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Building blocks.

Sometimes each day feels the same.


The feeding, the rocking, the consoling, the carrying. The cleaning, the tantrums, the crying, the yawning.

The draining, the depleting, the giving, the when-can-I-please-stop-doing.

All of these long days aren’t quite the same though. Because day by day, things are slowly changing.

Your babies are slowly growing.

Up, up and away, they’re forming strong roots and tilting ever so slightly towards the sun. And away from you, little by little.

Each time you wipe away a tear or pick them up or make them a bowl of porridge, they get another building block to make them strong.

Every time you have a dance party with them or make their dinosaurs kiss or you head out the door to work each morning, for them, or you buy formula late at night. Every time you thank them for a fossilised leaf or watch them jump off the couch for the hundredth time (make sure you watch) or you pump yet again or sterilise the bottles with blurry eyes. 

Each time you let them crawl into your bed or let them sleep in their cheetah-print dress or snuggle them or visit the park or watch a movie together or you listen as they practice a new word over and over or you dry their hair after a bath.

Every time you give them medicine or place your hand on their chest in the night or you find their favourite stuffed toy or you kiss their bruise better or visit the doctor or you leave them with someone you trust.

Each of these times, each of these tiny acts of love, are monumental. These moments build them big and build them strong.

Everyone’s blocks will look a little different. But they will be right for your child.

They lock in these small acts of love and store them away deep, nestled tight inside their brain.

It becomes their narrative. Their foundation for the courage to head out into the world, as themselves.

- I am worthy. I am cared for. I am safe. -

- I am loved. I am loved. I am loved. -

And with that power, with those building blocks that you kept giving, they grow more and more, up, up, up.

They become strong on your love and they are ready for the world with your love.

And at the end of each day when it’s dark and they are finally asleep, as you ruminate your mistakes and think of all the ways you’ve supposedly failed them, remember the magnitude of the ways that you haven’t.

Remember that you chose them over and over, even when it was hard. You chose love for them one hundred times over today.

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