The Best Part

A close friend of mine told me yesterday that her and her husband were going to start trying to get pregnant soon.  And we talked about all sorts of baby stuff how annoying strangers are when you are pregnant and how terribly judgemental other parents can be, stuff like that.  And she asked me what’s the best part of being a parent.  All I could come up with on the spot is snuggling, but there is so much more that is the best part.  Here is by no means an exhaustive list:
-When I first saw Jude’s tiny perfect face and all of time stood still
-How when Jude was a little baby he liked to nuzzle his little face right under your chin so he could have his nose pressed up against your throat
-How sometimes when he is crying I can go over and pick him up and he immediately stops because me holding him just makes everything better
-When he sleeps he looks so peaceful that it makes me wish we had a video monitor so I could just watch him sleep all of the time
-Jude loves to make us laugh.  His new thing is to come over to me and press his cute little face against my arm and make fart noises on it.  And it cracks us up and he gets this proud smile and wants to do it over and over again because he loves making us laugh and be happy.
-How one day when I was sad and crying he came over to me (I was laying on the floor) and lays down next to me and tucked his little body into my arms.  And he was so sweet to me, coming over and putting his hand on my face and trying to make silly faces to cheer me up, which is amazing to me that a 10 month old (at the time) could be so perceptive of someone elses emotions.
-How we have trained him to go “Ah” after each drink he takes of something and how he will now do it in the middle of eating a bottle or even after taking a drink of something he doesn’t like he will make a sour face but still go “Ah”
-I love how he laughs when you tickle his legs and how every night before bed we have bottle book time and then S bounces him all around the bed crazy like, making him laugh and shout with glee to get all of his sillies out.
-How totally wild his hair was when he was a baby
-Really pretty much all of it is the best part.  I’m totally in love with my little boy and the family that we have created.  There is nothing like the happiness that we have found.
-Liz