First Steps

I wish I could gather the smiles, giggles and babbles and make a precious bouquet that brightens every day;

I wish I could string the slobbering kisses and pincer grasps into a sweet fragrant garland that never fades with Time;

I wish I could freeze-frame the first time you took the few steps to wobble into my arms, confident, beaming and unsupported.

Even though your first birthday went by a few days ago without much fanfare, know this Oggie, it didn't go uncelebrated! My grateful thoughts went heavenwards for allowing me this precious gift of Motherhood. Watching you walk around with support, independent enough to not hitch a ride on my hip all the time, I feel a slight sense of loss - very slight - for I can't wait to watch and wonder at the things that make you You.

"The loving mother teaches the child to walk alone. She is far enough from him so that she cannot actually support him, but she holds out her arms to him. She imitates his movements, and if he totters, she swiftly bends as if to seize him, so that the child might believe he is not walking alone... And yet, she does more. Her face beckons like a reward, an encouragement. Thus, the child walks alone with his eyes fixed on his mother's face, not on the difficulties in his way. He supports himself by the arms that do not hold him and constantly strives towards the refuge in his mother's embrace, little suspecting that in the very same moment that he is emphasizing his need for her, he is proving that he can do without her, because he is walking alone."
-- from WebMD site

I have a lot of the usual hopes and fears as you turn one, and all of those would sound terribly cliché here, so, I'll just simply state from my heart: I hope to be loving, caring, and nurturing, setting the example that I want you to follow, instilling the values of kindness, thoughtfulness, courage and strength, weeding out ignorance, prejudice and irrational fears, providing you with unshakable sense of security and self-worth as best as I can.

Happy First Birthday, Oggie!