I love you, Mommy

Right around age 2 your child starts testing you.  They may give you a look before doing something naughty, they may take a LONG time to walk over to you when you call their name, they may ignore you when you are calling them, they may throw tantrums when they don't get their way, etc.

But something else happens at this tender age, your child starts saying what they feel.  They start saying things like, "I'm tired, I'm scared, I'm sick, I'm hungry..." etc.

It's an awesome time of learning for them and growing their vocabulary and learning how to obey.

And something very special starts to happen...they start climbing in your lap to cuddle you, or wrap their arms around your leg while you are cooking or washing dishes, and they look up at you with those big innocent blue eyes, and they'll say, "I love you, Mommy."  And the whole world stops.  Because they chose to say it.  Because it's true.  Because they love you.  And it is by far one of the best feelings in the world.  Tonight Mark climbed into my lap during movie time and put his head on my chest and smelled my perfume, and looked up at me tenderly, and said, I love you, Mommy."  And after I collected myself I replied, "I love you too, Mark, so much."

It's one of those moments that I wanted to record to look back and remember one of the many times you said it to me.