Emma is now very, very aware of her surroundings. Her smile fills up my heart like nothing else. She’s shares it all the time now – when she recognizes faces, hears voices in the room, when Richelle or me baby talk, when she’s being changed, even when she catches a glance of Xena walking by.

So when I read, anonymous rowhouse, the other day, this spoke to me:

i used to wonder what made people take their kids to all kinds of crazy places, i mean if i had my druthers sometimes i wish it were 1862 and my child(ren) would sit quietly making samplers while i worked on my latest collection of poetry (we’d be wealthy and have domestics).

but that isn’t what it’s really like.

somewhere between conception and kindergarten, if not at the moment of their arrival, you develop an almost palpable determination to hear your offspring go, “wow!” and see their eyes get big and witness all their delight and wonder at the smallest happenstance.

that is the best feeling in the entire world.

it starts, perhaps with the very first laugh … and continues through every redemption of prize tickets, rollercoaster, and bucket of seawater with a little crab in it, all through the seasons of their growing up.