My mom loves babies. She especially loves the chubby, fat-cheeked ones that drool and smile all the time, regardless of who they are staring at. As soon as she sees any baby that is remotely cute or chubby, she always squeals, “Awwww, I want to hold!!”

She called me today to tell me that while at a grocery store recently, she saw the cutest little girl, probably somewhere between 3-4-years of age. She was extremely cute and had rosy, chubby cheeks (“her mother must have eaten an egg every single day of pregnancy to have a daughter with cheeks like that!” my mom exclaimed), and for whatever reason, was wandering around the shop unattended by a parent. As soon as she made eye contact with my mom, she smiled, and then started walking up to her. My mom said hi and waved, but didn’t want to do more than that in the event the parent showed up and got mad. My mom turned to walk away, but the child was so intrigued by my mom that she just kept on following her around the shop. My mom turned around to interact with her a few times, but didn’t get too close, though she said many times she wanted to. Finally, the mom of this little girl appeared out of nowhere to gather her child, and she shot my mom an unfriendly glare.

“It’s fine that she wasn’t friendly with me,” my mom said, gleefully. “I don’t need to hold or kiss her child because I have a grandchild on the way!”

While I am happy that my mom seems happy about my pregnancy, I’m not sure how much time she will actually spend with her grandchild once she is born. Who knows how much time any family member will be able to spend with her given the distance. So that’s always why it’s a bit comical to me how excited they are about babies.