Sometimes I look at my crazy little toddler and am absolutely flummoxed and frustrated but then there are moments when I just look at him and smile in absolute amazement. My husband and I made this little person and he is incredible! He grows and changes every day and the time is flying by so fast. I am grateful for the sweet moments I get to treasure where I just feel overwhelmed with love. Tonight, during our bedtime routine, I had one of those moments. After we read two books, I turn out the light while he crawls into bed. I crawl into bed next to him and sing a few songs -- usually, as Logan calls them, "Twinkle Star," "ABC," and a song I made up when he was a newborn which he now calls, "Mommy Daddy." He's been trying to sing the ABC's on his own but after D it kind of morphs into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This time I asked him to sing it with me and he tried so hard to join in. I could really see how much he was concentrating! He piped in at H I J, M N O, R S T, and Y Z. That was the most I'd heard him say of the ABC's and I just felt so proud. When we finished the song, he snuggled as close as he could, was patting my arm, and asked me to sing Mommy Daddy "one mo tine." As I gazed at his angelic face with focused eyes and a sweet smile and smelled his freshly washed hair and warm skin, I felt like my heart was going to burst with love!
This, my friends, is oxytocin! Drug addicts are always after this feeling in the most harmful way, but the best way to achieve it is in the purest love: the love you have for your children. When released from the pituitary gland, oxytocin naturally counteracts stress and r
ecent research suggests oxytocin "reduces cell deaths in an injured heart and reduces certain inflammatory factors that can slow healing." Even though the physical stress of pregnancy caused my heart to fail, I am absolutely certain the love I have for my son helped me heal!
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| Logan and me when he was 4 1/2 months old. I think my smile shows just how in love I am with my sweet little boy. |
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