Morning Miles: No Shame, No Mother of the Year

I'm quite certain that posting this is going to put me in a special league. Ever since the day that Rachel (accidentally) ate the Scooby band-aid during dinner (it was on the tip of her finger for goodness sake! Hard to believe those things don't digest at all) I've known that I was never going to be a "mother of the year" contender (actually there was evidence prior to her band-aid ingestion incident but I refuse to give details). I think this post will guarantee that I will not be a nominee for either mother-of-the-decade or mother-of-the-new-millennium.

Rachel is a pretty cute kid. She's got big eyes and a wicked sense of humor. But she definitely was not the most beautiful baby. I mean, she was cute, but she was a bit cross-eyed and it took a while to really get a hold of her personality. Dave and I often wonder how anyone who has so much personality at 2 1/2 could have ever had very little personality. Maybe it is just that Lauren was such a charmer- from day one- with those big blue (now green) eyes and that smile. Lauren smiled at 10 days. Really. We don't remember Rachel smiling that early. But looking back at pictures has shown that she did. So maybe we have faulty memories.

That said, there is a baby picture of Rachel that has to be one of the absolute ugliest (or perhaps funniest?) baby pictures I have ever seen. In fact, it makes me wonder if there's some sort of "Ugly Picture" contest I could enter it in. Maybe I could host one of my own? I'm guessing that no "good" mother would be so willing to share pictures of her child looking so bad.

That said, are you ready?

It is bad. Really bad. I've warned you! Avert your eyes so that the image does not bore a hole into your retina.

But wait, that's not the REALLY bad one- there is a whole series shot (on the same day) of her propped up on the pillows in our bed. This one is pretty bad but here is the worst: