Every once in a while, someone will do or say something that makes it very difficult to be a cynical asshole, and my three year old cousin Ava filled that role admirably the other day. I was taking her for a walk and saw some flowers that had fallen from a tree. I suggested she pick them up and take them home for her mother, at which point she insisted I take some for my "mommy and daddy" too. I then suggested that Ava smell the flowers, and asked if they smelled nice. Her response: "They smell more beautiful than I could have ever imagined in my heart." [pause for aww-ing] When they say things like that, it really isn't fair. Part of the wonder of kids that age is that they feel everything so acutely. Their emotions are essentially lacking any sort of gradation, so every joy, and for that matter every sorrow is felt with equal and extreme force. (The flip side of this equation was manifest by a meltdown over not being able to ride in a specific car seat)