Kid You Not

At the Doll and Teddy Bear Expo, All Those Quiet Babies Really Are Too Good to Be True

There near the "Queens Bear" booth is a huddle of women all holding "preemies" in baby blankets, chitchatting away. Off in the corner a woman from England pushes her newest infant in a white and red stroller. Another woman keeps leaning into the stroller and using the outside of her hand to brush the baby's plump cheek. In a nearby chair, a burly guy cuddles a preemie in a blanket, waiting for his wife.

Annette Hall, 55, turns the corner pushing a single stroller filled with her two little ones and carrying a third. Three young women run up to her.

"She got the one that we were holding," one of the women says.

"Yeah, I just got him," says Hall, a Baltimore resident, as she parks Martin, 2 months, and DeShawn, 2 weeks, off to the side.

"And what's his name?" the woman asks, the words coming out on clouds, almost dreamy.

"Amiryal," Hall answers, beaming like a proud mother.

"He is so cuuute," the woman says, and the other two women coo in unison.

Hall's niece, 34-year-old Annie Woodson, walks into the frame pushing her two: Sharyta, 5 months, and Tylisa, 6 months (whom Mom has nicknamed Tiny because she is so small.)

But Hall doesn't notice her. She is busy showing off her new baby.

"See, my boy has been circumcised," she says to one woman and takes off the baby's bottoms to show her. Another woman walks up.

"Ohhh, now he's embarrassed," she says and kisses Amiryal's tiny fingers while Hall puts his bottoms back on.

As you watch this scene of motherhood, it's easy to think of an early morning in Anywhere, U.S.A, in front of a Starbucks.