For 9/28/10 - Toddlers

At my job, clients often bring these short people with bobbly heads, wandering minds and tapered little bodies. Little wisps of hair (or sometimes a dense untamed shrubbery up top), and their little hands always reaching for stuff--elevator buttons, files, chair handles, toys someone brought for them. And they always look so curious, staring open-mouthed, impervious to instructions, as if here's a new thing, how do I relate to it. And their little heads bobble uncertainly. And they make noises in addition to words, and they laugh out loud and stomp or waddle unsteadily about. I work in a courthouse. Kids aren't allowed in courtrooms, but often the parents don't have sitters. They are angels, reminding us all about the stuff of life, our reasons for being in that building to begin with.