Dad on Kara Mae

Her innocent, watery eyes mystified by the colorful turning leaves outside her bedroom;
The bear-on-the-verge-of-hybernating sounds she makes just before falling asleep;
The way her hands grab my shirt and neck for dear life when we stroll around the house;
The way she puckers her lips after having just received mom's milk;
Her perpetually sweet smelling hair, regardless of when her last bath was;
The way she's recently recognized that looking into mom & dad's eyes is a special form of communication;
Her manner of migrating across the bed throughout the night, to place her head beside dad's;
The smallest cheerios-shaped mouth I have ever seen: o
When daddy pats Kara's back, Kara pats daddy's back;
A little sweet potato mouth, smiles included, like no other;
That tiny left index finger frequently raised, as if practicing to make a salient point before a judge ... some day;
The uncontrollable kicking and smiling that Kara does when we walk through her nursery door in the morning, in response to her squawking;
Her amazement upon returning to her room and to her furry friends, after our two weeks in France; it was like Dorothy waking up in her room after visiting the Wizard of Oz!