The cuteness of babies, as with all offspring of the mammalian world, is a function of survival to ensure that sufficient attention is paid to the young child, puppy, kitten, baby hedgehog or lion cub for them to have their needs fulfilled and to be protected from harm. "Cuteness" triggers the maternal instinct in the female of the species.
By the time that cute baby has grown into a sturdy one-year-old, he seems assured of survival and is now allowed to explore and test out his environment and assess for himself how the people around him react to him. What better place to gather this information than with the greatest tool available to him, his voice, in a large, cathedral-like building, the local mall? The acoustics magnify his excited shrieks as Mommy wheels him in her shopping trolley. Various experiments with pitch provide satisfying results, with the higher end of the scale echoing every-increasing decibels. Mommy seems pleased. She is smiling and shaking her head - a bit of a mixed signal, but smiling always means approval.
The joy on his little face as he stands in the front of the trolley, for all the world like Columbus staring ahead from the poop deck at the New World before him, is a sight to behold and it seems a pity to begrudge him his freedom of expression, which will soon be crushed once he enters society's rigid institutions with limited scope for individuality.
But judging from the pained looks on the faces of the other mall-goers, a dummy to plug the hole would be most welcome!
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