Evolution, she is a hard mistress

Hearing Bennett cry is like kryptonite to me. It derails my thoughts, arrests my function, overtakes my heart. I can't imagine having more than one child crying - would I explode from the overload? I feel like I've voluntarily rendered myself more mortal than I was before.

The flip side, and there's always a flip side, is that I also feel more alive in ways I never thought possible before. Little things, like having a flabby belly, which before would have sent me scampering on the rat wheel of neurosis, are inconsequential. Perhaps annoying, but certainly not important. The joy of simple moments, the delight in being alive, in being human, is far deeper than I anticipated.

But still. I have the ability to be slain by a tiny creature who has yet to know an ounce of malice.

This parenting thing is intense.