Maia and I took the dogs for a walk together the other afternoon.  It was beautiful outside, the sort of warm summer day cooled by incoming autumn breezes that make this such an amazing time of the year.

She took one dog’s leash and I took the other, and I just let her wander wherever she wanted.  She ended up leading us down the sidewalk, and every car that passed did so slowly — as the driver grinned at us.  Maia encouraged the situation by deciding to blow kisses to every patch of flowers and every parked car, then pointing and waving at every car that drove by.  It was a very slow walk.

But it was wonderful.  She takes such joy in the world, in the things I hardly think about anymore.  She stopped and pointed at yellow flowers, then white flowers, then a manhole cover, babbling excitedly about each.  We  listened to a dog barking at us from inside its house, then she pointed at the window and cried, “DAAH!  DAAH!” with a huge smile on her face.   She laughed and laughed as a pair of squirrels chased each other across the grass and then up a tree.

When we got to the park, she promptly ran towards the big wood and metal jungle gym.  There was one thing stopping her from reaching it, though: SAND.  DREADED, HORRIBLE SAND.  She circled that sandbox three times, then sat down on the edge and started crying, because while there was no way she was gonna let that icky terrible stuff get into her sandals, she reaaaaally wanted to get across it.  So I, of course, picked her up and carried her to the jungle gym, where she stomped back and forth across it with joyful abandon.

Then we walked home, blowing kisses to cars and flowers all the way.  I know everything is a phase, but this phase?  IS AWESOME.