With my recent posts about the baby blues, things I’ve learned since becoming a mom, and mom guilt, I started worrying that I wasn’t making it clear how much I truly love being a mom. Yes, it is hard, and yes, there have been some tough times (as there will continue to be), but there are so many moments that I relish and want to remember from my first few months of being a mom.

10 Things I Love About Being a Mom

The smile Olivia makes when I go get her from the crib.

A lot of the time when Olivia wakes up from her naps she is smiling and cooing, and while I let her hang out for a few minutes to see if she’s going to fall back asleep, she rarely does. When I go get her, I lean over the crib and say, “Did you have a good nap?!” and she focuses and gives this huge face-covering smile. Even her tongue is involved in the smile.

Olivia’s hands while I’m feeding her.

While I’m feeding Olivia she will grab onto my shirt or run her hand along my side. To me it says, “thank you Mommy. Don’t let me go.” I love these moments, and they’re one of the reasons I don’t mind being stuck sitting in one spot for several hours per day.

Seeing Olivia do new things.

I was very nervous about the idea of Olivia getting older when she first came home. I didn’t want my baby to grow up. But as the days started passing and she started “talking”, moving her head from side to side, smiling, and kicking the toys above her on the playmat, I realized that seeing her do new things is one of my favorite parts of being a mom. I love telling her what a great job she’s doing and encouraging her in her efforts.

Hearing Olivia “talk”.

Olivia makes quite a few sounds now, and she will even respond to us when we make the sounds at her. The best thing that started happening last week was when my mom was keeping Olivia while I ran to work for a few hours and she started her tongue rolling sound back and forth with my mom and my mom caught it on video and sent it to me. I love my girl, and I love wondering what she’s thinking.

Seeing Olivia’s expressive faces.

As she has learned to do new things, Olivia has also started to make new faces. She’s very clear when she doesn’t like something and when she does. She makes a very inquisitive face with loud noises like the garbage disposal and the blender. The other day when Tim was giving her raspberries on her face, she was making a face like she didn’t like it. We thought her face was so cute and funny that he did it a couple more times, and then she started crying. It confirmed for us that her face was a face of dislike. He stopped and she stopped crying and returned to her normal happy self.

Taking Olivia for walks outside in the Tula.

Olivia loves being outside. It’s confirmed by the crying that usually ensues when we come back inside. When we go outside and the wind is blowing, she licks at the wind and squints her eyes because of the bright sun. Sometimes she closes her eyes and leans back to feel the wind. She’s always trying to push herself higher in the Tula, and I truly believe it’s so she can experience the breeze and air.

Taking Olivia to water babies.

Though it’s really just like Olivia is hanging out in water instead of on the ground or a pillow, I love doing water babies with Olivia. She knows what she likes and doesn’t like during the class, and adores floating on her back. She will coo and talk and smile while she’s floating on her back, and I can hold her one handed just by the back of her head and she isn’t scared. As soon as they pull out the pool noodles to use as little boats for the babies, Olivia freaks out. She hates the boats. It has been this week since we’ve been going. I keep trying the boat in case she changes her mind, but she hasn’t yet.

Seeing Olivia in the rearview mirror when I’m driving.

Just like she loves going outside in the Tula, she also enjoys going out in the carseat. I love looking in the rearview mirror and seeing her in the mirror I have setup back there. She’s usually kicking her feet and trying to grab her knees or looking out the window at the outside. It makes me smile so big to see her so content and happy even when I’m not playing with her.

The baby cuddles.

I love holding Olivia, and though she only likes it for a short period of time, when I pick her up to carry her somewhere she puts her hands on either side of my neck and holds her head up to look around. I love how she holds on. I know I’ll always love the cuddles. I was never a cuddly person before having her, but since having her I love when she falls asleep in my lap or lets me hold her on the couch for a little while.

How much Olivia loves the bath.

She could be in pieces upset, but as soon as we put her in the bath she immediately smiles at us and calms down and stays happy the entire time she’s in the bath. She loves looking in the mirror, and she smiles at us in the mirror. I love it. I don’t love the screaming that ensues when we take her out, which I can never decide if it’s because she’s cold or because she wants to still be in the bath.

Being a mom is life changing and amazing. I’m not denying the hard or saying that we don’t experience the hard. I just wanted to list some of the great things. My life is very different, as is how I think about things, but I absolutely wouldn’t trade it for the world and am so thankful for the opportunity to be a mother. I know that we are blessed.

What do you love about being a mom? Or what do you look forward to about being a mom?