I am really, truly over the moon with happiness.

HDToddler called me, "Momma" today - for the FIRST time.

And not just, "HDT, can you say ...?" when prompted.

OH NO, my friends.

We were looking at our hallway wall of photos, and he was proudly naming everyone he knew in the photographs ... and when asked, unprompted, I was "Momma" in said photo.

MOMMA.

You see, I was in labor with HDT for a few hours LESS than 48 hours with this child. (1:00 a.m. Sunday morning, delivered 7:08 p.m. on Monday night, contractions 2 minutes apart, people)

He was the scariest shade of blue when he came out and had to be resuscitated. HDHusband kept telling me, "it's okay, he'll be okay". See, someone told me once that being a mother means that your heart will forever go walking outside of your body. My heart was that little blue lump on the warming table.

He had 18 ear infections in the first year of his life, plus a few other illnesses that are for the record books. I stayed up from 4:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. straight with a screaming, colicky baby, with a husband half-way around the world.

He's drawn on my walls with crayons. He tells me, "NO!" and runs away when I tell him it's time to change his diaper. He's been known to throw poop from his perch in the crib, all around his bedroom.


Today (then and always), I am Momma.

(and by God, I've earned it)