LOVE

I love my daughter.  I always knew I would love my children but I never knew how much I would love them.  But since I only have one child at the time, I will just say... I love Lyla!  Being a mom is one of the most incredible privileges in the world and the feelings that accompany it are indescribable.  The amount of love I have for Lyla is just... ahh!  I would do anything for this little girl.  I love...

•  sitting and watching her as she lays on the ground on a blanket and just kicks her legs with her braces on... it looks like she is snowboarding and it is awesome.  And she loves it too!  She'll just sit there for an hour straight, pumping her legs like it will be her last time so she is getting in as much exercise as she can!  
• giving her baths. We don't have a baby bath yet so we just hop in the bath tub with her and hold her while we bathe her.   She just stares at whoever is bathing her with this nervous look... not knowing whether or not she should be scared or smiling.  I also love when we pour some water over her face to wash the soap off... she will just close her eyes, tighten her body, and fling her arms all over the place as if she is falling off a cliff.  It is the cutest thing.  So we try to talk to her to let her know that we're there and that she will be just fine and that just seems to calm her right down.

that she knows me.  She knows my voice. She knows my smell. She knows my face and my body.  She knows Nate too and can just stare at him for the longest time! Nate facinates her.

the relationship we are building.  I love that she knows me as mom and that I can help her with whatever she needs.  This morning she woke me up crying because she wanted to eat.  So I slowly got out of bed, went to the bathroom, and finally made it over to her room.  I leaned over her crib and she didn't look at me but I said "Good morning Lyla" and without even looking at me she just got this HUGE smile!  And then she finally found my face and was completely pacified.  It was so cute!  Talk about the best way to start your day.  

her cute smile.  That smile melts me to pieces.  She can be fussy and annoying all day but then give me a smile after it all and everything is forgiven and forgotten.   It has been so fun as she has been more responsive lately and just smiles and coo's when I talk to her.  She LOVES talking back to me and to Nate.  

that she is "finding her voice".  Recently, Lyla has discovered her voice so she has begun to chat up a storm!  The best part, is that she is also discovering the different noises she can make with her voice.  So we will be talking to her and she will coo in this cute little voice and all of a sudden make this high pitch squeal and then this low grunting noise.  She is all over the place and it's so fun to watch her figure out what she is capable of.

that she has the girliest cry I have ever heard!  I'm going to have a little drama queen!

that she is learning to use her leg muscles.  A lot of times I will sit with her and hold her facing me and she will have her feet on my legs and let her body slowly slide down and then spring back up! She'll just sit there doing that over and over again.  A couple of times it has resulted in hitting me in the face but I still love her anyway.

that she sucks all of her fingers but her thumb!  Or she'll suck her whole fist.  She'll start sucking on anything really.  Last night I was holding her and she turned to my neck and started sucking (and it's not like she was super hungry because I had just fed her) and probably could have given me a hicky.  That would have been a fun one to explain... "No it wasn't Nate... it was my baby".  Wrong.

Anyway, I guess I could go on FOREVER with all the things I love.  These are all things that most babies probably do, but for some reason I am just fascinated with it all.  I just love her and sometimes I find myself almost in tears because I am so overwhelmed with the joy she brings to my life.  I love being a mom.