So I had lunch today with a friend and his wife, and their sub-one-year-old child. It went pretty okay - I'm getting much much better at being around small kids and parents, at least when I have a bit to nerve myself up for it.

But holy shit, the only subject of conversation they can have is the baby. No less than three times they were like, "but enough about the baby" and then within four sentences they were talking about the baby again.

I'm amused, but it also made it kind of tiring. Like, okay, yes, you have a baby. I see your baby. It is doing baby things. Look, it just spit up on itself. This is what babies do. They are babies. I acknowledge your baby. I also acknowledge that you are both drastically undersocialized right now because of the baby. But the baby is right here. It is fine. Things can be not about the baby for a little while.

Oh, things are about the baby again.

Again, I'm amused by this, I'm not annoyed. I completely understand that their lives right now are basically 100% about the baby. It is the center of their existence in ways that I will never understand or experience. And also it commands their attention in ways that they're not even aware of. All things flow back to the baby.

I expect by now you've reached semantic satiation and "baby" no longer looks like a meaningful word.