My Own: Twelve months down, my whole life to go.

I have a one-year-old.  I have a ONE year-old.  I’m the mother of a one-year-old.  Is this real?

It feels like it was a different life that was living in the NICU for two months and longing for normalcy. (You can read Tessa’s birth story here)  And now, I get greeted by a welcome smile, giggles and baby kisses every morning.  Now, I catch myself looking at my daughter and my husband saying “is this really my life?”  Still, when I say “my daughter” I get the butterflies of new excitement in my belly and question my words, as if I may have misspoken.

This little being has made my life so complete, and SO much better than it was.  There are so many things to hold onto, so many things I don’t want to forget.  Because of this, I am so thankful for this series of photos.  It is astounding to me to look at these side by side and see the change from month 1 to 12.  In each photo I can remember my feelings, and my sentiment toward her.  What she was doing that made me beam with pride, and how each month I thought she was getting SO big.

My girlfriend laughs at me because when she was almost four months old we took her to see Santa–I was so excited for her little outfit and told my girlfriend that her legs are finally chubby.  Low and behold, when we put her little stockings on, they were as loose as loose could be and my friend just laughed at me and said, “those are some chicken legs!”  Ohhhhhh the rose colored glasses of parenthood.