9 months in, 9 months out

When I was pregnant I continually heard mothers tell me that as soon as your baby is born you get this overwhelming, unconditional love pour over you, and you know that you love this little human more than anyone or anything else in the world.
I was expecting to feel that way the moment Sawyer was born, but I didn't.
I was exhausted, and overwhelmed by the whole experience. The feelings I felt were more of relief and gratitude that it was over and I could finally meet the little person that occupied the same body as mine.
Don't get me wrong, I loved him. But it wasn't the kind of love I was expecting.

Over the past few months I have slowly developed the type of love that I was expecting; the unconditional, I-would-die-for-you kind of love. The kind of love that doesn't just make me want to take his pain away, but willingly take it myself if only it would make him feel better.
The kind of love slowly and softly creeps in and occupies a large part of your life and your heart. The part of my life that, if it were to disappear, would leave a large chunk of my heart missing and unable to replace.

This kind of love isn't based on biology or instinct; it is based on my growing understanding of Sawyer's developing personality and the experiences we share together. I love him for who he is. At birth I loved him, but I didn't really know him yet.

Speaking of personality, here are some things that have developed over the past month or so:
Aaron and I have discovered that he knows what we mean when we make the ASL sign for "book."
When we make the sign and say the word, he lights up and says "buh" and crawls over to his books and pulls out his favorites. It's the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

Once we're reading he will turn the pages at the appropriate time.
We read a lot of books.

He loves trying new foods. His favorites so far are steamed beets, asparagus, cheese, plain yogurt with some fruit, mangoes, cucumbers, and pineapple.

He has started walking already! He walks along furniture really well and can stand and balance, but he only takes a few steps at time. He just needs a little more confidence.

He has also started to say more than just babbles. He attempts to say book ("buh"), duck ("duh"), cheese ("tee"), car ("ca") and frog ("ga").

It's not much, but at least he's getting the idea!

Oh, and he does some random things, like hitting his chest like Tarzan. He mostly does this when he stands up on his own. For a while he went through a phase of scrunching his nose and squinting his eyes (see second picture above).

His eyelashes are growing longer and thicker than his hair. You can't see them in these pictures, but they are LONG.

Aaron and I love our little buddy!

Tweet

Pin It Now!