Growth and Gratitude

David is nearly 11 months old meaning his 1st birthday is just around the corner.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “the days are long but the years are short”, right? I’ve found that to be completely true.

While I cannot believe he’s about to be one year old, it seems like an eternity ago that I was covering my shoulder in a burp cloth every time I held him because he was quite the spewer.

It’s like that was an entirely different baby.

I thought I was really going to enjoy the tiny newborn stage. The times I volunteered in the nursery at church, I always tried to grab the tiniest babies from the mothers dropping them off because I loved holding them.

As it turns out, serving for 1 hour is different than day to day life with a newborn.

As David gets older, and starts to develop new skills, I’m enjoying him more and more. Everyone told Justin and I, “it get’s better. . . just wait until you start to see some of their personality show through. . .”. And while we pushed through the challenging months of a newborn PLUS adjusting to parenthood, I held onto that statement tightly!

And I’m here to tell you, new mom, it does. And allow me to expound on that a little bit.

When they start to laugh, it will make you smile so big and feel joy that you’ve never felt before.

When you watch them start to feed themselves, meticulously picking up even the tiniest crumb, you will feel immensely proud.

When they begin to explore toys, in ways other than chewing on them, your mind will start racing with all the games you can play with them.

When they begin to babble and respond to your facial expressions or certain phrases, you’ll be so encouraged by the fact that you can actually communicate with them.

Each stage, as far as I’ve experienced in the past 11 months, brings different challenges while also bringing new rewards. David just started to pull up last week, and he’s already getting incredibly brave and lifting his hands off the furniture to stand. He never “hands and knees” crawled, so it’s funny to see him get so into standing and trying to walk. I’m actually pretty confident that he’ll skip crawling altogether!

I cannot believe my time with just David is already going to be “over” in a few months. I don’t mean that to sound negative, as I am not sad that I’m expecting another baby! I’m just trying to soak up my time with him, write down milestones in the baby book, and enjoy my first shy and drool-y little baby.

I look so, so forward to the two of my kids playing together one day. I’m curious about their personality differences, and even whether or not this next one is a boy or a girl! I feel a gratitude too deep to explain for this second pregnancy, and how easy it came to Justin and I. It took 14 months to get pregnant with David, and now he and this new baby will be about 14 months apart.

Last month was the 1 year anniversary of closing up my studio in order to stay home with David. From time to time, I’ll miss doing hair and seeing my clients on a regular basis. That was such a fulfilling career for me, and I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to create a “dream” job for myself for so many years.

But, staying home with David has been an absolute gift, and been even more rewarding than I imagined.

Feeling especially grateful today, perhaps it’s the time of year with thanksgiving coming up and all, but I just wanted to share that today.