I Hate Your Hat

This Christmas I got to visit really young nephews on both sides of the family.

On my wife's side, Nephew is 2 years old. The announcement was made... "It's time to open presents!" We all gathered in the living room.

I put on my Santa hat. Nephew's eyes bugged out like a cartoon character. He pointed directly at me and started chanting, "Awf! Awf! Awf!"

I leaned down close to him. "What are you saying?" Nephew responded by grabbing the front brim of the hat (and my eyebrows) and yanking upward as hard as he could. "Awf! Awf! Awf!"

"He's saying 'Off'," my brother-in-law explained. "He hates hats. Hats of any kind. If you put on a hat, he'll just point and yell 'Off!' until you take it off."

Wow. But hey, the eyebrows will grow back.

A few days later, we had Christmas with my side of the family. The youngest nephew over there is 7 and a half months. He has a reputation as "That baby who never cries." In fact, most of the time he just giggles and waves his little arms around. I've heard the phrase, "That is the happiest baby I've ever seen," more times than I can count.

I put on my santa hat and leaned over so he could see me. "Hi buddy!", and I happily waved.

The "never cries" nephew started crying.

I took off the hat. He stopped crying. 2 seconds later, he giggled at me.

Maybe it's time to retire the hat. *sigh*