Is there anything in the world that brings more happiness to the heart than the pure joy of a 2-year-old grandchild?

[caption id="attachment_814" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Maddie in the water."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/167588_10150094106442122_838372121_6002222_4826254_n.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-814" title="167588_10150094106442122_838372121_6002222_4826254_n" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/167588_10150094106442122_838372121_6002222_4826254_n-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

It has been nearly a year since I have seen little Maddie in person, and she is exactly halfway around the world -- 12 time zones away -- from me at present. But I have written before about how Skype and my daughter Pauline's wonderful willingness to keep in close touch have made a huge difference in that area.

In fact, between Skype and Facebook, we spent three days last weekend keeping up with Maddie's toilet training. She's not quite 2 1/2 years old yet, but apparently she's doing as terrific a job at that as she has at all the other phases of her development.

I don't remember my own toilet training, which I assume is good. I have a feeling the only way you would remember something like that is if it had been extremely traumatic. I have at least one friend who is so anal retentive that I think he must have been toilet trained at gunpoint.

But back to the point.

The thing that's so strange for me right now in watching Maddie develop is that she is so bright and eager and so involved in everything, but she's still at a stage in her life where she won't remember any of it when she is older.

That's why parents shoot videos, and why grandfathers write about their grandchildren.

That and for the sheer joy of it.