I figured it out

I believe that little babies and kids are all geniuses. Think about it - they have to figure EVERYTHING out. As someone who moved to a different country at some point in her life and had to learn a different language, a different culture and a way of life, I can just begin to appreciate the staggering task that all people accomplish so early in their lives (some better than others, admittedly). A baby has to figure out what those weird things (let's call them "sounds") mean and why those other things (let's call them "parents") keep making them. And why things keep falling down and never up (unless they are what we're going to call "cats", in which case they fall any which way). And how to chew, walk, draw on the walls with crayons, and man, we're just starting here!

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is BABIES=GENIUSES.

Now, at some point this changes, and as Bill Cosby so astutely noted, children all have brain damage. We've been through all kinds of Cosbified moments with D1 and I bet we are in for some gems with D2 once he gets older. So, how come?

I figured it out tonight. Because this is D2's current BESTEST idea of fun: he rolls around on the floor and bonks his head on hard surfaces. Then he laughs. Or he runs around, then gets down on his hands and knees, and bonks his head on the floor. Then laughs. Or he is in his swing, and as I'm pushing him, he brings his head backwards, hard, and whacks it on the back of the swing. Then he laughs. Because the brain cells dying must feel absolutely HAI-LARIOUS!
I tried ignoring it in the hopes that he's just doing it to get reaction out of us, but a) it's not helping in the short term and b) there's only so much I can ignore before I step in and try to distract him/cushion his head.
So I guess, maybe it's like a self-destruct program - once it accomplishes what it was meant to do, it self-destructs, lest our civilization becomes full of brilliant people. Because, hey, we wouldn't want that. Who knows, we might've been all over the Solar system, or figured out how to make politicians do some honest work or something, otherwise.