A letter to my son on Mother's Day

Dear Ethan,

Today is May 13, 2018. You are exactly eight months and one week old. You love the elephant song, Goodnight Moon, sucking your toes, holding hands with daddy, trying new foods and of course, like most babies your age, you love to nurse and be cuddled by me, your mommy. This is who you are, today.

Today is also Mother's Day-- my first as your mother, your first as my son. It hit me a few days ago that Mother's Day, the gifts and the flowers and the cards, that's for me now too. I get to have Mother's Day, because I'm lucky enough to be your mommy. I was lucky enough to grow you in my tummy when you were the size of a tiny poppyseed, I was lucky enough to bring you into this world, I have been lucky enough to see you develop and grow and I'll be lucky enough to watch you become the amazing person I already know you are.

We'll have a lot more Mother's Days, and they won't be exactly like this one. You'll like different things, new things. You'll test limits and you'll set your own boundaries and there will be times we won't agree. There will be days we won't understand each other. There might even be moments where our tempers are frayed and we need to walk away and calm down. Over time, you might not need me as much, and that will make me sad, but proud, because I will know that I've raised you to be your own person, who knows and loves who he is.

We'll also forget. As the years pass, we won't remember every single song or book or game you loved. We'll remember the big picture, but the little moments will fade, just like how some of the moments from when you were one or two or six months old have already started to fade, even though I wish I could hang on to every single one.

But even though time will pass and our worlds will change, one thing will always stay the same: Love. I'll remember how I loved you when I made you, how I loved you as you grew inside of me, how I loved you when I met you and kissed you and held you in my arms. And, I'll love you as you become a toddler and a little boy and a teenager and a man, maybe with a family of your own. I'll love you because even though who you are today won't be who you are next week or next year, I'll always be your mommy and the most absolute part of a mother's life is to love her child.

Happy Mother's Day, my sweet boy. Thank you, today and every day, for giving me the gift of being your mommy. I love you.