On the advice of some of our friends with children, J and I bought both the book and video version of “The Happiest Baby on the Block,” by Dr. Harvey Karp, a system for calming babies when they are crying or fussy. Karp suggests a series of steps including swaddling your baby and laying the baby on his or her side in order to quiet them and, from our limited experience, it seems to work. After watching the video I walked around the house for a day or two beginning most of my sentences with “Dr. Karp says…”

Last night I was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner and upon reentering the living room I noticed J had a smirk on his face, the kind that indicates he’s done something amusing and is waiting for me to pick up on it, and before I could ask him what was up I noticed he was holding and rocking our 10-pound dog Mina, who was tightly wrapped in an afghan. “What?” he said, noting my expression. “I swaddled her.”