Falling In Love Again

Welcome back!

On my way back home yesterday, I’ve seen a duck leading its ducklings to the nearby pond. The happy family (a mother duck with 4 tiny ducklings who apparently were just learning to walk) strolled along the local road. The mother duck had been both careful and alert to make sure no harm would come to her ducklings. This scene made me smile and gave a start to a very interesting series of thoughts.

When your first child is born, you learn to see this world differently. You start noticing some things you thought never existed, you learn to appreciate even the smallest joys, and you wonder about so many things it feels as if you’re growing up all over again. There as so many discoveries to be made, it’s simply amazing!

But one feeling simply overwhelms you with joy: falling in love with your child.

 

Children Make You Notice

It’s incredible, how many things you start noticing with the birth of your child! From the day one, you are flooded with powerful impressions of every little thing around you which you may have never paid attention to.I remember the day when our little Elizabeth was born. And I think I will remember it for the rest of my life, because the miracle of her birth left me in astonishment. I also had shocked me to see the pain my wife had gone through bringing a new life into this world. I suddenly felt that I love her more than ever, and I was happy to be beside her to comfort her and to hold her hand.

I never thought so many tiny things would matter. I’ve paid attention to every medical observation and comment the staff made. I’ve read through the progress journal as they have been updating it. I have learned to notice even a small change in a baby’s heartbeat just by the sound of it. All of this was very new to me, yet I eagerly learned and processed new information and stayed alert for the whole 8 hours we had spent in the delivery.

From another hand, once the baby is born, you immediately start noticing any possible sources of danger or disappointment. You notice the temperature of the water when preparing a bath for the baby. You notice if it’s too warm or too cold outside, trying to guess how it would make your child feel. You notice things you pack when you’re going away for a weekend, making sure your baby is fully equipped. You do the same even if you’re going for a 15-minutes walk, because anything could happen: your baby may get thirsty, hungry, sleepy, warm, cold or anything else – and you need to be prepared for this.

What you also notice is love. Every morning I walk to our daughter’s room just to kiss her and say hello. She’s well awake most of the time, and now that she’s mastered hugging last week, she hugs me and returns my kisses. When I take her out of her cot and bring her down to our bedroom, I usually put her beside Jane so that she could wake her mother herself. These 5 minutes my girls have together are the best start of any day for both – they smile and laugh, cuddle, hug and kiss each other.

And in the evening, the first thing we do after we get back home, is to kiss our little girl with she sits in her grandmother hands. And then we rush into the bathroom to wash our hands and hug our girl ourselves. You notice love. And you realise suddenly there’s much more of it around you.

 

Children Make You Appreciate

I can’t say I was completely disrespectful to mothers before. I always suspected it was hard enough to carry a baby for 9 months and then to give a birth. But I never thought it was as hard as it really is! So this made me appreciate the sacrifice every woman makes in order to give a birth.Today, our little girl makes us very happy, and we appreciate every moment spent together. She’s a very keen learner, she grows quickly and she’s happy to play most of the time.

Before Elizabeth was born, we were not sure how it all will eventually work out. But she had won the central place in our family so easily and so quickly, that we can’t even imagine our lives without her being with us. She’s most loved and adored for us, and seeing her unconditional love and happiness makes us appreciate our lives even more.

There’s obviously a different side of how children make you appreciate things: by taking away opportunities! For instance, you appreciate a quiet and romantic dinner together with your better half much more when you have to plan for it few months beforehand! The same goes for any night out or late visit to your friends, because unless you have someone to mind the child, one of you won’t be able to go.

You start appreciating clean tables. You learn to cherish the quiet moments when you don’t hear any squeaky toys. You admire the time when you can be on your own, because you’re not the master of your time anymore… There is a million of tiny things and details you very quickly learn to appreciate! :)

 

Children Make You Wonder

Oh yes, they certainly do! In the past, we wondered if we were too young to be parents. Then, we wondered whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. Now, we wonder if her eyes are going to stay as wonderfully blue as they are right now. Now, we wonder how soon she’s going to start walking. Now, we wonder what is going to be the first word she’ll say.Children make you wonder about all kinds of things: from guessing what is it that made them cry to finding out what is the latest t-shirt fashion for their age.

You always wonder, how your baby knows you’ve just entered the room. You wonder, whether your little angel realises how big you love is. You wonder, how you baby always can take away any problems of your day with just one smile. You wonder, how you could ever live on your own, without this little wonder which smiles and kisses you back, asks you for a bottle of milk and makes you cry with tears of happiness.

 

Yes, there are many ways of how children can change you. But if there is love between parents and their children, most of these changes are only for the better. You learn new ways of being happy, and some of them are so simple you’d never believe until you try and see for yourself.

Our little girl has been such an inspiration to us in the past half a year, that I only hope we’ll be able to give her all the love and attention she may need. It’s an exciting feeling we’re going through right now: it’s like falling in love again – falling in love with our little angel.

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