Ah-Wuh-Woo

I've always - literally, all of my life - loved children. Yet, there is just something so awe-inspiring about your own. As I posted earlier, my daughter Kaia is almost 18-months old. I've worked in the youth development field and know the stages of childhood development, but seeing it first-hand, and from day one, is amazing. Kaia is the "spitting-image" of her Daddy; although, every now and then, I get some sweet soul to lie to me and tell me that she looks like me : )

At times, she acts a lot like her Daddy - in mostly good ways at this point : )
- She is not scared of anything... as long as she can see that I'm nearby and watching.
- She is very curious.
- She talks a lot... She says over 35 words or phrases, many of which an outsider wouldn't understand - some of which I don't always understand, if they are out of our usual context.
- She eats anything and everything.
- She can go to sleep anywhere and in any position.

BUT, she is affectionate like me and, probably more because I get to stay home with her every day (or have since we moved from New Orleans to California in June), she has a lot of my mannerisms. I remember the different phases of her hugging skills - the first time she wrapped her arms around me when I was holding her, the first time she started patting my back as I held her, the first time she "squeezed me tight" as I hugged her. Well, recently, she has started a new phase... she can be in the middle of something (playing, eating, just sitting, whatever she's doing at the time), then she just gets up and comes over to me, she hugs me and tells me that she loves me -- mostly this sounds like *ah-wuh-woo*, but I know this is "I love you" because it's the same as she says back to me when I tell her that I love her.

This is perhaps the greatest of those awe-inspiring moments... when I get to look at my little baby girl and see a part of me and a part of her Daddy and know that she loves us... and, more importantly, see that she knows we love her.