Let The Cuteness Overwhelm You

It won't surprise you to find out that my most often-photographed subject is my very own daughter. And I'm posting pix of her just because.... well, because she is just the cutest thing.

She just turned 6 months old and this has seriously been the funnest few weeks of milestones and new things: eating solids, rolling over, starting to sit up, sucking on her toes, making new sounds (mege, bege, etc). I know there are more that I just can't remember. One thing I did not envisage in becoming a parent is the excitement and fun that comes with each new stage. Every stage becomes my new favourite stage as she becomes more interactive and alert and mobile and coordinated. There's always new things to experience with her and it is such a blast. One of my favourite things too is that John gets to see all her "firsts" as he works from home. He also LOVES this too!

One of my favourite comedians, Jack Dee, does this whole bit on his kids and jokes about parents who resent their kids and resent their growth. He was on holiday with his family and were hanging out by a pool when their baby started crawling. The family nearby made some comment about how it's all downhill from there and just you wait till they start walking and then running. He then said something funny that I just can't remember (and can't seem to find online!) but that part always stuck with me about not resenting your kids. It's something that John and I are aware of and try not to do. Especially since we wanted Sophie for long and tried for her for so long that we can't be anything but grateful for every little part of her amazing existence.

And of course, most days it isn't hard to be super grateful for this little bundle of cuteness that smiles and giggles at us and gets excited when we walk in the room and makes the cutest sounds and finds everything interesting and laughs at the dog, etc. Though there are those moments of growth spurt night feeds, of why won't she go back to sleep, of why is she having a melt-down right now when I'm on the phone and about to check out of a store and everything is happening all at once, that we have to stop and deal with it and not get negative and not get frustrated. We're still working on those, and I think it's normal, and we always come back to, dang it, we just don't want to ever resent her and everything that she goes through as a normal part of development and growth in a baby. And so we try to remember to stop, and say thanks for Sophie, for every moment that we will get to spend with her whether she is giggling or crying, smiling or fussing, happy or having a blow-out and we forgot a change of clothes.

Bill Johnson, pastor of our church, recently said at a parenting class, "Every moment I get to spend with my children is a privilege and an honour". Definitely something we want to live by.

And now I leave you with some recent pictures of my beautiful baby girl (doesn't she just have the prettiest smile):