I must be a poor judge of something cute.
Before Christmas, I was out shopping with my daughter and we needed to find something for my newly born niece. We’re in Borders walking around and I see a small stand of stuffed animals. I naturally gravitate towards a bear as they seem to be the safest to pick for somebody to like a lot.
As I pick up a brown bear, my daughter grabs a small snowman off the shelf. She exclaims, “This is soooo cute!”. I go, “You think your baby cousin would like that more than the bear?” She goes, “Yes this is much better, Daddy! Get this for her!” I go, “Are you sure? This bear is pretty cute too…” She goes, “Yeah it’s pretty cute, but this snowman is really cute!”. We go on for a little bit longer and I relent. I look at this snowman and it’s OK, but I think the bear is cuter. Whatever. So I put back the bear and grab the snowman. She goes, “Can I hold it?” I go, “Sure of course”, and give it to her.
We walk around some more, picking up some other stuff for her other cousins. And all this time she’s cuddling the snowman and finally as we’re ready to leave, she pulls on my sleeve and looks up at me with those Daddy-melting-eyes and asks, “Can I have one too?” I laugh and say, “Of course sweetheart, go and grab one.” She runs off and we end up buying two.
And I’m still trying to figure out what makes this snowman so cute over that bear, or something else for that matter.
At Christmas, I give the snowman to my baby niece and SHE LOVES IT. The whole time while I’m there, she’s got it in her arms and running around everywhere with it. The other day (many weeks after Christmas), my sister calls me and tells me my baby niece is STILL running around with the snowman and sleeping with it every night, well after most kids would lose interest on a toy.
Geez. Go figure.
So much for my expertise in what’s cute and what’s not.