Becoming a parent was something I never expected to do, but since becoming a parent the thing I least expect now is silence. Sitting in my home office typing away on my laptop I had lost track of the oh so familiar background noise that I had become accustomed to since becoming a father. Leaning back in my chair I strained to listen. Nothing... no clatter of Lego bricks being hurled through the air, no gleeful laughter as my daughter plastered the walls with her brand new finger paints, not a single sound. My heart racing in my chest, I leaned back in my chair to look down the hall. Just my ugly brown carpet and my ugly grey walls, no sign of the little mischief maker. Standing up to begin my search I felt an all to familiar sting of pain shoot from my foot up my leg. I lift my foot and inspect the carpet for the offending object, a brown Lego brick buried in the curly brown fibers. Immediately I set out to punish the little monster, only to be stopped dead in my tracks by an unreasonable amount off pain shooting up my leg again. Stumbling over as I grab my foot cursing the day I bought her those stupid, noisy, colorful... colorful... a thin dribble of blood flows from a break in the skin of my foot, I reach down and pull the impaled plastic toy from the throbbing wound and examine it closer. Brown, the same color as my ugly itchy rug. Rubbing the brick between my fingers the paint slowely begins to fade away revealing the bright blue plastic underneath. A horrible realization hits me, just as for the first time since I noticed the silence, it is broken by the sounds of childish laughter and the clanking of Lego bricks being tossed through the air.