Babies, do they ever really grow up in their momma's heart?

Yesterday, I got to share the joy of my newest granddaughter with her momma, her "big" sister (for now), her brother, her cousins Yogie and Booboo.  Poppie doesn't like to hold newborns so it will be a few days before his daughter drops her newborn into his lap and walks away giving him no choice but to adore is new granddaughter.  I saw the joy and remembered the moment I held the momma for the first time, saw the momma in the granddaughters, both look just like her but to tell the true the new one more than the older if that is possible.  All three, mother and daughters have odd birth marks that make them more alike. The baby is quiet and easy going but I think that comes from the comfort the mother feels with her child.  Mokie is a good mother, though like her mother not a pushover or a cooing baby talker.  We both expect what they are capable from them when they are capable of it.  Sometimes that seems gruff but the pride you see in the little ones face when they accomplish what you knew they could, priceless.

I don't know that your child ever truly grows up in your heart.  They become the adult you see, love, fight with, spend time with and cherish but are they ever really more loved and less the memory of the first time you saw them and loved them without reservations.  They took your heart in the instant and it is yours for a life time.  No one is more on their side than a mother, dads too I suppose, but dads come to it from a different angle they are handed a stranger they can't wait to get to know but you just parted from them in a way that men never experience.  You never forget when you carried them beneath your heart, you just know that now you carry them in your heart.... tomorrow.