The Mirror Baby

June 2021 

My baby’s best friend is the baby in the mirror. For a while her other best friend was the baby on the nappy packet, but she realised a few months ago they didn’t wave back and it seems that Nappy Baby has fallen out of favour. 

Sometimes I think that my baby might just be extravagantly vain. But if you were as beautiful and delightful as she is, wouldn’t you be? She coos and chortles, waves and slaps the mirror, beaming at her friend, who returns her every attention and action. 

While I love, adore and am constantly fascinated by my baby, I’ve developed strategies to win myself pockets of time. Time to do things - I’m currently sat on a stool in the kitchen, writing this at speed while she demolishes yet another overpriced fruit scented rice cake - and time to just disengage a little and turn the baby intensity down a smidge. 

Popping her in front of the big mirror in our bedroom can win me half an hour of pottering. Time enough to change the sheets, or stare at my phone, all the while frequently checking she’s not about to lose a finger to the wardrobe door. 

She’s almost 10 months old and has now met precisely two other IRL babies, both within the last month or so. Even without early interaction with her peers, she’s a social little beast. I have hopes for her enjoying nursery when I return to work in a couple of months.

I’m not sure where my pre-pandemic expectations, current pragmatic hopes and our future reality will meet for her. Will there be toddler hangouts with other parents? Will there be a best friend who’s home we’ll be in and out of? For the time being, I’m weirdly thankful for the Mirror Baby for keeping us both company for this strange lonely first year of their lives. 

And if the Mirror Baby is not in fact a friendly presence in our home, but just a wild love for her own reflection, that is all well and good. If this is the seed of a young woman who is delighted by what she sees in the mirror, I love to see it.