Can't stop, won't stop growing

Oh, man. Could someone please tell me that this first year isn’t as hard as I believe it is sometimes? You’d think that because Akira is our second, we’d have this in the bag, but truth be told, we don’t. And there are days that are harder than others, when you think it couldn’t possibly get any worse but are completely proven wrong with teething, tears and the battle of taking naps. But then he smiles. And when Akira smiles, the feeling like I’m on the brink of losing my mind completely suddenly disappears. Poof! Up into thin air, it just vanishes, and I’m reminded of how incredible this small boy truly is.
Over the weekend, we went to a baby’s first birthday party. She’s the daughter of friends of ours who we met last year. Upon doing the math, I realized that I met this family when their baby was only 3 months old. It dawned on me just how fast their year had flown by and how we would be finding ourselves in that same spot of celebrating the first of many birthdays in no time at all. Akira is now just over 8 months old. That means that in four short months, he’ll officially be out of infancy and moving into toddlerhood. I am still trying to wrap my brain around that.
He has been crawling everywhere! No corner of our condo is safe anymore. And the kid is fast. He will be sitting up in the middle of the living room one minute and in the blink of an eye, he’s in the kitchen. It’s incredible. He’s also starting to pull himself up in his crib, which means that we’ll have to lower his mattress sooner rather than later. But I think the most fascinating development that he’s going through right now is his language. He is doing his darndest to actually communicate. I know I’ve mentioned this in a past post, but he actually is trying to mimic our sounds to get a point across. And with that, a secret language between him and his sister is coming into fruition.
Just the other night after I put both kids down for bed, I overheard them “talking.” So I snuck a peek. There he was, pulling himself up on his crib, facing his sister while she humored him and reminded him that he needed to go to sleep. She eventually turned her back on him to fall asleep, and he looked frustrated. After a few attempts at getting her attention and realizing that she had made up her mind to sleep, he gave up and lulled himself to sleep! You guys, I watched him put himself to sleep, and I was so proud!
So while I am still having my moments of struggle in this first year, I have to remind myself that it has already gone by so fast. And if I don’t stop to appreciate the moments—even the hard ones—they will be gone before I know it. These kids stay small for such a finite amount of time. It’s that truth that reminds me to take a step back, breathe and laugh. Because sometimes, that’s all that needs to be done.