Picking the Cutest Baby

I was invited by Samantha from Utah Valley Magazine (a magazine about all things gloriously and uniquely "Utah Valley") to join a small panel of bloggers to judge this year's entries for the "Cutest Cuties" Contest. Because, as you know, I'm an expert on cute babies.

I was excited and a little stressed about going this morning. Utah Dad can vouch for the fact that I agonized over what I should wear (the email said they would be taking pictures). I was a little over dressed but I only have two styles--church dress or lounging/jeans. I opted for the church dress.

I was also nervous about judging babies.

The scene with Seinfeld and Kramer looking over the bassinet and  trying to hide their true feelings about the ugly baby popped into my head a few times last night. Kramer, of course, fails. And I was afraid I might do my own foot-in-mouth maneuver.

Years ago when Utah Dad and I were first married we were members of a family ward in southern Utah County. We rarely attended this ward because we usually spent our weekends in Salt Lake with his parents doing our laundry. But one weekend we stayed home and that Sunday we sat on the very back row of the chapel which was separated from the other rows by the wide aisle. In the row ahead of us a baby was staring at me. She had pointy ears, one little tooth and a small tuft of hair that stood straight up on her head. She looked exactly like a little elf. I quietly nudged Utah Dad and pointed to the baby. "That is an ugly baby" he whispered back. Just then, as if the baby had heard his comment, the formerly serene elf baby pointed right at Utah Dad and started to scream and transformed into a demon baby. We were sure the baby had put a curse on us. (We're evil and we deserved it.)

If Utah Valley Magazine knew my history they might not have picked me.

It turned out that judging the cutest baby contest was much more fun than I imagined. The other judges from the blogs: Ma21cuteboy, I Never Grew Up, and  C.Jane Enjoy It were as delightful in real life as they are on their blogs. Admittedly, I was unfamiliar with some of their blogs before, but I know them now. The editors and staff from the magazine were also very friendly and personable. The food (from Kneaders) was incredible.

And all the babies and children in the pictures were very very cute. It was hard to pick just a few winners. There are a lot of really cute kids. Fortunately, some babies just really stood out from the others because of their extra smoochy, squishy, sometimes mischievous cuteness and we were all able to come to a consensus pretty quickly. You'll be able to see the winners in an upcoming issue of Utah Valley Magazine.