Sometimes he catches me off guard looking like a real person

It's like when your cat looks at you and seems to almost understand what you're saying. Except it's not like that at all. Because a baby is not a cat.

I have noticed that I've started talking to Jack more conversationally, like he is a willing participant in the matter. I think it has to do with the fact that he's been making excellent eye contact lately and there's something about eye contact that really makes you feel listened to. Sometimes he'll put in his two cents ("bluuurg") but usually he just stares deeply into my eyes and makes me feel like whatever I'm saying is extremely important. I will think back to this day when he is a teenager and I can't get him to look at me while I'm talking to him let alone listen, and I will think, you were such a good little listener once upon a time. Seriously, look at this guy. Isn't he a charmer? Doesn't he make you feel like the only person in the room? (For most of the day, I am, but that's not the point.) I think he is going to be a heartbreaker someday. Not that that's a nice thing to hope for, that he will go around breaking poor girls' hearts, but I'm not hoping so much as predicting. When he gazes at you, batting his lashes and smiling, you will see what I mean.

By the way, this is in no way related to this post, but I thought I should update you on our lenten progress (which means Lizzy J should stop reading now because she's already heard this and gets bored when she has to read the things she's already heard about). We've decided that the anti-negativity campaign is not well-suited to the purpose of lent for two reasons: 1) it's kind of impossible, as those of you less naive than me already pointed out, so we haven't really been doing it and 2) what we have been doing is trying to find something positive in whatever we were just negative about, and I don't think we should stop doing that on April 13. Rather, I think it is an excellent new habit to adopt for the rest of our lives. So as of last Sunday, what we're giving up instead is eating out. That may not sound like a big deal, but to us, it is. It's always been our favorite way to socialize, and since Jack was born we've come to rely on it, not just eating out but taking out, two to three times a week. Not only is this not good for the checkbook, but it's kind of a lazy approach to eating and we both care enough about food to want to shake ourselves out of this rut and eat deliberately for a month, and the best way to do that is by cooking for yourself. And the point of lent, after all, is to try going without something you've really come to depend on, which I think is a neat exercise with or without the religious implications. My favorite part about it is that we're going to look at how much we spent on eating out last month and donate that amount (which we've saved in not eating out this month) to charity, probably of a food-or-farming-related variety. So I just explained this all to Jack and he thought it was a great idea indeed. He said "ooh!"