A Heavenly Creature

The other day, my friend was here in Palo Alto for a play date. She commented on how long Winston's eyelashes were, and then said for the nth time, "you really should enter him into some modelling contests." Knowing how biased parents are and I am no exception, I answered for the nth time, "well, every parent thinks that the kids are really cute. And there are probably tons of really cute kids out there." She disagreed, "No I don't think so. I have rarely seen one so cute."

That brought to mind another weekend morning when I took him to the park nearby Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. I ran into a Chinese father of two boys who were also speaking Chinese. It turned out that he's a professor at Stanford as well and the younger son goes to the same Stanford daycare center. After we exchanged such small talk, he said, "your son really is good-looking. Look at those bright eyes!" - I did not take him seriously, since lots of people offer such compliments. Then two days later, I was stopped by a mother who was picking up her son at the same daycare center, "this is Winston, right? My husband said that he ran into you guys in the park." Winston is that memorable!

Obviously not all cute kids will grow up to look really great. But perhaps right now Winston is at the peak of his looks. When I look at him, I do often gasp at how incredibly cute he is. I almost feel like quoting most inappropriately what Elizabeth I said when she learned of her accession to the throne, "it is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous!" Indeed he is almost a heavenly creature.

Winston after flu shot