Thoughts from the Sick Bed

The cold that Leah had a couple weeks ago has slowly worked it's way through our family, traveling to Riley, then to Kathy, and now, naturally, to me. At least I think it's the same cold. Or more accurately, I hope it's the same cold, because otherwise that means somebody's brought a whole new cold into this house and there's gonna be hell to pay.

Lying in bed with a cold and a laptop (and the nanny playing with the babies) means that you've got some time to look at your photo collection. As I look back at the newborn and first month pictures of Leah and Riley, I am struck with two thoughts. The first thought is "oh my god, they look totally different now." The second thought is "gosh, they used to be kinda funny looking".

Is that a bad thing for a parent to think, that his daughters used to be funny looking? I mean, look, Leah used to have this middle-aged man hairline, and Riley used to be really skinny but with this big pot belly:

Now, of course, Leah's hair has come in, Riley's cheeks and body have filled out, and I personally think that they're two incredibly cute and precious 5-month old babies. But, hey, how come I didn't notice that my babies looked sorta like funny-looking old men? Was it some sort of parental blindness that made us think our babies were breathtakingly adorable? And how come nobody told us the truth? Everybody told us our babies were beautiful!

I guess it's sort of a social requirement that when you see newborn babies, you have to tell the parents that their babies are beautiful. I guess maybe I wouldn't have reacted all that favorably if someone had said "holy crap, your babies sure are weird-looking". But how's a parent supposed to know if his kids really are beautiful or if everybody's just saying they're beautiful to fulfill their social obligation?

Actually, a few people have now told us something like "I know everybody always says that babies are beautiful, but YOUR babies REALLY are beautiful". It's nice to hear things like that, but I feel like in the near future, people will be saying that so much that it will become the new basic obligatory compliment, and just telling someone their baby is beautiful will actually become a social faux pas, like an insult. And to really compliment a baby, you'll have to take it to the next level and say "I know everybody always says 'babies are beautiful, but your babies really are beautiful', but YOUR babies REALLY are REALLY beautiful -- REALLY!"

Or maybe that's just my cold-fuzzy brain talking. Anyway, I now present a current picture of our beautiful babies. At least, I think they're beautiful.