In the eyes of the beholders

Any baby belongs to any Italian grandmother, regardless of shared DNA. Actually, I read somewhere that we share something link 87% of our DNA with yeast or sponges or something, so the grandmas may have a point.

This assertion might be generalizable to all grandmothers in the world, but most of my recent data comes from the Italian cohort.

One day, as I was pushing Mirella in her stroller down the busy street, a grandmother stopped us, pinched the baby's cheek in classic fashion, and said "Oh yes, this is a naughty one. I can always tell."

Yesterday, another nonna stops us. "Little boy or little girl?" "A girl." Grandma bends over, pinches cheek. "Oh, how beautiful." Grandma stands up, looks me in the eye: "The baby. Not you."