Unexpected joy

Friday again. The day where many a brave soul picks up pen or iPad or sits to a keyboard and writes, un-edited, for five minutes. And links up here.

Today's prompt: joy

I wake the baby to wrap her up for the daily jaunt to preschool. She greets me with a smile that spreads quickly across her face to encompass her whole body. It fills her eyes, her cheeks, her voice coos. She puts her shoulder into it and twists her torso to add an knee. So full of delight just at the thought that "you're HERE and you're looking at ME!"

I didn't expect this year, this pregnancy, this birth. And here I am, loving this tiny monkey wrench with intensity I didn't expect either. It could be an extra rush of hormones from an extra hard, fast labour. It could be relief after all this waiting. It could be she's just that darn cute. Or I could take a page from her wordless book and not analyse this joy. Just take it in, breath it while it lasts, record it deep within my sinews for when the hard days come and the euphoria's long gone. For they will. Parenthood is for the long haul, and no child is forever "easy".

But how simple is this joy.