When I was pregnant with Grace, I longed to hold her in my arms, safe and warm and cozy. I imagined rocking her to sleep and inhaling her baby scent as she snoozed. I thought I would sit on the couch, Grace snuggled into my arms and gazing sweetly into my face.

That didn't happen. Far from it.

Grace has always been a person who wants to know what's going on. Even when she was just a wee newborn, she wanted to be propped up so she could watch everything going on around her. Forget about gazing happily into my eyes; she only really lay in my arms quietly for as long as it would take her to suck down a bottle. Once she was done, she wanted to be upright again and watching everything.

I've been a little sad about that because once kids hit toddlerhood, they hardly ever want to be held. They're exploring being independent people who can go where they want, when they want, instead of hitching a ride on the nearest available adult. And once you do pick them up, they're squirming to get down again.

I figured I'd lost my chance to snuggle with Grace when she was an infant.

I must have had a child of opposites.

Now that Grace is a full-fledged toddler, she's gotten more clingy. It gets worse when she's tired, of course. But now I'm finding I have to pick her up more and more. Now she's figured out the universal "pick me up Mommy" sign by raising her arms, and she's begging for me to pick her up several times a day.

And when I do pick her up, she just wants to cuddle against my shoulder. If I have to go somewhere with her, like to the mailbox, she's content to attach herself to my hip, but most of the time when I pick her up, she lays her head against my shoulder and hugs me.

She also loves to kick her left foot against me, but she's done that since she was an infant.

I'm loving this cuddle time, though. Since I don't work outside the home, I have the luxury of taking my chores slowly or even putting them off till the next day. I can stop whatever I am doing to cuddle with Grace. That doesn't mean I don't get frustrated when she's needy and I'm busy.

But I look at her now and sometimes I see the teenager she'll grow into. And I realize that these days of being held and comforted by me are extremely short-lived. That soon enough she'll be a close-mouthed teenager who will only communicate with me in monosyllables.

And so when she wants to be picked up, I cuddle her. I embrace these times together because soon enough they'll only be fond memories.