Those of us who babysat as teenagers are about to have a long-delayed bout of guilt for the poor job we did. As it turns out, infants are much more together mentally than anyone ever supposed. According to the August 15, 2005 issue of Newsweek ("Reading Your Baby’s Mind," by Pat Wingert and Martha Brant), recent research shows that infants perceive more of the world than previously thought and they understand and remember much of what they see. Babies also experience a far broader array of emotions than we previously gave them credit for, including jealousy and empathy.

So, that gurgle might be an imminent spit-up warning, or it could be that your baby is trying to tell you something. As Jack Byrnes (Robert DeNiro) maintains in Meet the Fockers, your baby is "a little person... His communication skills aren’t verbal yet, but he understands." Read more about the inner workings of babies’ minds at Newsweek. - Kerry