Mommy Mondays: All Growed Up

Yesterday our little guy turned two years old. It's hard to believe that just three years ago he hadn't even been mentally conceived, let alone physically. Back then, John and I didn't have a clue what the next couple of years would bring: we couldn't imagine the joy we'd feel when we got to hold our brand new baby for the first time, or the fear we'd experience when we brought him home from the hospital (as John would say repeatedly, "They're really just going to let us take him home? Just like that?"); I couldn't anticipate all the countless laughs John and I would share just watching Jack experience the world around him, or the way our bond as a couple would be strengthened by the presence of one little boy. Like I said, we didn't have a clue what life had in store for us for the past two years.  I think it's safe to say that's going to prove true for the rest of our lives.

Photo by Courtney Halvorsen

As I watched a gaggle of toddlers terrorize a soft play room yesterday, I marveled at all the individual personalities on display, the way these miniature people interacted with each other, their parents, and a pit full of plastic balls. The joy on Jack's face as his friends sang "Happy Birthday" to him was beyond priceless. He ate his homemade cupcake with complete abandon, then spent the half hour while I opened his presents playing with a single card. A friend posted a blog to her Facebook page last week, in which one mother explained why she wouldn't be teaching her children about Santa Claus. On the one hand, I could sort of see where she was coming from - yes, it's a "lie," technically - but part of the wonder of childhood, and to be perfectly honest, parenthood, is being allowed to believe in magic, to live in a world of imagination without price tags and credit card statements. I am so grateful to be able to provide that magic for Jack, and to have such amazing friends and family members who helped make Jack's special day just that - special.
 
Which is why, for now, Santa Claus is alive and well in our house. After all, it won't be long before Jack is all grown up and doesn't believe in magic anymore. At least until he has children of his own one day, and gets to experience that wonder through their eyes all over again.