Lean

I'm left-handed and Julie's right-handed, so we figure Lyla will be a prodigy at the piano, harp, and/or circular saw.

When Julie cradles Lyla with one arm, she chooses her left, since it leaves her dominant right hand available to apply lip gloss or gesture disapprovingly at me. But if I cradle Lyla with one arm, I also choose my left. It's stronger, and I can easily use my non-dominant right hand to help little old ladies across the street and pat the heads of infirm puppies at the vet.

You wouldn't think this would be a problem, but it turns out that Lyla prefers to lean her head to her left, which, if you picture it, being cradled sideways on the left would encourage your head to do. So she also sleeps on her left. And we're not sure, and Lyla's doctor's not sure, if this is--pardon the pun--right.

I'm guessing Lyla has developed more muscle on one side of her neck, like Popeye with his forearms. We'll be contacting a physical therapist of all things to see what we should do to prevent Lyla's head from shooting out sideways like Jim Carrey's when he drives with his head out the window in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. It's probably nothing, but it's nice to have a direction to point my neurosis at.

I've already started changing the position of things around the house. She'll sleep the opposite way in her crib so that if she wants to look out at the nursery, she'll have to turn her head to the right. Same with the changing table. And it's probably high time that I bulk up that right arm of mine. But even if she always looks a bit left, at least she'll align with us politically.