Super Reina: We've Created a Monster; or Good Looks and Charm

Everywhere I go I get a lot more attention than I used to. I should say, Reina gets the attention and because I am her "handler" I get a courtesy smile and a "how old is she?" or "look at all that hair!" or "what a big smile!" comment before they go back to talking to her. Not that I mind Reina being such an irresistible force that strangers are compelled to talk to her (not biased or anything about her irresistibility), but I feel that all the attention may be having a negative effect.

My child has turned into a an attention hog. Recently, when I take out the camera, she automatically puts on her best smile and giggle until I put it away again, kind of like Miss Piggy, (did I say hog?). People often exclaim how sociable she is, despite starting the stranger anxiety phase of her life. She just loves being charming. It seems she lets her guard down only for me (and sometimes Bill). When Bill gets home from work, however, even if she was Crabby Patty a moment before with me, she beams at him. I know people like our parents will say "well, Annie, you were a bit of a cheeser when you were little," or "we thought Billy was going to be a politician, he was always talking to somebody," but honestly I'm not convinced our genetics is entirely at fault (perhaps Reina does display a little ADHD, that kid will not concentrate on bottles for anything). I think this is a nurture issue, if someone is told she's cute often enough, she believes it, embodies it, is one with her cuteness.

Wow, this is longer than I intended. Really it's kind of embarrassing writing and talking about how cute my kid is all the time. I'm sorry, it is kind of obnoxious. I'll try to cut back. But for all of our friends out there trying to decide when/whether to have kids and asking to watch Reina to see how it would go, don't. She's bad birth control. She'll inevitably turn on the charm for you and then wham, you'll be blogging about how cute your kid is. Don't get me wrong, feel free to hang out, offer to babysit even, just don't count on her to be a deterrent.

I'll call you when she's teething.