her able hands

The blog book tour for Jennifer Margulis’ latest book, Why Babies Do That: Baffling Baby Behavior Explained stops here today. I don’t think I can top the entry Mrs. Kennedy did for the tour over at Fussy,* so if you’re in the mood for a good laugh, get your butt over there and read it. My funny bone isn’t working up to speed these days, but I’ll try. I can tell you that I wish this book was out when Tyler was a baby, because it’s the perfect antidote to the often terrifying What To Expect books, with their end-of-the-world scenarios, and chronic, fatal diseases lurking on every other page.

Too often, I picked up What to Expect the First Year (each time with more dread,) seeking some bit of information about my small alien who needed so much from me, if only I could figure out what, and why, and how to give it to him. I didn’t want to know most of the stuff in that book. In order to find the answers to a simple question like why my infant was covered in white heads like a Mountain Dew-swilling, Doritos-munching teenager (a look that has begun to reassert itself this year,) I had to mine the facts out of a dark cave full of gloomy predictions of toxic waste, bad mothers who eat the wrong foods, and babies dangerously susceptible to every allergy known to man. I’d put the book down and wonder if I should get to the emergency room post haste. Because it might be a serious liver or kidney malfunction. Not baby acne.

None of which stopped me from squeezing that one big, irresistible, whitehead Tyler had on his chin when he was a couple of months old. I was such a bad mother.

How great it would have been to be able to pick up Why Babies Do That and bypass all of the medical emergency stuff. The book explores the many baffling behaviors of new babies, from finger grasping to eye crossing, to popping out all over with tiny whiteheads like a hormonal teenager. Jennifer’s writing is factual, concise, and humorous, tying in true stories from her own experiences with her children. Each item is accompanied by a gorgeous photo of a baby, often doing just the behavior being described. I’d like to know how many months of shooting it took to get such great photos.

This is the perfect book to add to that gift basket you’re giving to a new mother, along with one of my handmade bibs,** of course. Her other book, toddler is another must-read. Thanks for letting me talk about the book, Jennifer! Sorry I didn’t do a Q&A, but there was just no way I’d come up with better questions than Mrs. Kennedy, and it seems like everything else has already been asked.

*Chris and I once had a waiter in a favorite Mexican restaurant here in Ohio tell us that we could turn up the volume on the oral by about 956 notches with the use of Listerine Breath Strips. No, I’m not telling.

**Not until August, please. I’m out of bibs, and have put production on hold until after we move.

Technorati Tags: blog book tour, Jennifer Margulis, Why Babies Do That, Fussy, baby

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