Have you ever watched a toddler’s face?

There is nothing guarded or held back. Emotions play out in all their ferocity and quickly flicker back and forth. Anger turns to elation when the blocks finally stay stacked. Happiness becomes sorrow when a loved one leaves the room.

My favorite toddler face is a mixture of surprise and wonder. Something like this:

The picture is blurry, but I think the general feeling comes across nicely. Noah was amazed that his Uncle Ryan could skip rocks across a river. It violated his fragile grasp of gravity.

More recently the face looked like this:

He spent a lot of our walk through Zoo Lights pointing and talking and generally being excited. However, it was the carousel that had him truly impressed. There were movement, lights and animals. Here’s a close-up:

Riding the carousel was an entirely different face (a combination of trepidation and sleepiness), but I never want to forget how happy he was watching the animals go around in circles well past his bedtime.

You can’t manufacture a face like that; you can only enjoy them when they come.