An Ode to My Baby

I have made more than 6,000 bottles for my children over the last six and a half years.
 
Six. Thousand. Bottles.

Soaking them, rinsing them, sanitizing them, filling them shaking them, storing them. With each new baby, has come the familiarity of the routine and five days in, you've got it back down.

As each baby gets older and needs fewer bottles, the amount of time it takes to make them gets shorter and shorter. And as the one year mark approached with the first two babies, a happy dance was done on the final night of baby-bottle making.

I am now on my final week of baby bottle preparation.

Because my final baby turns one-year-old on Friday.

Cue the waterworks!

I can honestly tell you all - without anyone telling my two oldest babies - that I don't remember having these emotions when they turned a year old. I was excited, a little sad, but just happy to be moving on to the next stage!

If you asked me right now if I would let Tess stay a baby for another year, I would say absolutely! I mentioned how Tess was the bright light in a dreary year and what I'm realizing is maybe Tess is just going to be that bright light forever!

This girl never, ever, ever ceases to bring a smile to my face. Or to her dad's face. Or her sister's. And when Reece remembers that Tess is around, he is so proud to show her off. Or not let a doctor in the door to give her a shot (even though she wasn't getting a shot).

Matt and I joke (in a serious way) that our kids are not like most kids and are straight-up crazy. After some long days, I believe that. But I know deep down in my heart that they are just normal kids. They just drive US crazy, which is different than being diagnosed cuckoo.

Our third baby just seems to watch the older two, soaking them in, laughing at them constantly, chasing them as fast as her two little knees will go. So it's hard to imagine that at some point, she will be categorized as one of our straight-up crazy kids.

But for now, I'm going to soak her up. I'm going to savor her saying 'Hi', waving to Wrigley in the mornings, her smile and laughter when Sloane gets home from school, the way she gladly lets Reece help her when we are in the car, her face attack when she knows her dad is trying to tickle her, her extra hard cuddles when she doesn't know someone and they are trying to talk to her, how she lays her head on my shoulder when she knows its time for bed and how she rolls right over on her belly as soon as she is laid down.

I know a year from now, I won't be able to list off all of these things that Tess did as a baby because I will probably have forgotten, like I have with the other two. But like the other two, I usually remember one very distinct thing about their time as babies.

And I will always remember that Tess always, always gave me a reason to smile!

The countdown to the tossing of the basin they sent home with us from the hospital that was used to give infants baths in, which in turn always became my bottle-making tub is on. And if you hear that I was crying on Thursday night while making bottles, you can believe that it was true.

An end of an era.

I love my babies.

And I've loved making their bottles.

XXOO,
Allyson