Kids are fabulous. Babies are generally adorable and gross and loud and slimy and boring. But there are moments before they start to talk and walk when you can still see them absorbing everything and discovering new things (omg toes!) and it's really refreshing and inspiring. They also have a tendency to make you very introspective, especially about how fucked up we are as adults. We are shy and scared and hesitant and follow far too many rules. We don't ask nearly enough questions, fearful of sounding stupid.

Kids are little sponges and will soak up everything around them. If you cuss they cuss. If you cross your arms, they will. They are finding their way in this world by copying all the things they see around them. They are full of intrigue and lack any sort of shame. They will question and question and question some more.

After spending a lot of time with a kid you will start to be annoyed by the endless series of questions and blow them off. Try not to - as much as humanly possible. It can be really fun and interesting to look into why they got to that question. It's human nature to connect different parts of our days: our conversations, our experiences, things we have read. But we mostly ignore these connections and they happen almost subconsciously. Kids don't. They connect everything in amazing ways and if you take the time to look into it, it can blow your mind.

I used to work dressing up as Ariel the Mermaid for kids birthday parties. It was pretty common for the kids to say "You aren't the real Ariel!" to which I would respond with something generic like "Why would you say that? Of course I am!"

One girl came back immediately with, "The real Ariel wouldn't have chipped nail polish. Duh." Oops. Fucking little observant sponges with no shame.