For the Fun of It

There is nothing particularly funny about driving home from Ikea. Which is why, if you had been in the car, you might have thought I was a little weird for bursting out laughing in the middle of the beltway. But you weren't there.
Little One was. She was there and She heard me laughing. And- this is what is so cool about Little One- She didn't care why I laughed. She just heard it, and it was a happy noise. So She was happy, and She laughed too. And there we were, a couple of sillies, giggling hysterically through rush hour, and I thought, "Exactly."
Being a parent is fun. It's not fun in the way I'm used to thinking of it. Not in the way pre-parenting fun is fun; an overwhelming, intense, boiling-over kind of fun. It's fun in this kind of gentler, waltzing sort of way. Not in big bursts but constantly, sort of like getting lottery winnings in annual installments rather than a big lump sum.
See, I have this person with me, all the time. Getting gas, buying stamps, pulling weeds from the walkway- all the time- who forces me to see the world with new eyes and reminds me of the latent adventure in all things. My life is really not glamorous or extraordinary.
But. These things are true: I am surprised at least once a day. I laugh out loud, at least 5 times each day. I feel joy to the point it almost stings, countless times. Every day.
Parent-fun isn't the wild, raptured fun that classically associates with the word; screaming, "isn't this fun?!" with a loud background rushing up and all around. Then later wake up with a headache.
It's fun I don't even really notice all the time. It's just going about living, details like unloading the dishwasher and wiping spit-up off the floor and checking the mail, just humming along with the rhythm of perfectly ordinary days. And then stopping sometimes. Maybe I see my kid taking utter delight in the shadow Her hand makes- Her own shadow, for goodness sake. And I think about that delight and sort of reflect on my ordinary day, my very usual life, and I add it all up in my head and realize that- I am having so much fun.
Being a parent is fun in a way that it makes your whole life buzz with it. It's so fun that in a quiet, sort of sneaky way, it's even fun when you are changing nasty diapers or waiting out a tantrum. Sometimes you don't notice it right away. But then you might be drinking your morning coffee. You might be chopping the bell peppers. You might even be driving, on the way home from Ikea. And then it hits you! All at once! That life is grand and that you are having fun with it. So much fun, it might just make you laugh out loud.