Amazing...

Friday night we went down to my mother-in-law's for a family dinner. My wife's aunt (her mother's sister) was in from CA, and everyone gathered at my in-laws' house for Chinese food. The three daughters were there, along with all the kids - our two, the middle sister's toddler (2½ years), and the youngest sisters' infant (2 months). It was kind of a child "Stages of Man"...

Holding the infant, it surprised me how quickly it all came back. It's been six years since I held my infant daughter, and the intervening years haven't offered much opportunity to hold babies, yet it was as natural as the day my daughter was born. I even managed to calm him down from fussing, rock him to sleep, and transition him to a bouncy chair so I could have dinner!

That's the funny thing about being a parent. You can't - or shouldn't - just turn it off; it's something that's ingrained deep in your consciousness, like how to ride a bike or the words to the "Brady Bunch" intro. We're done, happy with the two we have and with no desire to be outnumbered; yet the "new baby smell" is intoxicating. There's little on this planet more beautiful than a sleeping newborn baby; there's pure, undiluted bliss in a baby's smile.

There is something to be said, though, for handing the baby back to his mommy when he fills the ol' diaper, though...

That is all.