"Firsts" (August 2008)

Watching a baby grow certainly exposes one to many first instances. The milestones - words, steps, foods, giggles - and minutiae all become a blur. I knew beforehand that those things would be cool, and as they happen with Madeleine, now over 14 months old, I of course am beyond words about much of it.

What I wasn't prepared for was how actively I would participate in so many firsts! Madeleine's first trip to England was mine as well, and her first flight  my first trans-Atlantic journey. Her first camping trip was my first with a baby, made more intense and memorable by the fact that we were doing so in thunderstorms and mud at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Her ocean debut at the Virginia seashore at Chincoteague was a treat too - a huge pink moonrise over the Atlantic to cap it off. I guess we've both had quite a summer.

I suppose my point is that new experiences await right under our noses. The mundane and the magnificent, taking turns surprising us when we are ready and when we aren't.

It's often said that one of the wonders of parenthood is to see life through the eyes of a child as they learn and develop. True for sure, but I am also learning that I don't always need her help to see something again for the first time. Crawling around the garden at a baby's level reveals insects and plants that I hadn't really noticed. Hearing the elements of songcraft in children's nursery rhymes that make them contagious to the point of lunacy. And of course, the wonders of clouds and sunsets. How does one explain a sunset to a toddler? Pointing and cooing seems to work as well as anything else I can think of.

Speaking of firsts, soon it is time to climb on a big jet plane bound for western skies, and a long longed-for performance at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival at the foot of Long's Peak. A very big first, and I am excited like a kid about it. And while I am sad to leave the family for a few days, they have done one festival camping trip under adverse conditions this summer. No need to stretch that much. After all, there is a lifetime stretching ahead of us.