*The Song of Motherhood*

"Listen, my favorite song is about to come on!!"

I can't even tell you the name of the song but I really do like it. It's one of those songs that makes you want to dance and gives off the feeling that it's going to be a great day.

You might be thinking I was referring to a song we all know on the radio, but I was actually referring to a song from baby boy's exersaucer he was playing in.

You know you're head high in the phase of early motherhood when you actually know which song comes next on a toy. I've tried to avoid baby DVD's and other things with kids songs because I know I'll have my fill in the years to come. I don't know why but after watching some DVDs of my nephew's one too many times, I got this nervous twitch and sometimes have "Hi, Sweet Baby" stuck in my head on repeat against my will. It makes me feel like I'm going crazy and that's why I'm trying to wait until he really cares. But this certain toy isn't nearly as fun without the song because it makes the animals move, so I made an exception. And I really do like the song. It's just part of the song of motherhood.

Things are SO much different than they were a few months ago. Five months is a glorious phase because they are old enough to sleep through the night and interact and get chubby, but they are still too young to teethe. It's this oasis of month five that is incredible. He really only cries over two things…people picking him up that he hasn't seen in a while and when I clean the bottles while he's in the room. When I do the dishes and his bottles are involved, he acts like I am the cruelest person on earth. He gives me this "Mom, how could you do this to me?!" look on his face like I don't feed him. I try to stuff him full before so he won't want it, but even that doesn't work.

I've finally figured out that waving something aqua blue (his favorite color) in his direction makes him happy. Not navy blue, not just any blue, aqua blue. He also likes it if I turn around suddenly and make an oversized smiley face like a crazed clown and bounce my head around. You'd think that would freak him out, but he loves it and will whine talk until I do it again, and then laugh really hard. I've finally found a way to do the dishes without him thinking I want to starve him on purpose.

There's so many things you think about and do after becoming a mother that you never even knew about before. I remember just thinking about babies and motherhood with this blanket of thoughts that covered it all, not knowing that a yellow lion pacifier would soon be a major part of my life. I didn't know that his favorite toy would be a blue dinosaur or that he would smile at my hair being blown everywhere by a blow dryer. I didn't know that even at 5 months he'd have to be talked to and would crave interaction and love to talk back and forth already. I didn't know that I would be able to know what he wanted so easily even though he can't talk in english back. I didn't know that my baby would love to burp on my shoulder in the big chair so he could talk at a picture of his dad. I didn't know that clipping baby fingernails would be extremely frightening or that the scent of freshly washed baby hair is the most wonderful smell in the world.