Every day Baby Bug gets smarter and smarter. I can’t believe that humans develop so quickly. I have this sneaking suspicion that she’s starting to understand what I’m saying and I can’t get away with all the mindless babble any more.

We go for walks and I tell her about all the flowers we pass. I’m secretly plotting that she will know all her flower names by the time she’s three. Those other kids can know their colors and numbers but my baby is going to know the difference between Mexican sage and lavender. Who knows maybe she’ll be a botanist.

We always stop to admire the roses. There are a lot of white roses on our path. Sometimes I pull a long branch down toward her and she lifts her nose like she’s trying to smell them. But I really think she thinks I’m offering it to her to taste. Sometimes I forget to stop at a particular rose that we’ve stopped at every day for the last three weeks or so. When this happens she pulls sideways and strains towards the rose, quickly reminding me that we missed a stopping spot. So I retrace my steps and let her smell her rose.

Today on our evening walk to the park for one last push in the baby swing, we walked by a big rose bush with bright salmon colored roses lit up by the setting sun. I didn’t even notice them. I was too busy looking at the ground or thinking about who I was going to call on my cell phone or something. Suddenly Baby Bug started jumping up and down in her baby carrier and lifting her arms up into the air. I thought maybe she had seen a bird or something so I looked up to see what she was so excited about. And there it was. Two big explosions of orange against the periwinkle twilight sky, like tangerine popscicles against dark shadowy ice… it was beautiful.

My daughter, already she warms my heart.