Vainglorious and Then Some

Let me begin by stating the obvious: My kids are cute.

I don’t want to go over-board and push for more than that. I, myself, am simply going for cute and I’m not going to expect for more from my kids.

I realize I’m lucky to achieve cute more than a random smattering of the time, and can only expect the same plateau from my kids. And believe: I don’t say this as an attempt to seek out compliments, truly I do not. 

(But I wouldn’t turn any heart-felt ones away…)

And if my kiddos achieve a higher echelon in the “looks” department, well bully for them…it will make this mama happy for them.

But I’m not pushing it. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. So I’ve heard. From the beautiful people.

Sure, there are some areas in which I expect my children to exceed me, but this is not one. Cute has worked for me fairly well (and trust me, this is a stretch for me to even say this about myself…so don’t think I’m getting all uppity, please)…and lest you think I am too full of myself, I shall tell you about last night.

I was, well I feel like I was, put in my place; I’ll let you be the judge of that.

There was a gentleman (I don’t actually know if he was or not…I am trying not to make assumptions or be judgmental, so I shall say “gentleman”) in line behind me at CVS as I was picking up a couple gallons of milk on my way home from a meeting (BTW here’s an FYI for you: Dean’s Milk is on sale at CVS this week for $2.99…which isn’t much of a sale, but you get $1 in ExtraBucks back for each one you buy, which brings down the out-of-pocket cost to $1.99…which IS a good price…just in case you haven’t purchased a gallon of milk in a while…you can trust me on that. I will never intentionally steer you wrong on a deal.).

After I made my purchase and I turned to leave the store, when the “gentleman” behind me who was buying some sort of jug o’ liquor at 9:30 at the CVS on a Wednesday night and appeared to have been, perhaps, previously imbibing some other alcoholic beverage (oh yeah, I MAY be judging that a little bit…sorry) was slurring a “How you doin?” ala Joey Tribbiani from “Friends”. To me.

Oh joy, oh rapture. How can a girl be so lucky?

It’s not the first time it’s happened to me, on the way home, one evening, at that same CVS…although the last time it happened, the man tried to pay for my purchase (kind of but not really…he had a fake $20 he tried to shove at the cashier who wouldn’t take it because I’d said “No thank you”. You know what, it’s kind of a long story even for me, so I shall pull the rip cord on it)…so I am cute enough to get THAT kind of attention…but I kind of digress.

I know, I know…every mama says that her kids are cute, but some of them are not correct; clearly they are flummoxed and their error is egregious.

Oh yeah, I used those words. We’re very academic around here.

I’m kidding…PLEASE know that. Don’t send me hate mail…about my uppity language or my comment that some moms are wrong about their kids being cute. I am mostly kidding about the latter.

Mostly.

But can we all agree that they’re not all as cute as MY kids? It’s ok…you don’t have to say it out loud. I know you feel it in your heart.

So…that brings me to the two important things I’ve been ruminating upon and I need to just put it out there. 

The first one is this:

Does it make me conceited that I think my 10yo is so cute…but that he also looks like me? Am I vainglorious? I don’t mean to be…but does that thought make it so?

My other question is this: is it weird that I think 12yo girls should think my 12yo son is so cute? He’s exactly the kind of boy I would have thought was cute when I was 12, which kind of makes sense. I won’t show you pictures of guys I’ve dated and/or had crushes on, because I don’t want to breech their privacy (and I’m CERTAIN they all read the blog, and I would hate for them to be embarrassed…), but for the most part, I have “a type”…and my 12yo is “him” to a “T”.  He’s cute like Mr. Always Random is/was…and that’s because he looks a lot like him. Blond hair, blue eyes, a little bit goofy (sorry, Honey!), and makes me laugh…what girl WOULDN’T think he was cute?

And yet, I don’t want him (the “him” specifically being my 12yo, although it could also apply to Mr. Always Random) to have a girlfriend…I just think girls should appreciate his cuteness.

That’s about all I have to say about that.

I know you are used to more hard-hitting writing, so I apologize if this post seems a bit superfluous. It’s who I am. It’s what I do.

True, occasionally you’ll get something serious…but about 95.7% of the time (give or take .3%) you’ll get extra fluff.

I refuse to apologize...sorry.

Ahhh cuteness right there! Another ploy to show off cute pictures, right? This is from Easter 2006...so my 12yo was 4 and my 10yo was 3. And yes, I did the math on that correctly b/c the 3yo had his birthday right before this picture and the 4yo had a couple months to wait until his birthday.
Though you wouldn't know based on the size differential, they are only 20 months apart...wahoo!

Editor's Note: As an aside, last week the blog that hosts the Monday Listicles (which I haven't felt inspired to do for a while...not sure why but just haven't) had the topic "Ten Favorite Words". Well, I couldn't come up with a list when the pressure was on, but the idea has been rolling around in my head ever since. And because I am not one to let a felicitous word go to waste (I don't even know what that sentence means), I did include a few of them in this post...I'm certain you can discern which ones! And thanks for tolerating them!

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