My baby has an unusually strong grip, which used to be cute when she was very, very tiny, but now as she enters toddlerhood, is becoming much more of a nuisance. Still, because she’s so little, people think that she has this cute tiny baby grip.

As you can guess, this has caused some interesting situations.

One of the most memorable times was at a photo shoot in which she was all dolled up in a cute kimono for Hinamatsuri. As I sat down with the photographer in front of the computer to decide which photos to keep, my daughter kept on trying to grab everything that she shouldn’t, from picture frames to computer mice to — yes — the photographer herself.

I did my best to wrangle her away from everything, not wanting to cause an international incident, but the photographer was enamored with my cute, wide-eyed baby. “Oh, it’s okay,” she said after the umpteenth time my baby tried to grab at her.

“Are you sure?” I asked carefully, still wrestling with my baby.

“Oh yes, I’m good with children.”

I reluctantly loosened my grip on my daughter, and she rushed out as quickly as she could to grab the photographer’s face. At first, the photographer was all smiles. But then, when my daughter’s pincer-like grip established itself, she winced and pried my daughter’s fingers off of her face.

“She is stronger than I thought,” she said.