A Letter to My Son on My First Mother’s Day

A letter to my son on my first Mother’s Day:

Last year on Mother’s Day I was 9 weeks pregnant and only a few days past our first ultrasound. We waited for you for a long time and I held my breath as the weeks passed, hoping everything was going well and we would have a baby in our arms in time for Christmas. You joined us earlier than expected the week before Thanksgiving and everything about you was perfect.

A few days ago when I picked you up from the end of your second week of child care, your teacher handed me a homemade clay ornament with your tiny hand print pressed into a misshapen circle. A little note was attached about how your hand will never be this small again – your baby teacher commented that yours was the smallest in the nursery room {you are the youngest after all}. I’m not usually someone who gets emotional about crafts, but I cried a few tears on my walk home.

I’m overwhelmed by how much I love you – it hits me like a ton of bricks at random moments: hearing you laugh for the time for my off-key rendition of “My Girl”; feeling you snuggle up when it’s time for a nap and you want to be rocked to sleep; watching you learn to turn the pages on your baby books; staring in wonder at where your very long eyelashes came from while you sleep.

Here are my hopes for you little one on my first Mother’s Day:

I hope you grow up to be humble and kind to everyone around you.

I hope you inherit your daddy’s sense of humor, friendliness, and cooking skills.

I hope you learn to love the earth and respect the environment.

I hope you turn into a ‘foodie baby’ when the time is right.

I hope you learn to keep a 2 foot radius from the cat – she tolerates you now, but she might change her mind when you can grab tufts of her white fur.

I hope you appreciate wide open fields as much as living in an urban area.

I hope you realize how much your family loves you.

I hope your first word is Mama 🙂