On August 16th, 2000, Dan and I went on our first date (one that I was so excited for that I didn’t sleep AT ALL the night before). Obviously it was a successful one, and lead to a first kiss that very night, a few more dates, a relationship, an engagement, a marriage, two beautiful children, and many wonderful days, weeks, months and now YEARS with each other. I remember wayyyyyyyyyy back when our relationship milestones came in the form of months. Now? Years. Years!
Happy eight year anniversary (not to be confused with our wedding anniversary!) Daniel. I love you!
On Friday afternoon I put Ryan down for a nap. Within a few minutes he was crying “mamamama”. That’s his thing now – mama (or mamama, or even mamamamamama). Did I mention that he finally called me Mama (heh, not Mommy like Alyssa does)? It happened a week or two back. I had put him down for a nap and he reached his arms up to me and said “mama”, clear as day. I leaned down, told him, “yes, Mama!”, hugged and kissed him. He did it again. Rinse and repeat. That’s his “thing”. Only now, in addition to that, he holds my face in his hands and watches me while I sing a song to him.
It’s funny how having an autistic (sorry Dan, I said the A word!) child can make you realize how much you take normal things like talking for granted. Alyssa did the baby babble that Ryan has only been doing for the last month or two. She talked before he even did the baby babble thing. I was being called Mama and then Mommy before Ryan was born. She was exactly 21 months the day before I had him.
With Ryan, these normal milestones mean so much more, because it shows so much progress on his part. Last night at dinner I said, “say Mama, Ryan!” and he did. Same for “choo choo” (he began imitating that after I gave him a toy train and conductor hat from the Strasburg Railroad on Thursday afternoon), “uh oh” and even “dada”. Four words repeated in the span of five minutes? Freakin’ amazing. Mama is the best though. I still tear up at that one.
Which is why even though he would have settled down to nap, I went in and picked him up, sang to him, then rocked with him in the living room until he fell asleep in my arms. Much like he did as a baby. The only difference between then and now is that he is no longer breastfeeding, and it takes two hands to pick him up and carry him. Oh, and his feet hang off my lap. But he still loves to be held, cuddled and rocked like a baby. And I still love doing it.
P.S. Yes, I am blogging at 6am. No, I haven’t been to bed yet. Yes, I’m working on that.
P.P.S. 8000 words into my 32,000 word weekend writing assignments! Whoo!
wow 8 years! congrats that’s awesome!
Congratulations!
Wow, 8 years seems so long to me. heh. I guess someday I may be able to say I’ve been with someone that long
Ryan is such a handsome little guy. I’m glad to read he’;s making accomplishments, etc. You must be proud.
Good luck with the writing assignments.
Awwww congrats on Ryan’s progress!!!! And happy anniversary!
wow, congrats for making 8 years! I hope to one day have a relationship like you and Dan have :).
And not that it compares at all, but today is the day I got my doggy last year…lol.
And Ryan is so. freakin. adorable.
He is so going to be a heartbreaker one day!!
Congrats for 8 years ^_^ I hope you have many more happy years!
This is a bit off topic but…
That photo of Dan made me realise how much him and Alyssa look alike! I’ve never noticed the likeness before