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his own man

i'm not sure what i expected when i became a mom. i knew i was excited about it, i even knew it would be great. but i didn't anticipate what my favorite part would be: watching john change from a helpless baby to a real live human being with his own preferences and tendencies and opinions and drives.

some may say that at 21 months he doesn't have all that yet, but i submit that they've probably never spent time around a 21-month-old. exhibit a - a trip to the park:

at the park.
at the end of our neighborhood is a great little park. there are probably seven slides, multiple swings of different sizes, sand to play in, ladders to climb. when i ask john if he wants to go to the park, he says "whee?" (his word for slide.)

and yet, when we got to the park, all john wanted to do was run in the grass. forget the playsets. forget the sand and the other kids. sprinting back and forth in the grass was where it was AT, man. to each his own ...

exhibit b - morning time:

now that's a good sleep.
and a great sleep fauxhawk.
after i turned on john's light this morning, he muttered "no." i looked in the crib as i sang his good morning song, and that pic above is what i saw. surround by stuffed animals (hugging the ever-present kitty), eyes closed in denial. i could almost hear a much older version of him saying "gimme five more minutes, mom."

and every moment of every day, he seems to be expressing more and more of what he wants to do. and that is pretty freaking cool.*

* at least until he wants to do things like play football and jump off of high things. then i'll probably find it less cool.


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