but I'm up to it.

Aiden is my grandnephew, and there's nothing he can do to make me go away. He'll learn better as he gets a little older, I'm sure. Before long he'll be glad to see me whenever I show up. I'm not above a little bribery if that's what it takes (and often it is).

Pretty cute, isn't he? He has a small head, according to the doctor, but he's in the fiftieth percentile for all his other measurements, making him vigorously average. In our family, that probably means he's going to be the big one. We tend to be a little below average, size-wise. That's one family trait he doesn't need, because we'll love him whether he's short or tall.