On Baby Jesus and Loving Like Dogs and Babies Do

(me and Penny, my cousin/aunt/uncle's dog)

There are 20 million reasons to love dogs. They are cute and fuzzy. They take HILARIOUS pictures. They always look great in sweaters.

One of the reasons so many of us love dogs though is because dogs love unabashedly, without question, and without judgement. Dogs don't really care what you look like, where you went to school, or if you lied to get out of a parking ticket. They just want you to give them snuggles, and they will love you. When you're having a horrible day, they seem to inherently know that that's a great time for them to lie on your chest and just love you too.

Babies are a little like that too as, frankly, are most kids. Kids are pretty pure-hearted, especially at an early age. Sure, it's not a given, but for the most part babies just want you to hold them, feed them, occasionally change them and generally care about them. Not saying it's not a ton of work, but it's not like babies are asking you to spell out your beliefs of economic policy to earn their trust.