Well, hello to you, too.

I’m sure all parents are aware of this, but I’m continually astounded at how the presence of a baby breaks down all social barriers. People who would never walk up to you or talk to you sans baby are now your new best friends. About half of my visits to the grocery store include conversations with complete strangers now, all because Layla is too adorable. Few can resist the gravity of her cuteness. Only the most callous and bitter have the strength to continue without gazing into her eyes and telling her how absolutely precious she really is. One of the interesting things about this phenomenon is that I can figure out which of her features are most noticeable to the objective viewer. Roughly 70% of her victims comment on her huge beautiful eyes within 90 seconds. And, until we started feeding her solid food, about 40% mentioned her diminutive size in the same time span. And because over 90% refer to her beauty, I can assess that she is quite beautiful, and it’s not just motherly bias on my part.

While I love seeing my daughter get so much positive attention, I’m have mixed feelings about being approached by strangers. As an outgoing person, I welcome conversation and new connections. However, as an efficient person, I don’t always appreciated being stopped for a five minute, fairly meaningless conversation when I have shopping to finish. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, though. I had plenty of unsolicited conversations for the last half of my pregnancy. I guess even if you don’t want to have children, everybody loves babies. It reminds me of this XKCD comic about cats.