I love being the parent of a six year old. Each day is a grand new adventure for her, and life is unfolding in a beautiful way. It's marvelous to watch and experience.

This evening our daughter sang to me-- song after song about brushing teeth, saying goodnight, and beautiful blue skies. Shy, until now she has not wanted to sing along with either me or the radio, and has painfully endured school performances. So, when tonight after a bedtime story she suggested she sing me a song, I was happily surprised. My mouth felt caught in a perpetual smile as she created each new song and made her voice sound as musical as she could, singing with an unselfconscious freedom. Even as I write, I can hear her singing in her room— it sounds like a bedtime operetta. Such moments are intoxicating for me.