Ears

I'm in the midst of figuring out how to outfit my kid for winter in upstate NY. Born the last day of May, Ben has spent his entire life barefoot, and I am just now figuring out that, for instance, socks only stay on a baby's feet with shoes to anchor them -- and that's if the baby in question plays ball.

Anyway, I've been looking at outerwear of various sorts a lot in the last couple of days, trying to guess what size the kid will be by the time he needs some kind of climber's bunting, and I've noticed that a surprisingly large proportion of baby cold-weather headgear comes with ears. Well, OK, I've noticed that all of Zutano's "cozie" hats come with ears, and so do L.L. Bean's fleece coveralls. They're even the same kind of ears.

I'm not immune to the appeal of babies with animals ears. One of the only items of clothing I bought before my son was born, long before he was even conceived, in fact, was a hat with bunny ears. I just find it a little strange for manufacturers to decide an entire design run of a fairly basic item needs -- or would sell better with -- ears.

Let me put it this way: why not tails?