We Love 'Im

I've had so much fun being Jesse's Mom lately. We're best buds and get to spend lot's of time "hangin' out" together. Of course I'm so excited to welcome Jesse's baby brother here in about a month and a half (hopefully sooner), but I also get kind of sad when I think that these days of having just Jesse as my little buddy are coming to an end.

I wanted to share some of the reasons I love being Jesse's Mom.

He's super sweet (most of the time). Jesse's gone through nickname after nickname since he was born. Some have stuck, some have come and gone. Bubby, Bub, Bub da boy, Boody, Boodah, Boodah Boy, Little, Little Man, Cute, etc. I know....I'm weird.....they just come out ok. Anyway, lately I've been calling him Sweet, and Little Sweet because he is! For example he's really good about saying "thank you mommy" when I do things for him. This isn't really something I've drilled him on, in fact it usually takes me by surprise that he'll say thank you to me. And he really means it too! I'll do something like help him get a movie he wants to watch on or help him get a drink and he says, "thank you" to me as if I just made him the happiest kid in the world.

He's also sweet because he's considerate. He wanted me to carry him up the stairs the other day at the end of a long day and my back was just aching. I told him that I had an "Owie" on my back so he needed to climb up by himself. He did, but a couple days later I was wiping down my kitchen table and chairs and sat down on the ground to get the table legs really well. As I sat down I groaned as going from standing to sitting on floor isn't the most pleasant thing to do 7 months pregnant, and the next think I know Jesse's behind me with his face on my back. I asked him what he was doing as he was walking away and in his little 2 year old way of saying it he explained, "Kiss.....back......owie." My back didn't hurt and I had only mentioned it that one time a couple days ago, but somehow he remembered that and thought I needed a kiss to make it better. I'm almost in tears just writing about that experience (mostly because I'm pregnant and don't have the best control over the crying thing) but what a sweetheart huh?

Jesse loves to help! He helps with Laundry, dishes, throwing things in the garbage, making the bed, carrying groceries, etc. This can be frustrating at times for me but I'm really glad that he likes to help.

Jesse'a good for a big hug and kiss most of the time. Sometimes he'll even be the one to initiate them. Those are my favorites!

Jesse is our "Soffie boy." He loves to snuggle soft things, especially his soffie blankie. Whenever we give him his blankie his voice raises up to the top of his range with a little sqeaky, "ooooooooooh soffie," and he takes a few seconds to nestle his head into it.

Another reason we love Jesse is his quirky little voice. He has this little, teeny, nasaly voice. Maybe a voice that only a parent could love, but we just laugh at some of the things he says because his little voice makes it hilarious. Like when he yells for "Moooooooooooooooommyyyyyyyyyyy," or "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," when he wakes up in the morning, or when he wants more of something and says, "Moy." Jesse's a little behind with his speech, which we're doing some speech therapy for, but he's made so much progress since he's started. I love that Jesse is now interested in talking more and works hard to communicate with us through his words and say them correctly.

Jesse loves to sing! When we listen to songs he'll sing to them whether he knows the song or not. When he doesn't know the song he'll usually sing with about a second delay to the singer. It's funny, he'll also sing the instrumental parts in songs. You can often find Jesse singing to himself while he plays, both songs he's learned and songs he makes up. We play lullabies for him when he goes to bed and I love listening to him sing along to his lullabies as he falls asleep. He has such a sweet little voice that just makes you smile. The other day I had the boom box with his lullabies in it on the floor in Jesse's room and Dave found him laying down next to the boom box, snuggling his blankie, singing to his lullabies (somehow he figured out how to make it play).

Jesse's very clumsy. The kid can't walk across the room without falling down. He's also notorious for running while not looking where he's going and hitting walls. We went to the Dr.'s last week because of the whole swine flu thing and I swear he's the only kid that can come from the Dr. more injured than he went in. While we were there Jesse ran into the arm rest of a chair and got a black eye, got his head wedged between the chair and the wall, and opened a door on his toes bending his toenail back. It looks like Jesse inherited Dave's accident-proneness. If that's the case, we've got a long, expensive road ahead of us with this kid.

Jesse loves to laugh and to make people laugh. He's pretty much a goofball. He's constantly making funny faces, saying funny things, or making funny sounds to try to get a reaction out of us. If something does get us laughing he'll milk it for all it's worth. This might be a result of spending too much time with his Kocherhans uncles.
The more I write about why I love Jesse the more I'm realizing that these are things that he would probably get beat up for in Jr. High. But I'm more than content for the time being to let him be my considerate, quirky, clumsy, snuggly, goofy, affectionate, sensitive, soprano singing little sweetheart and I think most of these qualities will make him a wonderful big brother and a much needed help to his Mom.