I'll Love You Forever, I'll Like You for Always

I will admit -- there has been some trying days lately in our household as Lilah develops into an independent two-something toddler. Not only is it the whine, the loud yells, the throwing of toys, the instant it takes for a clean house (which took me ALL DAY) to be transformed into rooms looking like a tornado of toys have swept through it, but it's also the endless bouncing-off-the-wall energy that leaves me wondering, "What on earth possessed her to try that??"

When Lilah was still a "bun-in-the-oven", I got a book from a baby shower called I'll Love You Forever. It's a children's book about a new mommy and a new baby, and follows their lives through all the stages until finally the mommy is an old woman, the son is an old man, and the role of care-taker reverses. In the book, during the toddler phase the mommy says, "Some days this baby drives me CRAZY!", but at night during each life stage, the mommy creeps into her baby's room and whispers to the baby:

"I love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

I thought about this book when, at the end of a looooooooooong day, I came into the bedroom to see Lilah's new feat: climbing up and over our sleigh bed. She then bounced up to our wall-art (which I custom-made) and tried pulling it apart. Sigh.

But Lilah, I'll love you forever, I like you for always. As long as I'm living, my precious baby you'll be.

Thanks for letting me vent!