Time to experience summer

Max is a busy, busy, busy little bee.  I'm worried that his first phrase will be: "On your bottom!"  Since that is the phrase I say to him about 90 times during his bath.  He is up, down, here, there - what a curious little cat.  So this morning, you can imagine my surprise when he laid his head on me while we watched my smoothie blend.  I tried not to move so I wouldn't disturb this precious moment.  I think he realized how nice it was to snuggle into my neck, and he lingered for much longer than I ever anticipated.  I started to rub his back a little, and he stayed snuggling into me.  It was like when he was a teeny baby and he spent the majority of the day curled up on me.  Back in the days before he knew what movement his little body would eventually be capable of.

We are coming up on his first birthday, but I don't feel any sadness about how quickly the year passed.  (But DAMN GINA, it sure did go fast!)  I don't wish for him to be a baby forever, because when I think about him as an infant, I think of being scared and being tired.  I think of having a body in pain, and wanting to do so much but not being able to do a thing.  I do miss the sweaty naps we took on our couch, but I must say that getting past the infant stage is quite a relief.

As summer is starting to make its way into our neighborhood, it's like I'm seeing it for the first time...and I'm realizing it's because last year around this time, I was in full-on hibernation, quickly followed by a period of time where we had no idea what season it was because we were just trying to survive each day. If we left the house, I wasn't dreamily noticing the green, lush trees and the blooming tulips.  I was thinking...how long until he cries? How long until he's hungry? What am I doing leaving the house...why am I so hot...why did I allow myself to put on denim...I mean, you get the point.  My postpartum days were far from glorious.

This year, I get to experience summer in our neighborhood with a curious little boy.  I get to show him how to blow dandelions.  I get to put his feet in our sprinklers and show him the squirrels playing on our fence.  How cool is it to watch a little human experience such simple things for the first time??

So this weekend, we'll celebrate our Baby Max and the year we've had.  What an incredible blessing to watch a little boy's mind drink up the world around him.  What a feeling it is to shower him with love and know that he feels that warmth.  In the words of Miley Cyrus, "It's pretty cool."