• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Dear Sabrina

  • Family
  • Happiness
  • Life in Sweden
  • Beauty
  • Thinking
  • Miscellany
  • About
    • Now
You are here: Home / Family / Happy Second Birthday, Leif!

Happy Second Birthday, Leif!

September 29, 2016 By Jodi

leif-eating-blueberries

Today is Leif's second birthday. Tonight we are having a small gathering with neighbors and a couple friends, and this weekend we will spend a fun day doing things that Leif loves. He's still young enough that he doesn't seem to understand that it's his birthday, or what that means--but I'm sure he'll enjoy his ice-cream cake and presents anyway. =)

leif-as-newborn

leif-perpetual-concern

In the months after Leif was born, we'd pegged him for our calm, sweet baby. He had a look of perpetual concern about him, with raised eyebrows that made him look as if he were always wondering what the heck is going on around here? Within a month of him learning to walk, however, his personality changed almost entirely; with mobility came a new sense of mischief that he carries with him today. He loves trouble, getting a twinkle in his eye before he takes a toy from August or pulls up a stool to dig through the cupboard where we hide the chocolate.

first-birthday-cake brothers-reading

leif-cheeky-smile blondie-from-above chair-dancing that-little-smile

As I think about this little dumpling and the two years we've shared together, all the cliches come to mind: I can't imagine my life without him; I love him more than I ever thought possible, and I love him more every day; he's just the most wonderful little creature. It's hard to find something to say about one's child that hasn't been said a billion times before (and doesn't sound like utter tripe to everyone else!). But parenting isn't about having the most superlative child or saying the most superlative things, about loving them more than every other mother has ever loved their baby.

Mothering has, in fact, been almost the opposite for me: it has been incredibly humbling. Being a mother is realizing that your child really is the most wonderful being in the world--and so is everyone else's child. It's about loving them like no one has loved a child before--except the few billion children who came before and will come after yours. It's about swinging between fury and compassion in an instant, feeling as exasperated as you ever will and as bowed by love as you ever will.

To my little Leif on his birthday--to all of the fury and love of the previous year, to all of the fury and love of the year to come. I love you.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Related

Filed Under: Family, Motherhood Tagged With: birthday, compassion, fury, Leif, love, mothering

Previous Post: « Rainy Day Reads
Next Post: Happiness Project: Month 1 Wrap-Up »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About Jodi

I just repatriated from Sweden to the US with my British husband and three young kids. I started this site while living in Sweden to build the conversations and community we've had with loved ones around the world, and to create a space to share thoughts about life, beauty, motherhood, and everything else. read more →

Connect & Follow

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Receive the weekly newsletter

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd )

Recent Posts

Having Kids in Sweden: The Basics

July 14, 2016 By Jodi 3 Comments

baby-on-fathers-shoulders-stockholm

This is the first in a series of posts outlining the general structure of life in Sweden for a family.  You've probably heard or read about the amazing parental leave policy in Sweden and wondered if it's true. It is. Maybe you also heard about the affordable universal daycare and wondered whether that's true, too. It is. And while these...

Read More

A Close-up of Tree Rings

May 27, 2016 By Jodi 5 Comments

tree_rings_closeup

I found this stunning photo of a Russian tree while reading a Swedish magazine called Research & Progress (Forskning & Framsteg in Swedish) and was blown away. Isn't it amazing? Each column is one year in the tree's life, and the thin column with the aberrations is from the year 536, when a severe frost hit in the summer....

Read More

Would You Stay at the Ice Hotel?

August 19, 2016 By Jodi 2 Comments

I know it's still summer for most of you but for some reason today I'm thinking about the Ice Hotel in northern Sweden. The hotel is in the village of Jukkasjärvi, north of the Arctic Circle. Every spring the hotel and accompanying art exhibition melts back into the Torne River from where the ice is harvested. And...

Read More

Some Thoughts on a Friday

September 23, 2016 By Jodi 6 Comments

church-windowsill-flowers-jez-timm

I went to a funeral earlier this week on the island of Åland. I hadn't known the person who passed very long, but I'd come to admire him in the months that I did. A friend and I went together, taking a ferry from Sweden to the Finnish islands lying in the Baltic.

Categories

  • Beauty
  • Family
  • Happiness
  • Life in Sweden
  • Miscellany
  • Thinking

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Follow

Instagram

Footer

About Dear Sabrina

Welcome! Dear Sabrina is a lifestyle blog for the thinking woman (and man, if men read lifestyle blogs). I hope that visiting this site gives you something to think about, makes you laugh, or shows you something new. If you want to further connect, find me on one of networks below or send an email.
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think. More about me…

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 · Jodi Elliott

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.