Return to posting...

Haven't posted in a long time, but I really need a restart.  Zola's going to be turning two on Thursday.  Watching her grow up has been amazing.  The strangest thing is just how *capable* she is.  This is the first young child I've spent any time with, and had always thought that kids under two years were essentially "babies."   Because most two-year-olds are a little shy around strangers, I had no idea they actually had personalities.

But Zola is by turns serious, funny, kind...  just amazing.

We were reading a book about "Caring for your Baby" last night, that she had picked out of her bookshelf, between "Green Eggs & Ham" and "Corduroy".  As we flipped through the text-heavy pages looking for pictures, we came across a picture of a mother playing with a reclining baby's toes.

I said, "Look, the mama's tickling the baby!" and Zola started laughing.   Then she said, "Xoxo tickles Papa!" and gave me a hug and started tickling me.  We both collapsed into a laughing pile on the floor.

There's no way to write about things like that without making it sound trivial, but it's such moments that make this whole baby business not "worthwhile", but something I can't imagine having missed.