Yet kids that young are logical. They want food and love, and they want to know that they will get those things. If they have those and still cry, they're sick. Later, it gets more complicated.
Plus, when they're your kids, they have half your genes (usually), and it's easier to grok them. I had that "no idea how to deal with a kid" geek/engineer perspective, and it went OK (kid was colicky, so it wasn't easy, but it wasn't irrational). But also note that in the grokking is the empathy (no need to fix anything other than the food and love and providing them consistently)--raising and loving a child is not rational.
Plus, when they're your kids, they have half your genes (usually), and it's easier to grok them. I had that "no idea how to deal with a kid" geek/engineer perspective, and it went OK (kid was colicky, so it wasn't easy, but it wasn't irrational). But also note that in the grokking is the empathy (no need to fix anything other than the food and love and providing them consistently)--raising and loving a child is not rational.