My biggest item on the to-do list this weekend was to mail Liam’s first birthday party invitations. I wanted to have them in the mail a week ago, but life got in the way, so I had to make it happen this weekend. As I looked at the stack of envelopes ready to go to the post office, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. My baby is almost one, almost a toddler, and almost not a baby anymore.
Later, we went to lunch at a shopping center nearby that has a pond with big fish and turtles. It’s the same shopping center where, in November of 2011, I picked up the cupcakes that would reveal to our family the gender of the baby I was carrying. Just a few minutes before I went to get those yummy treats, my husband and I had opened a card that told us we were having a boy. As I walked past the pond with the turtles, I cried tears of joy that one day we would take our little boy there.
That night, we went to my parents’ for dinner to celebrate my birthday. While my stepdad was preparing the meal and we were listening to my little brother’s story about his history project competition, Liam took three steps from my mom to me. It was pretty unexpected since he isn’t really standing without holding on yet, but we were all there (me, my husband, my mom, my stepdad, and my brother), we all saw those three tentative wobbly steps and we all cheered. Then, I cried.
Does this mean he isn’t a baby anymore? Some say that once a child is walking, he is a toddler and others say it isn’t until after his first birthday. I say he’ll always be my baby. Even when he’s all grown up, I’ll always remember the times when I could kiss him head to toe and he’d giggle with delight, when I would wrap him in a towel after his bath and hold him while I sang him a song, when I was the only one who could comfort him after a fall or bump on the head. Just because he’ll be one soon and just because he’ll be running around soon, doesn’t mean he won’t still be my baby.
Liam is applauding himself for the major milestone and we are so excited for this next stage!
GOLD / grapefruit / 4403 posts
It just gets more and more fun! Every stage is a new adventure, and as sad as it is to say goodbye to the baby stage, the toddler stage is so much fun!
olive / 65 posts
This totally made me tear up! Thanks for sharing!
hostess / cantaloupe / 7319 posts
I’m tearing up reading this. We’re a month behind you and I’m already having a really hard time with the concept of “1″.
kiwi / 671 posts
Another tearer here!! So very sweet.
coffee bean / 41 posts
Liam and my daughter are about a week apart in age, I think. I have been a wreck about her upcoming birthday for weeks. It is almost like the emotional rollercoaster I was on before I returned to work. I cry at the drop of a hat. I cannot believe my baby is going to be a toddler. Fastest year of my life, I keep saying, but I really wish things would slow down, and yet at the same time I’m so excited for what is to come!
blogger / pear / 1594 posts
This makes me sad thinking about my baby growing up! He’s only 15 weeks, but it’s already moving scary fast!
GOLD / nectarine / 2146 posts
How sweet that you were all there for his “first steps.” If it helps, I refused to consider DD a toddler until she was 18m but she (and her brother) will always be my babies.
apricot / 265 posts
I totally know how you feel. My son is turning 1 in a few weeks and it’s a lot of mixed emotions. I’m already 100x more emotional since giving birth and I know I’m going to bawl my eyes out at his party!
blogger / pear / 1691 posts
My son came up can gave me a hug the other day and we had this conversation
Me: I love snuggles from my baby
Nick: mommy I’m not a baby I’m a big boy, I poop on the toilet.
Me: yes you are a big boy but you will always be my baby
Nick: no I’m big Lilly is a baby
Me: when you are as tall as daddy and have a wife and your own kids you will still be my baby and I will still love getting hugs and kisses from you.
Nick: mommy you’re so silly but I love you!
My goofy boy, he just doesn’t believe me!
blogger / pomegranate / 3106 posts
I feel the same way…. my babies will always be my babies no matter how old they get!
GOLD / clementine / 971 posts
He will always be your baby – even when he is 30 with a baby of his own!
blogger / clementine / 888 posts
@littlebittyhouse: Crying!
blogger / clementine / 888 posts
@Mrs. Train: So cute!
GOLD / grapefruit / 4476 posts
Ok now I’m crying at work. I can’t wait to get off and go snuggle with my baby.
blogger / apricot / 455 posts
I was just lamenting the fact that I will have a five-year-old in four months, so this really hits home for me. I will say that the 1-2 year old age was my FAVORITE! It’s getting good now, in a different way!