Me and Maxi-Me

[Just who is calling the shots here?]

There is a funny part in the book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in which an earthling finds out that humans are only the third most intelligent life form on the planet (after mice and dolphins), and that the entire earth is actually a very complex experiment concocted by the mice to see what the humans will do. The mice spend their time running on wheels and faking like they don't know their way through mazes to see how the humans will react. Recently, I feel as though perhaps I am actually only the third most intelligent life form in the family. Of course there is Jeanne, who obviously ranks above me, but perhaps she is not really in charge either...

[The Head Chef being held up to view
the culinary concoction and otherwise
assisted by the sous chef in the kitchen.]

One of Beckett's new tricks is that he turns himself around in my arms to face out before I think to do it. My brother Ken told me that babies like to face out and see the world and see what we are seeing, so when Beckett came along, I just made it a habit of carrying him facing out all the time unless there was some specific reason to carry him in some other way, such as cradling him, or burping him. Up until now, I didn't think much about it. I just did it. But now he started turn himself outward right as soon as I pick him up--as if I haven't faced him in the proper direction quickly enough. So I end up feeling like a chauffeur. This feeling is heightened when he grabs one of my fingers in each hand. Then I feel like the character Linguini in the movie Ratatouille with Remy (AKA Beckett) steering me from his pilot's seat and using my fingers to indicate whether I should turn left or right rather than pulling my hair.



[While he sits safely in the lap of his personal servant and attends to pressing business on his amazingly fast micro-computer, Me allows Maxi-me to play with a large toy computer that looks real so Maxi-Me can feel that he is just like Me.]