What a beautiful baby!

I didn't learn that if babies are going to have a fussy period in their early lives, they are likely to begin fussing about 4 weeks after their due date until well into the fussiness. Incidentally, I find it quite interesting but not surprising that many of babies' early developmental milestones are clocked from their due date instead of their birth date. Talk about feeling irrelevant as a parent! At any rate, in E.'s case the onset of fussiness coincided with the arrival of a particularly heinous case of infant acne.



(this isn't E. I decided we didn't need to photograph her acne.)

Of course, I was slightly bothered that my baby reminded me of myself in 7th grade and that her erstwhile soft and smooth cheeks were now rough and oily. However, what was remarkable about the whole thing is the effect it had on strangers. Before the acne appeared and now that it's gone, strangers always speak to me about my lovely baby, asking how old she is, etc. When I walk down the street with a stroller, passers-by peer inside to get a look at E and invariable compliment my child. While she had her acne those folks who got a look at her would say nothing at all. They might give me a pitying smile but, more often than not, they would not react at all and fail to make eye contact.

Who cares right? It's only a case of acne. The most difficult thing about it was, as I said, E.'s acne coincided with a few weeks in which it was a challenge to keep her happy. I wanted all those compliments because they made it easier to weather the few stormy evenings I was having with my baby.