(almost) one

I know next weekend will be too hectic to write this, so here it goes - the (almost) one year post:

A year ago today I went downtown for dinner with friends.  I was hugely pregnant and didn't have much of an appetite. There wasn't any room for food - it was alllll baby in there - but I knew if I sat at home while Ryan worked, I'd do nothing but twiddle my thumbs and wait.  I don't remember what we talked about during dinner, probably because my mind was in a different place entirely, but I remember knowing this was going to be the last night out with friends for a long time, so I wanted to soak it all in and enjoy it.  It started to sleet while we were eating, so I had not one, but two people holding me up walking back to the car.

We knew by then that she would be arriving that coming Friday, because, as you may remember from earlier posts, she was breech and had gotten far too big and cozy to flip.  So, unless she came early or managed a sneak flip attack, Friday was The Day.  It was a time of anticipation, and while I was nervous for a c-section, I was glad to have a date on the calendar.

Ryan and I had landed on a name, we thought - only to change our minds and settle on Nora a few days later.  All the nursery needed was a baby.

And, then, just like that - she was here. Our Nora had finally arrived.

And in the last year, we've been through the whirlwind that is a baby's first year: first smile, first laugh, first rolling over, first crawl, first pulling up, first steps, first tooth, first holidays, and a million and two diaper changes. It's gone so quickly that I'm having a really hard time believing that the "It's My Birthday!" bib laying on the counter is hers, to be used at her party on Saturday.

Now, when she throws my clean sock into the dog's water bowl, I try to remember how very quickly this all moves. When she empties the cupboards, wakes in the middle of the night, runs away during a diaper change, takes off her hat and mittens 3 seconds after I've put them on, or empties the clothes in her drawers onto the floor - I do my best to smile and laugh.  She will only be this little once, and, after all:

(almost) one is a very fun thing to be.



She loves to play in her very own chair - her first first birthday
present from her aunts and uncles on Mommy's side.