Payback

I've mentioned here and there that B and I are only having one kid.  We have the same attitude toward our friends who are having more than one (or already have) that most of our child-free friends have toward us: you are crazy, dude.*  Plan C is the toughest customer we've ever dealt with; nothing has ever been as hard as just keeping up with her while trying to keep normal life more or less truckin' along.  Tasks that should be simple become complicated, and tasks that are complicated become nigh-impossible (and nigh-invulnerable.)

That said, the great, brilliant moments of parental Stockholm Syndrome make it worth it, when your little captor pays you back in kindness and/or hilarity in such a pure, shocking burst it makes quotidian emotion seem shallow.  For me, it's when Plan C laughs her ass off while I'm being silly with her; her eyes get huge, she adopts this manic toothy grin, and she loses it while I'm chasing her around with tickles or whatever.  This morning, B was out with our homie E and I had a good 15-minute "party dance" (translated: dance party) with Plan C to Scissor Sisters.  There is this guileless, utterly innocent adoration and devotion to her parents that is all the better for being totally selfish on her part.

This is banal and obvious to say, but it's all worth it.

* I want to be clear that this is in a friendly, supportive, just don't personally understand it way.