19. The Tiny Moments That Made Me Fall in Love With Parenting

I always thought it would be the big milestones—the first steps, first words, birthdays—that would make me feel like a “real” parent. But those moments? As beautiful as they are, they aren’t what truly made me fall in love with this life.

It was the tiny ones.

It was the middle-of-the-night feedings, when the whole world felt still and it was just me and my baby, wrapped in soft blankets and quiet breath.

It was the way my toddler gently placed her favorite stuffed animal next to me “so you won’t be lonely.” It was her smudgy handprint on the glass and the way she said “I made you this rock” like she’d unearthed treasure.

It was the mundane, repetitive rituals—brushing teeth while dancing, picking up the same toy six times, singing the same lullaby every night and watching her eyelids flutter closed.

It’s the way they trust me. The way they reach for my hand without looking. The way they call out “Mama?” and I say “Yes, love?”—and their face lights up just because I’m there.

These are the quiet threads that have stitched parenting into the fabric of my soul.

It’s not one big event—it’s a thousand tiny moments. Ordinary, unremarkable, unphotographed. But they’re everything.

I didn’t fall in love with parenting all at once. I fell a little more every time they smiled in their sleep, every time they needed me, every time I showed up tired but willing.

And that kind of love? It’s the deepest kind I’ve ever known.