GIMME HUG!

There are moments of baby rearing that are really rough. Sleep training and learning to take care of a newborn top my list, but both are rewarding in their own way. Other things come with the territory, but I could never really complain about (sleep loss, learning to eat, tantrums).

The reality is: everything else is just pure bliss in our household. Summer is a confident, loving, intuitive, social, friendly, and careful. Whenever she knocks our socks off with something, a week later she finds a way to do it again. She is now a 3 year old living in a 1.3 year old's body.

Ramis and I waited for hugs from Summer for as long as she has existed in our world. She talked early at 8.5 months, with loving remarks not too long after. This was totally heart warming. She learned to hug and kiss from her grandmother months ago. Her 'huggies' are long, big, and frequent and her kisses are wide open mouth and very wet. She would ask for hugs by saying, "Hug!" to us or to new friends. However, there is NOTHING that can surpass her asking for a hug like she did today: "Gimme hug!" she said to her daddy today. There is nothing bitter about this sweet feeling I feel about my baby girl getting bigger; she is everything we ever could have imagined out of a human being and I can't even believe we get to enjoy her for the rest of our lives.

And, I feel even more fortunate that we have yet to be amazed again with baby boy on the way in about 4 short months. Only this time, we get to bask in it with our big, bright ray of sunshine.