Reason # 1051: Watching My Family Love On My Baby

Since the birth of my boy, I have learned so much about my family and my husband's family. I never paid much attention to how they all love babies and kids. I mean it's a kind of a given, right? Grandparents love their grand kids. Aunts and Uncles love to roughhouse with their nieces and nephews or slip them a cookie when they know that kid's parents wouldn't have allowed it because they've already had five. Kids and babies bring so much joy to families. The silly dances and mannerisms they have, the way they mispronounce words, the questions they come up with... There is hardly a dull moment with little kids around! 

I have been an aunt for several years and watched how my parents and in laws bend over backwards for love their grand kids. I have watched them snap picture after picture, read book after book, and allow their grand kids to do things they never would have allowed their own kids to do. I knew what kind of grandparents my parents and my husbands parents were already... or at least I thought I did. Before my boy was born, I was more of a spectator, so to speak. I just watched my parents and in laws with their grand kids. I didn't know what went on "behind the scenes," like how much they would inquire about their grandchild and love receiving pictures of them. I didn't know they would jump out of bed at 3:30 am and head to the hospital (two hours away) when they got the text that my water had broke. 

There isn't much more I love at family functions than seeing my family with my boy. I love to see my mother in law hold him, smiling ear to ear, while my father in law talks to him. I love to see my grandpa wave at me from across the room to bring him over because his lap is empty and he needs a great-grand baby to fill it! I love when my mom and dad are nearly waiting at the back door to carry him inside their house when we visit. Or when one of my siblings says "do I get to hold him today or not?"

My little man brings so much joy to my husband and I, and it just makes my heart swell when I see him putting a smile on others faces as well. What do you love about watching your family around your little ones?