Favorites

Every morning when I go in to pick Annie up out of her crib and she squeals and wiggles with what seems like true joy I think, “This is my favorite time of day.”  But then each night when I am feeding her her final bottle and she is all squishy against me and playing absent-mindedly with my fingers and hands, I think, “This is my favorite time of day.”  And then, truth be told, shortly after baby girl is asleep, when David and I are lying in bed watching (a lot of) television and just enjoying being together again, I think, “This is my favorite time of day.”  Is it possible to have three favorites?  I realize the whole nature of a superlative like “favorite” is that it only describes one thing, but seriously, I have three favorites.  I think I’m allowed that.

Babies really do a number on you, you know?  I mean, I don’t know that I ever once thought about my favorite time of day before Annie came along.  Babies just have a way of opening your eyes to things you didn’t see before.  I know every single one of my blog posts these days ends up being about the marvelousness of mommydom, but as I relax more and more into this role (read more about that here), I notice more the side effects of being a parent.  And they are really pretty cool.

Photo courtesy of Alison Salyer.

I have always heard that motherhood changes you, but until I experienced it for myself I never really knew how true that was.  It changes you because it brings your focus outside of yourself.  And becoming practiced at looking at more than just how something affects you (which I was so guilty of before) sort of allows for all this time for reflection.

I kind of erred on the side of too much self-reflection anyway, before baby came on board.  So now I’m almost insufferable with it.  So thank you for bearing with me as I open my eyes to this stuff.

Photo courtesy of Alison Salyer.

Returning once more to the theme of the opening lines of this post, I have some current favorite things to report.

1. The way Annie puts her arms around my neck now and squeezes like she really means it.  Every once in a while she will also press her open mouth against my cheek.  For a mama, that’s the best kind of kiss there is…even if it is a total accident.

2. Watching Annie’s face break into this crazy big smile when David comes in the room and makes over her.  And when he kisses her?  Forget about it!  Little Bit loves her Daddy, that’s for sure.

3. The tone of Annie’s voice when she babbles.  She’s been a bit of a squealer for a while and her voice for her shouts and yells is just that – a shout and a yell.  Now that she’s babbling, her “ma”s and “ba”s and “da”s are in a much softer voice.  It’s precious.

4. Mixing and matching baby clothes.  Annie is outgrowing clothes length-wise long before she outgrows them in all other areas.  This has left me with lots of shirts that fit while the matchy-matchy pants are too short (or make her legs look like sausages).  So I’ve been playing fashion plates with Annie’s outfits – mixing her Carter’s shirts with her Gap pants and her tunic-ish tops with her baby leg warmers.  Totally makes me feel like she’s a doll.  Hey, don’t judge.  It’s the little things, really.  

Chunky Monkey photo courtesy of Alison Salyer. :-)

But on a serious note for a second, the ways in which this parenting thing are changing me are surprising even me.  I knew it was going to be a whole new world, but I thought that just meant I wouldn’t go out to dinner as often and would get uninterrupted sleep less often.  The ways this baby have changed the way I think, the way I prioritize, and the way I view, well, everything, are astounding.  Funny how that works…