My Baby's Growing Up

I think I'm realizing more than ever lately how quickly Hazen is growing up. For his 2nd birthday, we weaned him off of his naptime and bedtime bottle. He didn't even bat an eye. I know you all are probably thinking, "Are you kidding me!?! The kid is 2, get that bottle away from him!" Hazen never took a binky, and until recently didn't have a stuffed animal that he loved, so his bottle was truly his one comfort object. I think that Jason and I loved it just as much as he did, because it was a time that we could snuggle with him without any interruptions. Now, Hazen has "puppy", and as long as he has him for naptime, it is completely seamless. We sing him songs before he goes to sleep, and he absolutely loves it. He snuggles up with us, and sometimes helps sing along. It really melts my heart. Hazen's been alive for nearly 800 days, and it shocks and amazes me how my love becomes deeper and deeper each day. He truly is the center of my life and what I was put here for.

He's also becoming so much more self-sufficient. When I'm getting ready in the morning, he'll either come hang out and play around the bathroom with me, or lay on our bed and read stories. He's becoming so good at articulating his needs. Just today, while we snuggled on the couch, he looked at me and said, "I love you Mommy". Tears streamed down my face as I exclaimed to him over and over and over again how special he was to me. I didn't even say it first! He's also getting great at putting together phrases like, "Cracker please, Mom?" or "Daddy, come here!" I love it if I'm in a different section of a store than he is and I can hear him hollering, "Mommy, Where are you?????"

It's incredible how quickly he grows. It seems like he stays the same for a while, and then out of nowhere, he gets so big. It makes me excited and a little bit sad. I can never say enough how lucky Jason and I are to have such a wonderful little buddy in our lives!