Happy

Before I became a parent, it never occurred to me how much joy it brings when you see that your child makes other people happy. Of course I knew that babies make parents happy (usually. Or at least, overall. Maybe not every single waking moment). And grandparents are a given as well.

But I have to say that it truly warms my heart when I see my sisters interact with my son. My oldest sister has two children, the oldest of whom is 14, and my son is her first nephew (and if he'd been a girl, he would have been her first niece). She lights up when he crawls over to her and holds his arms out to be picked out. When she happily picks him up, he points and says, "Go." She patiently takes him to wherever he wants to go and describes to him all the things he's looking at. (Meanwhile I'm grateful for the chance just to sit down.) My next older sister, the one who claims she doesn't like babies, has been known to sit with him on my parents' couch and look out the picture window with him, pointing out the trees and the birds and the clouds. She's even offered to hold him so I could eat, and admitted that he's "kind of cute". My youngest sister plays with him and laughs with him, and all of it makes me so happy to know that so many people, outside of my husband and myself, love him and dote on him.

Even complete strangers can't help but to smile when they see him while we're out and about, grocery shopping or eating at a restaurant. My child is such a shameless flirt and loves people so much that he just grins and plays games with anyone he sees. I smile when I see little old men grin at him, and little old ladies make silly faces at him. Once, at the store, there was a somewhat intimidating-looking younger man whose face just softened when we walked by him and he smiled and said, "That's a good-looking kid you got there."

Who knew that I would feel such delight in seeing that my child, without even trying, brings such happiness to other people? It's not even so much of a prideful, "Yep, that's MY kid" kind of a feeling as it is a feeling of, "Wow, babies truly are a blessing - and not just to their parents." I hope that we never become too busy to stop and notice the small things - all of them, not just the small people - that bring a bit of light to an often all too dark world.