A List, Because I Never Want to Forget...

1) What it felt like to have you snuggled up on my chest like a little bug when you were tiny and new.
2) The serious look on your face when I ask for a kiss and you lean in, mouth open, trying to give me what I want with all your heart.
3) How you look in the morning when I come to get you out of the crib...your smile is something I'll carry with me forever.
4) How you kick while riding on my hip when I ask if you want water, milk, or to take a duck.
5) How you kick and get excited when we go to turn off the alarm and I say, "Daddy's home!"
6) All of the various versions of your talking, and lately at night when it's time to go to bed and you keep talking through the pacifier in your mouth.
7) How you love to have your milk and how you roll over and smile at me while you're eating and when you're done.
8) The feel of your bare feet poking my stomach when I feed you.
9) How hard you pull on my glasses when you want to take them from me.
10) Napping with you.
11) Our daily walks and how you always lose your chupo and even though I retrace our steps I can never find it.
12) How you'll sit for 30 minutes straight while I read you 26 stories, and how you kick and make noise when I reach the end to let me know you want more.
13) How your face lights up when we turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger and Pooh.
14) The way you look on the changing table before your bath, all chubby cheeks, thighs, and belly.
15) Reading the Harry Potter books to you while you napped. You hung on my every word during your first 5 months of life. Now you want to be more interactive, so we're still stuck in the middle of book 5.
16) How you breathe through your mouth as you touch my face with you soft, chubby little exploring fingers.
17) How you love your sippy cup and figured out how to tilt your head back and drink your fill one day.
18) How you're so patient and persistent with learning how to feed yourself. You work so hard to get one piece of food clutched between your fingers, and when it falls out of your hand you don't react except to grab another one and start again. Those are admirable qualities, my girl!
19) How after 8 short months I can't even remember what my life was like before I had you, because I don't want to remember a life without you in it.
20) The sight of you clapping your hands and how seriously you look to us when you do it, to elicit our expected "Yay!" response.
21) How perfect you are and how much I love you, Sweet Bean.