Time In A Bottle

I am not a baby person.  Put me in a room with a baby and a puppy and I'll pick the puppy every time.  I was actually a little worried when I was first pregnant that I wouldn't even like my own babies.  I envisioned me standing on the front step as Abe returned to work after his maternity leave, the baby and I both in tears.  "Don't leave me with this all day!" I would cry out.

Thankfully I love my own babies.  I am so thankful and blessed that I have been able to stay home with them.  I actually enjoy spending all our time together, including when I'm in the potty and the bath and all other waking hours of the day.

I was so grateful that I didn't hate my first baby that I didn't even notice how hard it was.   The more babies I had, the more I started realizing how much work they are.  However, Elijah is in that sweet spot right now.  That magical place where he is both a little boy and a baby at the same time.  I just want to capture this moment in time and bottle it up.  It's so fun to listen to him as he is finally using his large vocabulary to string together sentences, begin to sing, and begin to use rational thought processes.  Last night when I said it was time to brush teeth he ran in there, got his toothbrush and toothpaste and cleaned them all by himself.

Those moments like when he grabbed a piece of ice and said, "Rock cold."  And when he sees letters he calls them 'ABCBs.'  And when Daddy had a big ole manly achoo and Eli's tiny little voice followed it with, "Bless you."  "Fly broken," he said when he saw a dead fly.  "Belly butt big," he graciously pointed out to me; both of which those are big, but at that moment his little bitty finger was deep inside my bellybutton.  One of my favorites is when he told his father, "Night-night, Old Man."  It's the cutest thing when he refers to himself in third person.  "No Daisy's cup.  Lijee's cup."

I wish I could put this time in a bottle and cherish it forever.

Isn't he precious?