This is a confession. Sparky loves to snuffle our babies. But he learned the hard way that it is possible to over do outward signs of affection.

Snuffles are when you put your nose into the neck of your baby and breath in their baby smell and tickle them at the same time with your face. You breath in and out quickly through your nose in a shallow manner so as to add to the sensory experience in both tickling and the tickly sound it makes.

It is kind of a difficult task to explain, however the best way to learn is through the tactile experience of being snuffled.

Scout was a very fussy baby. And a very fussy toddler. When she was about five, she was a very fussy whatever you call five year olds. Sparky was certain that when Scout was snuffled that she would stop being fussy. But it backfired because she only liked to be snuffled when she was actually happy.

After a couple of years of dealing with her fussiness and finding that she was not responding in the manner that his hypothesis suggested, he was becoming distraught. And then, worst of all, he started to believe that perhaps his snuffling was the cause of her fussiness. Horrors.

Maybe I oversnuffled her. He lamented.

But a couple of nights ago I suggested that he find out how she responds to snuffling now. So he tried it and she said something to the effect of Ew. I stand corrected.

She said Ew. Da-ha-ha-ha-had.