watching this two-year-old, it's hard to understand why there are people out there who don't want kids. i certainly understand the argument against having kids, or rather various arguments: they cramp your lifestyle, they require you to be extremely responsible and unselfish, they result in serious sleep deprivation, etc.. but this experience was so engrossing: the child had clearly just learned how to walk, and was astonished that when she clomped through the puddle in her cute cow boots, it went splish splash, the water flying every which way with a satisfying glomph.
and her father would hug her every time she came back, full of pride at this tiny thing with its inhuman carriage, still not fully comfortable with its growing body, eyes wide open. with a goofy, look-what-i-did grin after each traversal of the marine ocean which is three times as wide and three times as deep to her as it is to us fully-grown creatures.
i'm not saying i want to have a kid now, by no means, but i cannot go through my life without watching this up close and personal. and if it means i have to resort to single parenthood or a mail-order bride from some war-torn country, so be it.
but hopefully it won't come to that.