My three sons had a run in with the chicken pox, so we were confined to the house for over a week. A couple of days into the battle with the varicella-zoster virus – after we’d had time to read that it is named that – my wife came down with a nasty case of the flu, so as she was trying to recuperate in bed I was flying solo. Our older kids basically lay around more sedate than I’ve ever seen them, trying not to scratch and listening to story tapes, but the 15-month-old spent his time improving his toddling and exploring his universe.

I have to admit that my initial take on this job was that I’d basically be following him around, keeping him out of trouble. I couldn’t have been any less correct in that limited assumption.

After I was stuck for a short time in this erroneous thought (a thankfully short time) I began to realize just how monumental and magical are all of the things he was doing. Everything he did was either new or something he’d done only a few times before. The entire world was fresh for him. . .

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Nathanael Schildbach lives and learns in western Massachusetts with his wife, three sons, dog, cat, and some racing pigeons that are supposed to be breeding but haven’t got around to it yet. His family’s further adventures are captured on his wife’s blog at www.embracecreate.blogspot.com. He can be reached at natehampton@gmail.com.