As usual, I wrestled with whether to show the kids in these photos. In the end, I decided in favor of it for several reasons, some better than others:

1. This isn’t just the Reynolds clan trotting out to the grocery store with the kids in tow. It was clearly designed as a public debut — a See And Be Seen event, where the desired headline was not about Ryan Reynolds getting his star but about things like “adorable family” and “#lifegoals” and all the other things Magazine Twitter will publish/already has. Which is fine; I’m not pointing that out to be critical. It’s their right to make this a big family publicity thing if they want to, and even if it’s transparent it’s certainly more organic than suddenly being “randomly” spotted outside a medical building/Home Depot/family yoga class in Connecticut. But Blake and Ryan have spent so much time being guarded that they didn’t even TELL anyone that James was born until well after, and have dined out on their coyness about revealing names and genders and the like. So trotting out BOTH children for this was totally a chess move of some kind. The game is afoot, so we might as well play.

2. No children appear to have been harmed in the making of these photos, because all the adults around them appear to have their acts together and aren’t dressed in insane ensembles and/or making the kids wear stuff they will regret when they are old enough to Google themselves.

3. That’s not always the case with the Kardashians either — sometimes they all look normal — but for some reason the way they drag their young around CONSTANTLY in front of the flashbulbs bothers me more than this did. Because here, at least it’s pretending to be Dad’s Big Day, or whatever, and not just Day 557 Of Our Very Public Life of Walking Places In Front Of Photographers We Called And Who You Probably Know About As Well As You Know Your Uncles And Aunts.

4. THOSE CURLS. THIS CHILD IS DARLING. (See, I told you some reasons were really not that good, but… it’s so TRUE.)

[Photos: Fame/Flynet]