HE FOUND HIS FEET!

"She rolled over!"

"She ate baby food for the first time!"

"He grabbed a rattle!"

"She got up on all fours!"

"HE FOUND HIS FEET!"

These are posts I used to see on social media before I had kids, and I'd think, "What the heck?  Your kid found his feet?  Did he lose them?  I'm confused.  Why does this matter?"

And now I'm all HE FOUND HIS FEET right along with them.

Because, you guys?  He really did, find his feet.  And it was the cutest thing.

We were lying on the floor, just playing and laughing and practicing holding rattles.  And he lifted his little tootsies up into the air and spotted them and his eyes got big and his uncoordinated hands went up and grabbed onto his toes and he looked over at me like OMIGAH MOM, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I HAD THESE THINGS?!

And I almost wanted to run to Facebook and post a picture of him with his feet in his hands and let everyone know that E had discovered his toes, and it made me giggle... because I remember pre-kid days when I would've seen such a post and been confused.

But y'all, being a mom is the coolest thing ever.  Mostly because you get to watch life through the eyes of your child... you have the privilege of watching your baby spot his hands for the first time, find his feet, learn how to roll over/crawl/walk/run.  It's incredible, really, to see all of these firsts, to watch an innocent, chubby body discover the world wide-eyed and curious.  So yes, to us mamas, a baby realizing he has hands/feet/a tongue/etc. is remarkable.  And exciting.  And worthy of documenting.

Especially when you thought you'd never get to experience said firsts again.

With CK, I definitely soaked in all of her discoveries and milestones, but I naively thought I'd get to experience it all a second and probably a third time.  Little did I know having another baby would almost not happen.

So with E, I feel like I truly am taking in every breath... every smile, every giggle, every snuggle, every discovery.  I don't want to miss a second of him.  Because, barring any other miracles, he is most likely our last baby.  And I want his childhood to play out in slow motion.  I want to remember how he feels in my arms, the silly sound he makes when he sneezes, how his eyes look when the sun hits them just so, the chubby little creases in his thighs, how he looks up at me and smiles mid-nursing as if to say, "Thank you, mama."  I want to remember how he surprises himself when a giggle erupts from his belly, his old man hair, how he looks at his big sister, the way he drools when he's sleepy, how he kicks his right leg when he gets excited...

And what his face looked like when he realized he had feet.

So bear with me as I continue to stay wrapped up in this mama gig, getting lost in my kids as I try not to let the little moments pass me by.  Because what I realize now is that those little moments... those hand-spotting, feet-finding moments... they're actually the big moments, and what matter most.