Bursting With Pride

Every morning while I workout, Colton gets to spend time in the gym's babysitting room.  Now that I am not working, he is a frequent visitor, and we have gotten to know the ladies in there well.  Last week as I was dropping him off, one of the ladies whispered to me that they had all voted and Colton was the cutest baby that comes to the babysitting room.  I laughed, said something like "we think so too," and went about my day.  But inside I was beaming, and I was slightly embarrassed to have such a reaction.  I mean, it wasn't the first time someone had told us Colton was "cute"...I'm sure you other moms can attest to the fact that you hear that frequently and of course, each time it makes your day.  But being told he was the cutest made me feel like he (or I or we) had won some sort of baby contest...so lame, I know.
When Josh got home from work that day, I was filling him in on the large and small details of our day as usual when I casually mentioned the compliment from the gym.  My husband usually has very little reaction to my daily recaps, but when I told him this story, he stopped playing with Colton for a second, smiled, and had an "oh, really?" or something like it reaction.  He, too, was clearly beaming and secretly felt like the baby contest winner as well...

our pride and joy!

Hmmm...Are we that superficial or lame that a compliment to Colton's looks is our highest achievement?  I was a little bothered by this idea, and started thinking about it more (as I often do...classic over-analyzer) and remembered I used to get the same feeling (and still do) when people would compliment Chipper's looks.  Back then, I would joke that I had nothing to do with it...we just picked him out of a liter (well, actually he was the only one left a la Marly).  At least with Colton, we did have something to do with his looks, so maybe our pride was somehow a sense of validation and proof that we are clearly in need of some compliments ourselves?  I even tried to justify it and explain to myself that being "cute" at Colton's age had so much more to do with looks...personality, behavior, etc...so my pride at this compliment was natural, a validation of our accomplishments (thus far) as parents.  I mean, he is still far too young to be complimented for his brilliance, or athletic prowess, or artistic genius, etc, so this is about the highest achievement for our 16 month old....right?
As I share this story with you, I really hope it doesn't come off as shallow.  I really share it with you to hopefully confirm that I am not the only one that has this type of reaction when it comes to our children.  I mean, they are our pride and joy, so this reaction is only normal, right?  Please share...I really am very curious to hear your opinions and hopefully find out that you all have the same reactions when your child receives a compliment, no matter how slight...