Baby Tea Leaves: iheartfaces: Laughter

I love this little man. He really really loves me. Me.

He reaches up for me. When someone else is holding him, he looks for me.

As a mommy, it is nice to feel wanted.

It makes a girl feel good.

And when I pick him up, he hugs me. Hard. He wraps his tiny arms around my neck so tight and puts his head on my shoulder as if I haven't seen him for days, or years. He's my little monkey and I know I probably shouldn't, but I could hold him all day and if it weren't for a hot stove or a potty, I would. He has such a wonderful, happy, beautiful soul and his smile and laughter is infectious.

He is the baby who says "Hi" to everyone. He's the one who waves to everyone and waits until they acknowledge him. He greets everyone who comes in the door, it doesn't matter if it's my house or a restaurant. And it's not like he wants the attention. Because he wants to give the attention.

If someone passes by after he says "Hi!" in his big happy smile with his big happy wave, and they miss it, I feel bad. Because they missed out on such joy. But he's just fine. He moves on to someone else right behind them.

You can imagine that it wasn't hard to find a picture of him laughing, it was only hard to choose which one to use. This one was taken during the self-portrait photo session we had a couple weeks ago for the self-portrait entry. For that one, I used a picture of me and his older brother, who was in hysterics with me. For this one, I was tickling him while I was taking pictures and he was in a full-body laughter and if I close my eyes I can hear it clearly in my head.

I just love my children. They are laughter embodied.

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