mushy mama

i must call a 'mushy mama moment' to recant my sickeningly sweet adoration for my son. i spent about five minutes looking at photos of him as a newborn and trying to imagine him so small again. now that my three+ month old is 15lbs and most likely over 25 inches long i am having a hard time remembering his tiny body snuggled close to mine as he no longer can even lay on my lap without his long limbs hanging off.

c has been doing great things lately as he's discovering his newest advances. the noises he's making and the immense amount of smiles he's been gracing us with often cause a reaction inside my stomach that nearly causes me to bubble over with giddy laughter. odd and unexpected as it is, i pride myself on such overwhelming reactions to my child. he just has power over me that i am sure other parents understand, power i am happy to give him as love holds no bounds. i keep having these 'you are just SO CUTE!' moments, you know, the ones where something is so adorable that you almost have to resist the urge to squish it? we call it 'petting the kitty syndrome,' as it's similar to the impulse to pet a new kitten really hard because you just can't get enough. (the further into explanation i go, the more odd it makes me sound..) moving on.

we also have discovery of our hands lately. c has been holding up his hands and his toys and checking them out with new interest. items that he never bothered with are now new gems in his expanding world. it seems, also, that his self awareness is coming into play as now he wants me to reassure him that, when i put him down, i am not abandoning him. it's a mere moment of screaming followed by the dawning of realization that 'mom didn't leave me,' and then he goes back to being perfectly content. he's becoming quiet interested in his surroundings, his pets, and the voices of mommy and daddy. hard to believe, but he even knows his name, as well as who is 'mommy' and who is 'daddy.' we played a little game a few nights back where e would ask, 'caleb, where's mommy?' while i was seated out of view. he would then swivel his head around and search until he found me. at first, i figure this to be a fluke. but each time he was asked, he would look in my direction then back to e. so i did the same but asked, 'caleb, where's daddy?' and the same result transpired. it seems that he is quickly learning the words we use often and recognizing  the people attached to them. fascinating how children learn and comprehend things, even at such an early age.