Last night, we had a baby over and I spent much time holding him. He was four months old and had the sweetest temperament ever. I had what I thought would be an opportunity to hold him for a short while and ended up being attached for far longer than I anticipated he would allow. At one point, he became slightly cranky because sleep was coming for him. Realizing this, I decided to employ the Nighty-Night technique I figured out when my niece was a baby. When he had been awake and engaged, I held him near my right side. When I realized he was sleepy, I turned him so that he rested on my left side and could hear my heart beat. Within minutes, his eyes closed but then reopened after a pause. This happened a couple of times until he fell asleep without reopening his eyes again. To test his level of sleep, I later lifted his free arm and dropped it. It fell straight down without any stiffening from him. He was well and truly asleep. A sleeping baby is one of the sweetest things in the world. As much as I would love to experience the sweetness of my own sleeping baby, time continues marching forward and, at 40, the forward march of time is not a benign element in my desire for children. Although I’m an extremely capable and independent person in other areas of my life, I realize this is the one thing I don’t want to do alone. In New Year, New Optimism I outlined what I would like to do from a professional standpoint. This post is more personal. Personally, I would love to, first, have a relationship (I am a step-by-step person). However, it would need to be a loving relationship where creating a family would be a welcome option. Then, I would love to create said family. As before, I’ll do what I can solo and leave things open for change. Anything can happen…