Evolution

In college I took a class called Social Development that devoted an entire section of the textbook to, "Why Parents Love Their Children." One of the suggestions was that children evolved to be cute so their parents would want to take care of them, and thus the species of the human child has survived. "Bah!" I scoffed when I read it. "These people don't understand what life is all about, and that's why they write things like this."

Now I am the mother of a 2 year old. He is very cute and fun to have around, but he is currently at a stage where he has to "try" everything by himself. He makes his own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, he snaps himself into his own car seat, he pushes his baby brother in his stroller . . . I try to help him to learn new skills and feel good about himself by letting him do a lot of things. However, there are times, like Monday when he insisted on pushing the shopping cart and kept ramming it into our car, or today when he wouldn't let me help him pour his juice and it got absolutely all over the place, when I look down at his cute little face and think, "Evolution is really on your side, buddy."

Gratuitous photo of my children follows. Just try and yell at them.

P.S. After viewing the post, the Josh/Monkey connection seemed even more obvious. Have you seen that kid climb? Hang on things? Make monkey noises? Watch Curious George? Where are my college text books?!