Little girls and strawberries, old ladies and bad perfume

Little babies are so cute. They come in many shapes and sizes. Skinny and light as air, pudgy, some are ugly truth be told, and some look like they belong on the cover of pampers diapers. But they are cute. You want to hold them and cuddle with them. You want to squeeze them tight and never let them go. My friend always says, I want that one, and I say sorry sweetie, that one is taken, you will just have to wait until you have one of your own.

What is it about little kids that make you want to kiss them? Pinch their cheeks, throw them in the air? Try kissing a little boy of 7. He will probably wipe his face and say 'stoooop!', like you just got 'cooties' all over him.

Then you get to an age where kissing is weird and awkward. Would you kiss your teenage friends on the cheek? I doubt it. You watch old ladies doing it in greeting and you think, that will never be me.

And then you grow up. You become a 20-something and you are so old and mature. Then it starts. You see your mother's friend at a lechaim, she leans in and gives you a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Sometimes it's an 'air kiss', a quick mwa mwa. It's still weird, but you feel as if you have been initiated into some secret club, a society if you will. You are old enough now that it is not weird to kiss someone on the cheek in greeting, it is mandated. And then you wonder if you are now 'old' or have just grown up. Maybe it is one and the same.

I love the smell of babies. Shampoo. Clean clothes. A smell unique to them. It is the smell of innocence. It is not the smell of cheap cologne, or 'old lady perfume'. It is not the smell of cigarettes or beer. Yes sometimes they smell like spit-up or poop. But most of the time they are just so perfect.

Try holding on to that feeling when you are watching 6 kids and finally get them all to fall asleep, collapse on the couch in exhaustion... and 'whaaaaaa!'. And when one of them starts, it is like that arcade game where the alligator heads keep bopping up and you just have to keep pushing them down.

Then babysitting is over and you hand them over to their mother and you leave and forget all the crying and the dirty diapers and the spit-up all over you and you say awwww babies are so cute I can't wait to have one of my own.

Thank G-d you only have one at a time.