Infantilizing and Brachiating

Rachel held Dean for a quite a while at the ward party. He is, as I've mentioned, a rather chill baby and is happy in most any position (as long as he is being held at all times, if you please). So for a while Rachel was walking around with him held vertically, like this:

Granted—this picture is not at the ward party. This picture is from Rosie's house. But you get the picture, right? Dean was held upright, vertically, perpendicular to the ground.  

As chill as he is, Dean does start to get heavy after a while, so Rachel timidly started moving him to lie down in her arms, horizontally. 

"I just...can I just...put him more like this?" she asked no one in particular,

"Of course..." I said. 

"It just...I dunno....feels sorta rude...somehow..." she said. 

"Rude?" I asked.

"I dunno!" she said. "I feel like I'm infantilizing him or something!"

"There are times when infantilizing someone is acceptable," Andrew said. "Such as when they're literally an infant..."

To make up for infantilizing him, Rachel took Dean on a stroll around the playground and read all the signs aloud to him. They came across the word "brachiating," which is apparently a good activity for children and monkeys to engage in, and which Rachel thought would make an excellent first word for Dean. 

"Can you say brachiate?" she cooed at Dean. "Bra-chi-ate. Braaaaaachiate... Don't say 'mama'—that's dumb. Everybody can say 'mama.' Say brachiate. Brachiate."

"Ahhh!" Dean cooed at her (he's just started cooing at people when they talk to him and it is adorable).

"That's right—brachiate."

He'll be the smartest baby on the block in no time!