Babies have all of these cool reflexes.

When Aidan was a newborn he had a strong startle reflex to sounds. He's be asleep in his cradle and you could make him do a little jumping jack with a strong clap of your hands. It would happen in his sleep - he wouldn't wake up at all. We showed our baby trick to a couple of people who came over, but I think that they found it alarming.

The toe curling reflex is fun too but not quite so dramatic. It's just kind of sweet. If you put your fingers under the toes, they curl around your fingers.

When Aidan was a baby, my Aunt Alexa gave us a book called Water Baby, about teaching infants to swim. It explains that babies will relexively not breathe underwater and if they continue to not breathe when you pull them up, just blow on their face and they will inhale. I discovered this quite accidentally earlier this week when we had two consecutive days of weather in the 90s. I was wiping Will down with a wet washcloth to cool him off. I blew on his wet skin and he did it. It was very dramatic with his eyes opening wide and him smiling.

Babies are fun.

Four year olds are too - but they are completely different animals. I've been telling people lately that I am starting to think that we are like frogs, that take on completely different forms at different stages of their lives. The baby bears no resemblence to the child. Will smiles and sucks and grabs and is so so sweet. The child jumps in front of you and says in his STRONGEST voice, "I'm going to GET you with my POWER SWORD. I'm going to KILL you." and stabs at you (though not too hard) with what ever implement he is transforming into a weapon of destruction at that moment. This may look like agression, but I will tell you a secret: it is affection. He only kills people that he likes.