There is a New Girl in Town...

And my husband is in love with her. In a slightly maniacle way. Yes, his love for our daughter rides a fine line between endearing and psychotic. Not sure what I mean? Let me give a "for instance":

Endearing in that he looks at her constantly and says at least 10 times a day "isn't she just the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?" I think it is endearing when his sister is holding her (or anyone is holding her for that matter) and he points out all her features..."look at her leggers"; "did you see her little hands?"; "aren't her lips adorable?" He is prouder of her than he is of anything he has ever done. And more in love with her than I thought the human heart was capable of. His love for her is one of the greatest joys of my life.

but every once in a while, he goes overboard. Like when we went to a sandwich shop last Saturday, and as I came back to the table after ordering, he looked upset. When I asked what was wrong, he said "none of those guys even commented on how cute she is." and I said "What did you want them to do?" Apparently, I was the only sane person who realized that the immigrant sandwich makers were not really interested in my abnormally cute daughter.

Then, completely seriously, without kidding in the slightest, he said "I want them to stop what they are doing, come out from behind the counter and tell me how beautiful she is."

Back away slowly from the Papa Bear...Do not make eye contact...just look at the baby and keep repeating how cute she is. Eventually, he will accept your compliment and move on to the next unsuspecting passerby which must comment on her beauty or suffer a serious stink eye...

Seriously people? I think she is probably the cutest baby I have ever seen. And I am pretty sure she is objectively beautiful. But I do leave room for the possibility that perhaps I may be biased. My husband does not appear to have given that possiblity a passing thought.

Therefore, all who we encounter must adequately oooooo and ahhhhh over her or he is not pleased. Not pleased at all. Lucky for him she is adorable.

The night before Halloween, we marched in our town Halloween Parade (which is actually just 600 parents and kids marching a few blocks down main street all dressed up). I had her in the stroller. Just like all the other parents of stroller aged children.

As the parade started, he decided to pick her up and carry her facing out toward the "crowd" (which consisted of approximately 20 people who were not so much spectators as people who happened to be out running errands down town at the same time as the parade). As he explained to me, "No one will be able to see her if she is in the stroller. No one will see how cute she is."


And that, my friends, is how I found myself navigating an empty stroller in a traffic jam of strollers while my husband pandered to the crowd...which incidentally, oooooed and aaaahhhhed over her the entire length of the parade route.


Thank God! Because I would have hated to have to talk my husband down if such an outpouring of attention had not been received. And I simply didn't have the energy after a half mile of the stroller derby.