My Wish For This Year

When a baby cries, you can usually narrow down the cause to being hungry, being sleepy, having a wet diaper, or realizing that your idiot daddy can’t figure out which way is forward on your diaper. When a six-year-old cries, you have no idea why if they can’t tell you. It is heartbreaking when Audrey’s lower lip swells up, and the tears start flowing because I don’t know what to do. She can’t tell me why she’s crying, and she can’t understand when I ask her what’s wrong. What is causing the tears? Does something hurt? Is she hungry? Did the Dallas Cowboys blow a first-round pick on an undersized defensive lineman who will never see the playing field?

Luckily for me, she rarely cries. She’s almost always in a good mood. I’ve never seen a kid laugh as much as Audrey. Often, we will be sitting at the dinner table, and she will bust out laughing for seemingly no reason. Almost daily, she will run circles around the house, cackling and cracking herself up the entire time. I can’t help but laugh, but I always wonder, “What is so funny?”

It’s not as if I just said something funny, and even if I did, she couldn’t hear it. What is going on inside that little mind? When you can’t communicate, what would make you laugh unless someone was tickling you?

So, whether she is laughing or crying, the problem for me is the same. I have no idea what causes her emotions.

So, this is my wish for 2026. I just want to know what my little girl is thinking.