Babies Don't Like Me.

I have a knack for scaring the living daylights out of babies. We went out to dinner this weekend with our neighbors, who have a shiny, new baby. Little Smoot played peek-a-boo with her for a bit, and was very successful at making the baby giggle at her. I also giggled. Every time Little Smoot would hide her face, I would wonder where she went. Then she’d move her hands, and THERE SHE WAS! Hilarious, and highly unpredictable.

Anyway, toward the end of the meal I thought I’d give it a whirl, so I put my hands over my face, waited a few seconds, and then let out a bit of a yap as a surprise element when I opened my hands. Well, the surprise aspect of it apparently worked since I alarmed her to the point that she shrieked with terror for several moments, while I tried to figure out how I could crawl under the table or merely become invisible.

Earlier in the week, I had been photographing preschoolers, and one of their teachers had this gag where she’d pretend to tickle me while I was taking the pictures. I’d let out a yap in hopes that the kids would find it funny, and they’d smile for me. It worked like a charm -- every single kid thought it was just hilarious, and I successfully got them all to smile for their photos.

But apparently the same yap that works for the preschool kids is a bit terrifying to a baby. Since I wasn’t able to become invisible or duck under the table, she simply looked at me with a high rate of suspicion for the rest of dinner.