In just one week...

man has turning 1 done ONEders for you!

You now crawl all the way up the stairs, which is heart stopping for me. I hate that you like the stairs, but it is such your personality to be this way. You are adventurous, you are a daredevil, you scare me. You have already fallen all the way down the stairs and that was just once you learned to crawl and I'd forgotten you could actually on your own free will leave my vantage point. Now you can climb the stairs I have to be on constant look-out.

You bite like crazy. I am worried you're going to be a biter?!?!

You have started sticking your tongue out and too your left like you're concentrating. It is hilarious. You've always been a tonguey babe, at 6 months especially. And the cute little pink wet appendage has made a reappearance and I love it!!!

You want to walk- you think you can. If I hold you under your arm pits you just take off. You often do most of the walking on your tip toes, its precious.

You like to feed yourself. You grab the spoon out of my hand and happily give it back to me once you've placed it in your mouth. You're such a good happy girl!

i love you.

you make the best faces!

today you were in the thick of things.... and we loved having you there!!!

Best Face EVER!

Oh how I adore you, probably as much as you adored eating blueberry pie tonight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Just a few minutes ago you officially turned ONE YEAR OLD, you and I slept right through it this year. Yep, we were taking a nap, you were of course nursing in my bed as we did so, but that's going to be our little secret. I am in no hurry to wean you, and you are in no hurry either.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY my lovey girl. What an incredible year this has been, one of the fastest of my life. From the second I first laid eyes on you, to right this very second my heart has been bursting with the most intense love and gratitude for you. You have been one of the biggest blessings of my life, surely just one of four greatest gifts I have ever received, and every single day it has been my truest pleasure and honor to be your mother.

I know you. I know you not just as a person, but soul to soul. As I picked you up today from your morning nap you clung onto me, fitting into me like an exact matching puzzle piece, and in that moment I felt, like I have so many other times in your first year of life that you are mine, a piece of me that existed before we met a year ago, a part of me that completes who I am and at the same time has helped develop all of who I am supposed to be. You bring an intense feeling up inside me when I think of you and who you are, and all that you will become. You are simply incredible, I hold you now so pure and small, but there is a giant of a person inside you, I feel it and it is like a bright bright light goes off inside me, and to think I am your mom, I feel the most amazing amount of humility and privileged.

I love you. I have loved every day of your life. I have enjoyed you, even the hard days and nights, MORE because I have a greater understanding of how quickly it all goes by. I have known you are special since I first held you, there is just something about you, a knowledge that I don't completely have, but an understanding in my heart that I still know, you are very special. And so not a single day of your life has gone by that I have missed out on. I have kissed you a bazillion times, held you tight, slept close to you, smiled at you and with you, soaked you up as much as possible and it has all made me and you incredibly happy.

And so this day, we celebrate YOU. Everything that is you and everything you have brought to this world for the past year. I love you darling incredible baby girl. I LOVE YOU!

Happy Birthday my love.