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I read just about everything I could find about this parenting thing. Serious books, funny books, magazines, pamphlets from the doctor's office. But there are little things nobody really prepares you for, that I do without thinking, only later realizing how surreal it is. For my husband, his biggest oddball moment was about 16 years ago, when he found himself using Q-Tips to clean poop out of a heating vent. Mine, so far, have included:

Trying to accomplish all manner of household chores from a lying-down position after my doctor put me on bedrest during my pregnancy. These included folding laundry, arranging to get the fence fixed and - one particularly loony day - mopping the bathroom ceiling.

Finding an empty auditorium at a band review to breast-feed (just knowing that any moment the curtain would rise to a stage full of high school performers).

Changing a really messy diaper while cheering on my stepdaughter and her cross country teammates as they ran by - and not one 'em stopped to help.

But there are also the other moments nobody prepares you for: yesterday, I handed my smiling baby to my husband, who took a towel and started mopping at my chest. Another coat of spitup, I figured, but this time I was clean. "Your heart is melting," he said.

Indeed.