Snuggle bugs

first published 7/24/08

Ask most moms of boys and they will tell you that boys love to snuggle with their moms. Girls are apparently more independent, and we all know that girls get their dads wrapped around their fingers, so little boys are a mom's dream.

My dear boys are not much different than most boys in this regard, but they've taken different paths to snuggle-land.

Michael has always loved to be held tight, tummy to tummy, with his arms and legs bundled in tightly. When we first got home from the hospital, the only way to get him to sleep was in a very tight swaddle (and our little Houdini was good at getting out of the blanket-swaddles, so we only had success with the velcro swaddle sacks). Now, he sleeps on his tummy, with his arms and legs tucked tightly under his body. But when I hold him, pure bliss - he nestles his head into my neck, with his arms on either side of his cheeks, brings his legs up and settles his little bottom right onto my arm. Typically, within about 15 seconds, he is sound asleep. Now and then, I'll get a little shudder out of him, and on a perfect day, a happy little sigh. He is the one to grab when you're feeling a little sad...he will guarantee to comfort you.

William didn't start out his life craving the snuggle the way his mommy would like him too. The way he sees it, there is just too much out there in the world to look at, so why would you want your face planted on mom's shoulder. He likes to sit on my lap, but wants to face out so he doesn't miss a thing. But today, something amazing happened. We were at Mama Mia (I could go on for an entire different entry about how great the Mommy Movie Morning is, and in particular how much we enjoyed today's movie), and as predicted, as soon as the music started, Michael fell asleep and William started dancing on my lap. Toward the end of the movie, though, he started getting tired and fussy. So like any wise parent at Mommy Movie Morning, I gathered him up to go "dance" in the back of the theatre with the other fussy babies and their mommies (today there were quite a few - who knew Abba would be so offensive to little ones). I tucked his arms and legs in trying to get him to settle down to sleep. This is where the miracle happened - he pulled his head back, gave me a huge smile and then nuzzled into my neck. THEN he pulled his arms out of the snuggle, wrapped them up around my neck, sighed and fell right to sleep.

Fortunately for me and my sleeping angel, the cast keeps singing as the credits roll...we could have danced (and slept) all night!