sometimes love surprises you

There was a time when you loved him just because. There was a time when you loved him because he smiled and held on tight and made you feel gushy inside. There was a time when you loved him, even though it was tough, but because you had history you loved him.
And then there was the time when you loved him because you got to know him in a way you'd never known him before, his personality, his likes and dislikes, his temperament, his shy behavior, his excitement when he sees you and runs and grabs onto your legs...

I'm of course talking about Zain...(for this post anyways, but in reality, I feel like this about most all kids, and especially all the kids in my family.)

There's and a journey love seems to take when you watch a baby from month to month - sometimes from a distance, and at times with months in between but - the child grows and changes before your eyes, and the love I have for all my these kids grows and changes too.

This was the French family's first trip to see our new house...with a little one in tow and one on the way, you can see how few and far between visits like this may be, and so we cherished it.

What should I begin with? To answer all of the classic questions first, I'll just say, "yes."


Yes he opened and shut doors and cupboards. Yes he took dvd's off he shelf. Yes he wanted to help shut the fridge door every time it opened. Yes he ended up playing with tupperware on the floor. Yes he wanted to play in the cat dish. Yes the cat ran away from him and hid under the bed the entire time he was here.

But more importantly, he has a personality all his own and I love him for it.
He looooves couches and so he would sit and squish and bounce and roll all over the couch, for like, ever.



He also loves shoes, or bringing people shoes, or helping people put on their shoes, or maybe he just loves going outside and this is his way of telling you, "let's go outside." I don't know for sure which part of the shoe thing he loves, but the point is, he walks over to where your shoes are and brings them to you and holds one while you put the other one on, and watches intently as you do.



Don't ask me how he knew, cause Andy has like 3 pairs of shoes by the door, but Zain went and got the ones he'd been wearing earlier and brought them to him and held one while he put one on and then watched while he tied the second one. Too much. Look how serious he is about the whole thing.



He also loves Andy. Like goes to him and asks him to pick him up. Sits with him at the table, not like every minute of every day, but enough to make me melt a little bit inside.



And he's shy. Soo freaking adorable. This is one of his shy moments.



Oh and he loves Magic (the gathering)



...BOXES.

He also pitched in with the laundry. So that was cool.



Check out this freakin adorable family. Bam!



And another boy is on the way. So lock up your daughters now, cause if his brother's half as cute as Z...oh and they're also going to be genius level smart, I know it's not fair.