Ann and I usually rotate which parent takes a child to Kindermusik, and today was Lilah's day to go with me. I love these days, because Lilah loves them. She loves music, she loves the activity, she loves singing (she's got remarkable pitch for a two-year-old), and I think she loves her Daddy.

Lilah is also potty training, more-or-less cold turkey. No pull-ups, just diapers during nap- and bed-time. otherwise, it's been big-girl underpants and accidents until the clean-clothes run out. So you can see why I was a little nervous about Kindermusik, and the errands that typically follow: today, Lowe's, Michael's crafts, and the gas station.

At Kindermusik, Lilah and I danced to a Botswanan folk song. We banged on a drum made out of a coffee can. We shook little shakers to the beat. We twirled in circles and waved hello and goodbye to our friends (mostly, by the way, moms and grandmoms. We had one other father attend regularly last semester, and a great uncle this semester, and otherwise, I'm the only guy. Another reason to love the flexibilitty of this job). When class was over, Lilah looked at me and asked "We go home now?"

After our stops, and a planned potty check, we snuggled up on the sofa to watch a little Sesame Street, and I made sandwiches--grilled "lilah-cheese" for her and a turkey and gouda for me. We looked at photos on the computer during lunch: "Oh Look! Who's that with baby Lilah?"

After lunch we went back to her room for naptime: I read her two books and told her a story about her baby dolls climbing a tall tree to find out what was glittering on top. On the way, the pass a chipmunk storing acords, a robin feeding her baby, a woodpecker pecking for bugs, a caterpillar spinning its cocoon, and a bug munching on a leaf. When they reached the top of the tree, they find that it was the sun glinting through the leaves, and feeling the warm sun on their cheeks and the cool breeze on their skin, the baby dolls fell asleep on the tallest branches.

I covered her up in her crib--these are surely the last days of that piece of furniture--and closed her door quietly behind me. I went and slept for 2 hours, she slept 45 minutes longer than me.

After nap was over, we split a kiwifruit and a piece of bread with blackberry jam on it, and waited for Ann and Collin to come home. I had to go out and make some photocopies for my exam tomorrow, but by the end of the day, when I put Lilah to bed, I had had a good day. And Lilah had had no accidents.

I know that for myself, such a life everyday would be very very hard to sustain. The moments are sweet and warm, and in some important ways sustaining, but they do not nourish other parts of my brain the way my career does. But for a day with my beautiful daughter, it was a wonderful one.