Une Envie de Sel

While we were up in Vail, we ran into a friend from our days in the Valley. Now, the Vail Valley is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to lifestyle. There are a lot of "Peter Pans", both male and female, and I would not be able to honestly say that one could never have counted my husband and I among those. But this particular friend was one of the more grounded and down-to-earth people that we knew while there. Perhaps for that reason, when we ran into her with our three-year-old in tow, my husband asked her if she and her partner had any plans to have children. She responded with the requisite amount of cringing, but said that, yes, they had considered it. 

"I just don't know," she said, wincing a little. "I mean, I'd like to. But at the same time, I get to thinking, and there are so many factors involved. I mean...I like my sleep!"

And here's the thing: we like our sleep too. Neither my husband nor I are naturally early risers.

Also, you've got to factor in the fact that both my husband and I believed for much of our lives that we would never have children. It was on neither of our to-do lists for life. Both of us progressed well into adulthood believing that we had no intention of settling down and raising a family. 

AND YET, two and a half years into motherhood, I felt compelled to stop this girl, take her by the shoulders, look deep into her eyes, and tell her the following things: 

YOU. 

HAVE NO. 

IDEA. 

Parenthood is the greatest romance of your life. 

Parenthood is the greatest adventure of your life. 

Every waking moment of parenthood will afford you more giddy  infatuation than any highschool prom or first declaration of love that you can imagine, more thrills and chills than the highest rollercoaster you could ever hope to ride, more vicarious glamour than the Oscars, more dramedy than the Royal Shakespeare Company, more vicarious glee than ten seasons of the Housewives of Orange County, and more contentment that 30 ounces of dark Italian chocolate, a foot massage, and a shot of Courvoisier. 

Basically, I'm speechless. I'm going to have to defer here to Cole Porter and say: 

You're the top!
You're the Colloseum.
You're the top!
You're the Louvre Museum.
You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You're a Bendel bonnet,
A Shakespeare's sonnet,
You're Mickey Mouse.
You're the Nile,
You're the Tower of Pisa,
You're the smile on the Mona Lisa
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop,
But if, baby, I'm the bottom you're the top! 

Here's to you, Q.