Revelling in Affection

I realize that I am a very lucky Mom right now. And that I should memorialize this reality while I can.

My 2 year old son is so affectionate and loving, it is amazing. He starts his day by kissing and hugging me hello in his crib. These are quick kisses, and I have to ask for them each time. He hugs and kisses his bear, Didi, and often asks me to do the same. I kiss and bite his toes while changing his clothes, and can his forehead as much as I like while he's getting dressed. Every time we walk downstairs together, I squat at the bottom to reward him with a big good job kiss and bear hug. Today I walked away before doing it and was reprimanded. "No mommy, (kissing noise)!"

Whenever I am away from him, and I or he comes back to the house, he runs at me with huge open arms, screaming "Mommyyyy!!" with big open arms and if I am not down on his level to receive his hug, he wraps himself tightly around my leg with selfless devotion, sometimes with his best reunion kisses. Every day, usually twice a day, we have a go to nap and then bed ritual which ends with me turning out the light while he sits on my knee to sing songs. He used to sit on my lap quietly while I sang but recently he's turned himself to lie sideways against by body and trails his hand up and down my arm, and sometimes he even plants tiny whisper kisses up and down my arm, his glee in feeling close to Mommy kisses. At the end of the song, we trade cheek kisses, at his insistence, three times before I put him into his crib. When he gets there, his refrain is "more (kissing noises)" and I have to promise more once I've gotten him his bed-time water. Then I get a full tight-mouthed heavy duty smack and hug, and then he lies himself down, face on top of Didi, to get ready to rock himself to sleep.

The last kiss of the day is the most romantic. From his rocking position and my position at the rapidly closing door, we look into each other's eyes from across the room and blow each other one last kiss, to last each of us until the next day.

That's probably about 20-50 kisses a day between us. How delightful it is to be loved by a toddler!