I want to remember.

My son is now about 75 weeks old.  That's 17.5 months.  That's almost a year and a half.  It sounds totally, TOTALLY cliche, but every day I fall more in love with this child.  I'm trying really hard to keep up with him in photos, videos, memories...I can't take pictures in my mind fast enough, though.  How can I possibly commit all this to memory so that I never forget this brief season of his (and my) life?  

Right now, Thomas the Train is his favorite character.  But, he can't exactly say, "Thomas" yet.  When he sees the character in the store, or wants to watch his only Thomas DVD, he says, "Whoo whoo!" like Thomas does.  It's very sweet.  I want to remember that. 

In the past two weeks, his language has picked up dramatically.  Suddenly, he's repeating what I ask him to repeat.  He's practicing people's names and animals and noises.  And I want to remember how he can't really pronounce the "s" sound, but that he somehow gets the word "sissy" out with incredible accuracy.  I want to remember that his favorite words are "mama" and "dada" and that he practices them over and over again.  I want to remember "peeeeeeese" because it's so darn cute, and impossible to turn down.  

I want to remember.  Because someday he will be grown up.  Someday, not so far from today, he'll be very articulate and well-spoken.  And I will be very proud of him, but I will miss these days.

baby steps

my son is nine weeks old today.

it's so hard to believe that two whole months have already passed! it seems like just last week i was struggling to bend over my pregnant belly to tie my shoes... but, no. he's growing and changing all the time. it is absolutely incredible to watch and be a part.

at two weeks, he smiled for the first time and started to focus on objects in front of his face. now he's beginning to reach for the things he's focusing on. last night, he was playing in his swing while michael and i ate dinner. michael said, "look! he's grabbing his tray!" sure enough, his little fingers were tightly grasping the tray on the swing. my heart could've burst! and then i thought, 'how silly...he's grasping the tray, not doing anything really spectacular...'

actually, though, it was spectacular.

its spectacular to think that the Lord wired our brains to learn to do things exactly when we are ready. some things don't even have to be learned; we do them instinctively. ephram has eaten from the very beginning of his life, but no one taught him to suck.

i believe it is the same for all people who follow Christ. no one taught us to trust Him, but our instincts tell us we can. and i tend to think He looks at us the way i was looking at e last night. He watches us grow and develop and take those essential "baby steps" in Him to become mature in Him. He sees us do something that may seem insignificant, but He bursts with pride as He says, "look, Father! she's grabbing the tray! she gets it! she's growing!"

may we never cease to grow, and may we never despise baby steps.