Unconditional ...

I bring back a present for Monkey every time I go away.

Guilty parenting.

This time, along with the obligatory Swiss cow (she's obsessed with cows), I found her a little hand carved book, in a little hand carved box. Just delightful.

Inside it spells out all the ways you love someone, whether the person you love is angry, or laughing, or sad. I's beautiful. The Monkey loved it. (And didn't immediately try to cover it in glue, feathers, glitter or felt pens, so that's also a bonus!)

I've been thinking a lot about unconditional love. Even when she's being a total toe-rag (a skill that they seem to have nailed at *four and three quarters*), I adore her.

As she gets older, It gets a little bit more complex in terms of how I worry about her, and and the what-ifs, but it also gets simpler, because she's a noisy, laughing, messy reminder of just how simple life really is.

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.
It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
[Elizabeth Stone]