When Asa was a newborn, a couple of people asked us what our favorite part of motherhood was. I don't honestly remember what M. said - she's better at answering questions like that than I am, and probably took it in her stride. But I really had to think about it - first of all, I hadn't been a mother long enough to really examine my feelings about it; second of all, I was still sleep-deprived.
Finally, I tried to say that it was the sense of trust and confidence that Asa already had in me. It was, at the time, the fact that he knew my voice and M.'s; that just talking to him, or picking him up, could soothe him simply because we were his mother - his known sources of comfort and stability. I didn't say it this well then - see "sleep deprivation" above - but this is what I was going for.
And you know, it's still my favorite part. It's changed, certainly; now it's how Asa snuggles in when we sit together before naptime, it's how he puts his head on my shoulder when I pick him up, it's how he says "I yuv you, Mummy" or "I'm glad you're home, Mummy" or "I want YOU." And now, it's how Elias recognizes us, and is soothed by our voices and our scents and our particular ways of bouncing or thumping or rocking.
It's this, right here:
It's this, just as this is becoming rare: sleepy, snuggled boy with Mummy.
Awwwwww!
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