> Little children are fantastic, especially when you can give them back and not have to worry about them. Its scary thinking about the enormous responsibility, and the amount of anxiety that a parent must feel at every moment of the day. I felt okay holding the little rascal, who pawed at me and tried to get hold of my glasses (they love glasses, babies do...isn't that weird?), but I could see his mum leaning ever closer to me the longer I held him, so I gave him back quite quickly.
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Little kids do rule, as long as they're not wailing in your ear. It is my firm belief that there are few sounds in this world better able to induce an instant headache than the high-pitched bawling of a very young child. Especially when they won't stop, no matter what you do. O_o

I think my favorite age for kids, though, is between 3 and 7-ish. (Especially after they've been potty-trained.) At that age, they have such amazing imaginations. I regularly babysit for two children in my neighborhood, Ben and Claire. Ben is almost four and Claire is almost six. I've been babysitting for them since Claire was six months old, so I've gotten to watch both of them grow.

Last time I went over there, Ben had set up a little theater using the kitchen chairs and a kiddy tent (that he said was a TV) and proceeded to put on a little show for me by saying there was a Thomas the Tank Engine movie on the TV and describing what was happening to me. Rather interesting. ;) And Claire has a bunch of toys she calls her story-telling toys that she'll act out stories with. The imagination and absolute abandon they have in using it amazes me. I remember when I was that age, when I could make a box a train or a house and turn the stairs into a towering mountain...

And I still have a really active imagination, but I seem to have lost the ability to apply it to the real world in that way. I miss that.

But when I play with those kids I get that back, even if only temporarily. Last time I was there, we climbed up a huge mountain with snow on top that never melted, and we visited the castle on top and watched the stars while I told them a story about a princess who once lived in that very castle.

So what if it was really me taking them upstairs to go to bed?

Sosi"playtime! Yay!"qui