Letters to Brady: 4 months

Dear Brady,

Parental cliches: they're everywhere, they're annoying...and they're all true.

"Your life changes forever." 
"It just keeps getting better." 
"They grow up so fast." 

Brady, you're 4 months old today.  It's really amazing the changes that a baby can go through in such a short time.  I can't even grow out my bangs in 4 months, but in that time you've doubled your size, learned to roll over, and figured out a way wrap your parents around your little finger.  You went from a little peanut who couldn't stay awake for more than an hour to a squealing happy little boy who is already learning so much.

Your laughter is the best sound I've heard since I heard you cry for the first time on your birthday.  If someone could figure out how to get that noise as a ringtone on your dad's phone, I would stop wanting to throw it out the window when it rings every 10 minutes. You've started laughing a lot.  You laugh when I put you over my head.  You laugh when your dad nuzzles his face into your neck.  You laugh too early in the morning.  Being at your beck and call and feeding you every few hours for the last four months has certainly been a task.  Of course, there are great rewards in knowing that I am sustaining a life, but you're not exactly thanking me for the great meals and clearing your plate afterwards.  Actually, you do a good job of spitting your meals back up, so I question how good they really are.  So now, to have an audible sign that what we're doing is making you happy, however silly it might be...that is a true gift.

Of course, as happy as we're making you, it can't compare to how happy you are making us.  You are just so....great.  Of course, I'm your mom, so of course I think so, but I've actually had confirmation from sources outside the family.  Last night, your dad and I were lying in bed and I had my phone out.  Somehow, we got to looking at pictures I had taken of you (all 43).  Here we were, two silly parents admiring their baby's pictures like he wasn't just right down the hall from us.  Soon after this, you cried. So we both went into your room to see and hold the real thing. Brady, you're pictures are cute, but I'll take the real thing any day.

I love you.

Love,
Mom