Quinn has entered the cuteness stage far earlier than I expected. No, not the stage of being cute herself. That’s one she’s always been in and will never, ever leave (note to self: Re-read that sentence when Quinn’s in eighth grade, then cue the chianti).

No, my toddler is in the stage where she remarks upon the cuteness of other things and people. Like her pigtails, my earrings and her friends (especially a certain little boy at preschool, who is actually insanely cute).

We were visiting with my parents a few days ago when Quinn told me I was cute. Then she giggled and said “Grandma-cute, cute, cute!” Then we asked her if pop (my dad) was cute. She looked at him intently. “No,” she said. My dad was pleased. “That’s right,” he said. “Pop is handsome.” She looked serious. “Handsome,” she said.

It’s really, well, cute. It’s also a little disconcerting, as she’s only 19 months old. As mother to a daughter, I promised myself I would remark regularly on her kindness, her bravery, her intellect. I have (I swear!), but I guess I’ve also been talking quite a bit about how adorable she is. The truth is, she doesn’t say things are smart (though she does say weird!), and there’s no question who she got it from.

Guess what, lady? The proverbial (adorable) chick has come home to roost. As a child, I was a girly girl. I had crushes on boys well before I was in my first training bra. I loved puppies and babies and shoes. I was also an excellent student, a voracious reader and an aspiring playright. For three years in a row, my elementary school performed the (awful) plays I’d written. I was quirky and funny and bright, for sure. But I was also a cuteness addict (though as an adult I managed to avoid total cuteness fanaticism).

But I’m not too worried about Quinn. She also likes scary and weird stuff. She is really refreshingly geeky, in fact. Whereas I loved Cabbage Patch Kids, Baby Sitters Club books and My Little Ponies, her major obsessions to date are crocodiles (the real ones that eat wildebeasts, not the cute cartoony ones), dinosaurs and robots. When we go to the zoo, we spend most of our time in the Day House, communing with the reptiles (my personal pick would be those adorable Meerkats, but Quinn wants nothing to do with them).

So while I will be working on a more expanded vocabulary around my toddler, I’m not going to invest in Sanrio stock just yet.