"Ain't She Sweet"

Another favorite old song, for the same reason as 'Bye, Bye': bouncy, fun, just sweet. All the reasons it was popular before 'pop' was a term in use. I remember singing this song when I was growing up, with my friend Veronica, and we would always change it to 'Ain't He Sweet', which I still do, most often. But when I first turned to the page today (and I'm not cheating at all by looking ahead, here), I thought first of my daughter.

It's been said a million times, and it's so so true: there is nothing that can prepare you for parenthood. And one of those things that can't be prepared for is the overwhelming love you feel for your child. It's just miraculous every day: how did this amazing, alive, independent being come from us? She is our daughter, and I see and hear us in her every day, and that's scary and incredible, and I see and hear things that are so *not* us, in good ways, and that's mysterious and profound. How did this happen? Her wisdom astounds me, because often it is the thing that seems to come entirely from her, from her true and deep self. And she's in touch with that self on some effortless level when that wisdom emerges. I know that this happens in 'grown-ups' too, and it's perhaps no less beautiful, but there's something pretty wild about the wisdom from the mouths of babes. Easy to forget along the way that we really did learn some of the most basic and important things about how to live our lives at the very beginning.

As frustrating as parenting can be (always another chance to be a bad parent!), I'm glad that in so many great ways, it is everything I wanted and more.