Dear Sweet Girl,
Today you are 1 year old! Over the last few days I have been reminiscing about where I was at exactly one year ago, Friday night I reminded your daddy of the "creative" tactics we used to jump start labor last year on our last Friday night just the 2 of us!, Saturday, while at your cousin Garrett's birthday party,I found myself thinking of how we missed his party last year but did manage to stop by it to pickup your dad's swim trunks in case he was going to get in the birth tub with me, and this morning, I happened to be awoken by you at exactly 5:34 am which was the time of your birth!! I thought to myself what a special little wake up call! (but only for your birthday day, you early bird!)
Wow, girly, to say my life has has been changed feels like an understatement. My life has been impacted, blessed, challenged, loved, and renewed in so many ways in the last 365 days with you here. It is one of my most treasured privileges in the world to be your mama.
When I think back on the last year of our life together, as our family of three, 99 % of my memories are full of love, excitement, new experiences, and beauty. Sure, we had hard moments of figuring things out or times of frustrating tears (from both of us!), but as I have said many times those hard moments are tiny drops in the bucket. I am truly overwhelmed by the gift that motherhood is to me. A small part of me sits here thinking that that could come off sounding all sunshine and rainbows and too mushy and that my life is perfect, lalala, but these letters are for no one else but you dear Ellie girl and when I think about you with every part of my heart and soul, that is truly how I feel.
You have given me soooo much. I love you with all my heart! I am excited for you to one day read these love letters to you and see through my words just how special you are!
Thank you Ellie June, for changing my life, my heart, my world!
Of course, no letter is complete without telling some stats about you right now in your 12 months of life! You are developing quite the little personality of equal parts total cuteness and silliness, with a little bit of stubbornness thrown in for good measure (wonder where that comes from?!)
You are consistently blowing kisses, waving, and clapping on command or whenever the mood strikes you it seems. You love to transfer your little toy balls from one container to the next (a favorite game). You are testing us a little bit with throwing food off you high chair (which makes for a consistent dirty & clean! floor with all the sweeping mama gets to do!).
You have mastered the sippy cup and drink water and milk out of them throughout the day. It is funny to see you tip your head all the way back and hold on to both handles to drink and you will also drink for a straw if we let you! You are still nursing when you wake and when you go to bed and show no signs of stopping and we plan to just follow your lead with weaning.
You love to get up on the couch or the rocking chair in your room or the stairs and then get down on your own, sliding onto your tummy, doing it the "safe way" from the get go, smart girl! You get super excited and sort of bounce up and down when the phone rings or when we open the front door to leave to go somewhere.
You are now facing forward in the car and it has made a big difference in our car rides. You love to look ahead and seem to sing your own special little songs to the music on the radio. You babble A LOT! Most often saying dadadada, but will say mama, and other babbly sounds as well. I am starting to work on bye-bye with you!
You are still not quite walking, but will do it if you are walking to one of us from the other and are rewarded with snuggles and accolades! I have seen you take steps on your own from the ottoman to couch, etc if the toy or channel changer seems tempting enough! You do get ALL over the house at lightening speed however if you have your push cart around!
You have 5 teeth! With maybe 1 year molars coming soon! When your not throwing your food on the ground, you still will eat mostly everything we give you. You can devour a whole banana in no time and still love beans and yogurt the most, with string cheese and turkey being a close second. I don't really leave the house anymore with out cheerios coming along as well as the snack to save the day! :)
One of your daddy and my most favorite recent things you do, is most definitely when you snuggle! You constantly surprise with a head leaned to our shoulder or laid on our chest and seriously we are puddles when that happens! We love you so so much! And you love us too! It shows and we feel it girly!
Sweet Ell girl, thank you again for an amazing last year of life. I look forward to each and every year to come! And we also thank God, our Father for you! In watching your sweet life each day, in experiencing being parents, in loving one another more and learning to work as a team, we are reminded that God is the reason we have what we have! God has blessed us with you and we know that you are His first. He loves you even more than we do and we promise that we will share that truth with you as you grow up! I am excited to see all the plans the Lord has for you in your life!
Happy Birthday, Ellie June!
love,
your mama
