Our kid is - how do I put this? - not pretty.

He's not going to win any cute baby picture competitions. It's unlikely he's going to get plucked from obscurity to appear in a nappy commercial. He's not going to be the next Hollywood child star.

He's got a high forehead and looks like he's bald. His ears are just a bit too big. And at the moment, he's got a nasty dose of baby acne, which makes him look like a teenager after a chocolate binge.

The colour of his hair might just be ginger. He's certainly on the roly side of roly-poly. He's got a giant melon of a head. And when he creases his forehead it looks like he already has wrinkles.

When people meet him, they fall in love with him. That's because he's a baby, and most people love babies. But they tend to be short of compliments when they look at our boy.

There are very few "wow he's gorgeous" remarks. There don't seem to be many "he's just so cute" comments. We haven't been handed a single "he's the cutest baby ever".

The best people seem to be able to come up with is "wow, he looks exactly like his dad!" And people, that's not saying much.

We think he's cute ... most of the time. Naturally, we think he is pretty special. But we are under no illusions - we are not raising the next Brad Pitt.

He does have his dad's remarkably high forehead and his dad's big ears. His acne, well, that's natural and hormonal and should clear up before too long. His nose seems to be a combination of his mum's and his dad's, and neither of us are enamoured with our own proboscises.

As I write this, my wife just called him a "cone-headed chubby butt" to his face. He didn't seem to mind.

The boy visited his newfound friends from our ante-natal group yesterday, and apparently he failed to dazzle. When I got home from work I asked the wife how it went and she bluntly told me "everyone says the boy looks like you."

She followed that up with "he's by far the ugliest baby there."

It is true that the other babies in the group are all Anne Geddes-cute, and our boy is no greeting card. But we don't mind, not one bit.

It seems every parent is supposed to think their child is the most beautiful baby in the world. Well, ours is just that, but in different ways.

We think he is an absolute angel when he wakes up for his midnight feed, guzzles without crying, offers up a burp or two, then goes back to sleep without any fuss.

We think he's beautiful when, during his bath, he decides not to splash but instead goes into a Zen-like state and allows us to clean his fiddly bits.

We think he's a heart-breaker when, as we change his nappy, he decides not to pee in our faces or poo in our hands and instead lies back and lets us get on with the job.

We think he's the cutest thing ever when, as we hold him, he opens his eyes wide, lifts his head up and looks around the room, taking everything in.

And we also get to see what few other people see.

Most nights, after he's drunk down the last drop of milk, the boy looks up at you with his huge blue eyes. He shuts them slightly, the bursts into a massive grin.

The left corner of his lip curls up and he smiles wide. His eyes seem to sparkle and sometimes he lets out a happy gurgle. If we are lucky, he will then fall asleep.

It only lasts for a few seconds, but it is enough to fill you with joy.

At that moment, he's the most beautiful boy in the world, no contest.