Ever see your dog, cat, child, niece, etc. in a picture and think how much cuter your whatever looks in comparison to all the other people's whatever's in their family pictures?
My mother and I were talking about this a while back. Clearly, she thinks her grandchildren are far cuter and much more adorable than those other grandchildren pictures she sees from those other grandparent friends she has. I'm those cute kid's mommy so of course I think the same thing too. But why?
With a logical head, given any two baby pictures in a magazine, we can easily say which child is the cuter (in our opinion.) In a puppy training class, who's puppy is positively the most adorable? Why, yours, of course. I know mine was. And yet every one of those parents in class thinks the same thing you do.
I know in part it's because we become invested. We're emotionally attached to this thing (dog, cousin, guinea pig, baby, etc.) and as a result our brains tell us we've made the best choice and we have the most outstanding one of the batch and we should be proud. Also, we should make sure to take care of our charge and do the best we can for it. Biologically, that makes sense to me.
But pictures do another trick on us. My mother and I agreed that my two children seemed to be more interesting looking (maybe they have just that winning smile you love to see) or maybe they look like they're in the middle of discovering a proof of an impressive mathematical theorem and you're so proud they're so smart. And yet pictures of those other kids don't give you the same thoughts.
Mom and I talked about how knowing the child can make a difference. When you see a picture of someone you know, your brain may fill in the gaps and although you don't see the picture move, you can picture the child in the situation, exploring, thinking, having fun. And that makes the picture and the child more appealing (and clearly much more cute) than those pictures of those other kids.
It's just a theory. The other explanation is my children are both the most adorable and most intelligent kids on the planet, and while I think they're great, I'm not foolish enough to believe that.
The Big Boy Update: Cooling it down. He understands hot. He has seen us blow on things that are "hot" to cool them down. Today he took the cooling process into his own hands. We were at lunch and he had a mini slice of pizza from the kids menu. He was displeased with the temperature. Both daddy and I said it would be cooler in just a minute. Daddy blew on the slice and put it back on his mini plate. He tried it again. Still too hot. Then he picked up his plate and both daddy and I were on high alert for dumping/throwing signs. But no, he was holding the cooler plate up to his face so he could blow directly on the slice of pizza. Anomaly? No, as he did it again on the next slice.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Uncycling. She likes to go through the recycle trash can and look at all the pieces of paper and decide if they're good reading, or tasty, or both. I'm not sure uncycling is a word. Perhaps she's into the second R of the three R's of Recycling (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.) She's reusing them, perusing them, abusing them. Toys don't have to be toys to be fun when you're ten months old.
Fitness Update: Around the neighborhood for four miles. Running at six in the morning is taking longer to get light enough to enter the park as the weeks wear on. This morning, due to lack of time and lack of light, my neighbor and I ran for a bit over four miles all in the neighborhood. My husband said he heard us. Heard us? He was going up to check on the little girl and thought he heard ladies chatting. When he got upstairs he looked outside and we were doing one of our runs by the house in the semi-light.
Someone Once Said: A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being "frank."
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