Asher, my sweet, 21 month old boy hugged me tonight UNPROMPTED for several minutes!
My son, is peculiar about touching. He gets this from me. Sometimes when he wakes up crying in the middle of the night I am not allowed to touch him, but I can lay beside him and sooth him, it’s the hardest thing for me. He pushes my hand away when I rub his back, I usually have to force hand holding, and any hugs and kisses that he gives me are only given after I ask him for them and even then are over before I can really relish them. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an extremely loving and happy child and I can hold and carry him and even cuddle him (sometimes) but he doles out physical affection sparingly.
Well, tonight, after his bath I was getting him ready for bed and I had just put his diaper on and stood him up on the bed so I could help him step into his pajamas, when he pushed them away, leaned into me and pressed his soft chubby cheek to my chest, wrapped his tiny arms around my body as best he could and sighed contentedly. For a second I wasn’t sure what he was doing, because this LITERALLY has NEVER happened before. Once I realized it was a hug it then took me another second to relax and enjoy it because I was expecting it to end almost instantly, but it went on and on for MINUTES. My heart nearly burst. It was perhaps one of the sweetest moments of parenthood that I have experienced yet.
It’s an interesting thing. You bring a tiny human into the world, and you love them fiercely, but it seems very one sided (especially at first during the blob stage). You love and love and love and they take and take and take. You don’t mind because the love of a parent is selfless love, but a small part of you is desperate for their approval. To know that you’re doing a good job and that they love you too. Then one day this perfect little soul will show you that they love you, completely under their own initiative. It is the sweetest thing.
It’s moments like these that make all the hard times, the sleeplessness, the exhaustion, the I.just.want.to.wring.my.hair times, the I’m.at.my.wits.ends time all melt away.
I always want to remember these moments.
Make me cry! So happy for your treasured hug, Lauren! There will be lots more of them! Hana at 2.5 is very demonstrative and liberal with her love and appreciation, whereas Maya (almost 10 mo) sounds more like Asher. She does give open mouth cheek kisses though, pronounced “wahh” rather than “mwahh”. All happy and loving souls, all connections with them so treasured! Awesome photo of you two. 🙂 Thank you for sharing.