The Little Things

There are moments, as a mum, where you are struck in the face with a heart glow so strong that you think you might die from a joy overdose.

As my little one gets older and more aware of her environment, her personality is starting to really shine through and it is truly delightful to watch.

These are the things I love the most.

• Picking her up from daycare: I love this so much, I actually find myself getting a bit excited to pick her up as the time draws closer. I love walking into the nursery and seeing her doing her thing, unaware that I am there. Then, when I call her name, watching her turn in surprise to find where I am, then when she does, seeing her face light up, her arms flapping in excitement, and then, if I'm really lucky, bending down to pick her up as she either crawls to where I am, or reaches up to me. Also, hearing the daycare teachers exclaim about how excited she is is pretty cool too. I am still her favourite!

• Having her reach out to me when someone else is holding her: This is a little bit of a guilty and inconvenient pleasure. Sure, I feel bad for the person holding her, and at times, I just wish she would give me a few moments of baby free time, but that doesn't diminish the warm fuzzies when I see those chubby arms desperately trying to reach me from someone else's arms!

• Seeing her get stupidly excited by the cat, and seeing the cat get equally stupidly as terrified: This never fails to crack me up. As soon as the cat enters the room, Bean stops whatever she is doing and locks her gaze onto her. Her face is an inexplicable combination of pure joy, awe and amazement that such an animal exists. The cat however, will only ever wait until Bean has managed to crawl almost to arms length away, before quickly removing herself, it's like a torturous game of tag that will never be completed.

• Getting a giggle: This, is hard, hard work. Our little one isn't much of a giggler. She is very smiley however, and very friendly, but getting her to laugh, that takes real effort. When she does laugh though, it brings everyone running to see. You can't help but smile and giggle yourself, and no matter how much of a dick you have to make of yourself to get her to laugh, you will keep doing it until the giggles are exhausted, because hearing her laugh, is just, so, delightful. I think possibly, that's what angels sound like. I'm not even joking.