a small post about children

This past weekend I spent quite a bit of time thinking about kids. This shouldn't be unusual for me as I work at The Children's Museum but being off the floor and in my office screwing up mail merges most the day I don't have too much time to actually interact with kids. Maybe, the thought process started earlier in the week when from the IMCPL (about which Jim has a fabulous little write up)I borrowed Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Igf you haven't seen any of his films, Truffaut is magnificent at filming the lives and stories of children. Small Change is another classic to check out of his. At any rate as the weekend went on I found myself exchanging funny faces with the child sitting in front of me at church when perhaps I should have been paying more attention to the sermon. At one point during the sermon, I found myself actually wishing I had nursery duty to just play with the kids, instead of half paying attention to Mr. Preacher. Should I even be writing this?

Then yesterday was just a terrific afternoon. My friend Mandi was in town for her mother's birthday over the weekend, and as I was off in the morning I was able to meet her for lunch at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub. While it is always nice to see Mandi, it was extra special as she brought out her little baby Sofia. I have friends who have children. Going on 29 years thats innevitable. However, Sofia is the first child of any of my close college or high school friends that I still keep in contact with. Mandi's married to my good friend from college and former housemate Ray. There were numerous moments throughout spending time over lunch that something I said or did may have made Sofia smile. Maybe, she was smiling at something else, but for the purposes of this post, we'll say it was me. And at one point I held Sofia while she was sleeping for a little while. I was proud and beaming to Mandi that she wasn't crying when I held her. Anyone that knows me knows that even two years ago I would have been terrified to hold a 5 month old kid, or played it too cool to worry about a kid. I even wound up calling Ray later that evening to tell him what a cool kid Sofia is (as if the father doesn't know that) and warned him not to mess it up (which I am sure he won't).

Late that evening when I got home I was talking to my roomate Tim about this, and saying what a fun and nice time it was hanging out with Sofia and Mandi. We talked for a minute or two about how its fun to see little kids, before both agreeing that neither of us in our situations are not quite ready yet for a 24-7 commitment to one ourselves. But at the same time, looking down the road I finally do hope that one day I am lucky enough to be a Dad. And this may be the sappiest few paragraphs yet here, so if you can't deal with that blame Ray, Mandi, and Sofia.