On a recent road trip with my family, I made the horrifying discovery that I had left my daughter's baby doll at home.

If you've ever taken a 12-hour car trip with a 2-year-old girl, you know just how bad this really is.

So my husband and I did the only thing we could do — we convinced our daughter that the toy in her McDonald's Happy Meal was a baby doll. To truly understand this feat of parental genius and persuasion, you need to understand the toy.

Roughly the size and shape of a potato, this plastic monstrosity was a replica of an alien from the movie "Monsters vs. Aliens." It had no facial features except for a cyclops eye that opened and shut creepily when you moved the spud-like creature up and down.

And yet, my daughter found no difficulty in kissing this little beast good night, stroking it as she fell asleep and even crying out in the night for her "baby." She couldn't sleep until that little one-eyed monster was tucked safely beneath her arm.

Watching her coddle and nurture this creepy toy made me feel two things:

1. I'm the worst mother on the planet for convincing her the cyclops freak was a baby doll.

2. My daughter has incredible depths of love.

She didn't care that the cyclops had no hair, no arms, no smile and no skin. She simply knew it was a baby that needed a kiss, and so she went to work nurturing it.

Its not the first time my daughter has taught me a thing or two about the power of love. When she was born, I learned the truth of the saying that you don't just love your children, you fall in love with them.

As I watched her lay on my husband's chest as a newborn, I developed a deeper love for my spouse that goes beyond romance into a new realm of intimacy.

She's taught me the wide breadth of love — the cacophony of intense pain and sheer joy.

And as I watched her tuck in her cyclops baby, she showed me how unconditional and blind love can be.

She taught me that same lesson at a nursing home recently when we danced and sang for the residents. One man was blind and didn't know my daughter was desperately trying to get his attention by dancing in front of him.

When her tricks didn't work, she slowly reached forward and patted his hand. He wrapped his weathered hand around hers and they sat there, rocking to the music.

She didn't know this man; she didn't know why his eyes didn't look quite right. But she had no fear of holding his hand and helping him enjoy the music, too.

One day, I know I'll have to tell my daughter about the dangers of the world, and why we can't just hold anyone's hand or bestow kisses and hugs on everyone in the grocery store.

I'll have to rein in her unbridled affection to keep her safe. How sad.

She'll probably even be scared of monsters with one eye.

But for now, I stand in awe of her ability to love without fear of ridicule or danger — even if the object of affection is a plastic cyclops that other people might not find classically beautiful.

Erin Stewart's blog, Just4Mom, can be found Tuesdays and Thursdays at deseretnews.com. E-mail: estewart@desnews.com