Felix's habits and his habits

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April 17, 2000    Now that he is six weeks old, Felix seems to have the world figured out. 

The Baby Björn

Felix is now of a size easiest to carry with no hands. He achieves this remarkable feat through use of the Baby Björn, an ingenious cloth contraption for baby transport. Etymology When I was little, a lot of people called this sort of baby carrier a papoose. Papoose comes from the word for 'infant' in Narragansett*, but the word papoose comes with a lot of baggage, and hearing it bothers some people, as with the word pickaninny.  Fortunately, only 1980s tennis champions are offended by the word björn, which means ´bear´ in Swedish.

Phonology The brand name Baby Björn is pronounced three different ways in English. Some people pronounce it Baby Björn, which means 'baby bear'. Other people pronounce it Baby Bjårn, a rough take at baby båren, 'the baby stretcher' or ' the baby gurney'. Other people pronounce it  Baby  B-zhorn. The B'jorn are a species of space alien in one of the 1990s television Star Trek series. They have funny noses.

One of Felix's Swedish admirers was most pleased on hearing that Felix's initial comments on the world included the word ut, the Swedish word for 'out'. Felix has also be known to say upp, which means 'up', and something that sounded awfully like sjörapporten, 'the marine weather forecast'. We expect him to be baking  pepparkakor for us soon.

Shoes

Felix now frequently wears shoes or socks. He does not walk, so his shoes are largely for show. This ceremonial set was sent by Felix's shoe-hunting agents in New York, who know that it is almost impossible to find good men's shoes in the Bay Area. Like most babies, Felix seems to prefer wearing one sock to wearing two. In baby etiquette, the proper place for a second sock is festooning the sidewalk.

Monkeys

Felix is perfectly happy to wear a monkey. We believe this might be because small children behave like the functional combination of a monkey and a bulldozer. Felix has not yet tried wearing a bulldozer.

Sleep

Felix seldom sleeps in this location, although he did once sleep for nearly half an hour in his bassinet. As he will soon be too long to stretch out in his bassinet, that will likely stand as his record. We don't think he sleeps any better with fruit, but it is possible.

Felix looks like a man who sleeps in his clothes and never combs his hair. He likes a warm place to sleep, and it is likely that after careful observations of the cats, he has discovered that sprawling comfortably in a circle of sunlight with a warm-blooded creature underneath you is about as good as it gets. The one-piece suit Felix sports in this photo is convenient: Felix is biggest around at his belly, especially at mealtimes. Like a middle-aged man's, his T shirts ride up. The one-piece suits hold themselves down, leaving Felix's ample belly cozily covered.