When my daughter Ericka told me, my mind immediately went back to the early 1980's when I used to hold her in my arms and dance to Jimmy Buffett's "Little MIss Magic." When I sang the lyrics badly, she would throw her little blonde head back and laugh with the pure glee only a child possesses. The memory is as fresh as yesterday. But it wasn't yesterday. It was twenty five years ago. And by spring, she'll start to make life-long memories with her own child.

I know Ericka will be a fantastic parent. She is kind and caring. And she inherited just enough impatience from me to help her child focus and strive as he/she grows into adulthood. There is no question she will do a better parenting job than me because she smartly learned from my mistakes. And her husband Nick will complete a terrific parenting pair. The three of them are going to be a sweet family.

Of course with all the sweetness of a baby comes all the things that aren't so sweet. For instance, you'll learn sleep is overrated. A baby will prove you can go a long time without a full eight hours of shut-eye. Heck, you'll go a long time without a full TWO hours of shut-eye. In addition to becoming a pack animal, you will become a sleep camel.

Remember how you took great pains to keep your house smelling so good? You had all those nice fragrant candles burning. And then there was the amazing aroma of something baking in the oven. Those lovely aromas will get pummeled, pounded and swallowed by just one fully loaded diaper. How can one little bundle of love create such a large pile of yuck? Medical science has yet to answer that, but I suspect it was part of the plan.

In a few months, when the child starts booking around on the floor or in her walker, the bottom four feet of the inside of your house will look like a miniature tornado ripped through, pulling everything away that could be smashed, broken or eaten.

Spur of the moment decisions will be over. Pre-baby you could decide to go out for dinner one moment and be out the door the next. Post-baby, after you've packed the bottles, formula, diapers, rattles and teething rings, you've got to bundle up the child so the biting winter wind won't find one square inch of that gentle new skin. With that all done, you'll be too tired to go out to eat. In fact, you'll be too tired to eat at all.

And a baby shrinks your vocabulary. Instead of using big people words like inventory, projections and equity, you'll find yourself spewing words like binky, bah-bah and poo-poo. Just wait until you slip-up at work and tell your boss you can have the morning meeting right after you go poo-poo.

Oh yes, that baby is so much work! And will be for the next twenty five years. But it will be worth every minute of it. You'll realize it at her wedding when she surprises you with her choice of song for the father-daughter dance. You won't think she remembered. How could she? She was just a little thing. But she did remember. And even though you fancy yourself tougher than boiled owl, you'll have to quickly excuse yourself after that dance to go to the restroom to "adjust your tie." And the words still play in my mind...

Constantly amazed by the blades of the fan on the ceiling
Those clever little looks she gives just can't help but be appealing
I know someday she'll learn to make up her own rhymes
One day she's gonna learn how to fly
That I wont deny

I see a little more of me everyday
I feel a little more moustache turning gray
Your mothers still the only other woman for me
Little miss magic, what you gonna be?