What’s it like to be a baby? It’s like being in love in Paris for the first time after you’ve had three double espressos.

Gopnik’s simile compresses a body of developmental psychology into a vivid sensory image. She suggests that infancy is not a dim, pre-rational state but an intense mode of consciousness: flooded with novelty, heightened attention, and emotional openness. “In love in Paris” evokes wonder, aesthetic saturation, and a sense that everything matters; “three double espressos” adds speed, arousal, and overstimulation. The line reframes babies as exploratory learners whose minds are tuned to absorb patterns and possibilities rather than to execute focused adult goals. It also hints at why caregiving can be exhausting: the infant’s world is relentlessly new, urgent, and bright.