Happy Birthday, Emma!

Emma turned 1 last Saturday!!! Keri, Pete, and their two cute boys, Jack and Tommy helped us celebrate. It was real cute seeing Emma play with Tommy.

Ben’s Nana gave her a hand-made quilt.

Ben’s other grandma gave her a sweet doll.

And Ben’s mom gave Emma this.

It’s a needle point Ben’s mother made when she was around 8 or 10 years old, the first needle point Ben’s mother ever made. It’s very special to us.

I love having a baby. I love seeing the world through her eyes.  Emma is so smart, fun, and sweet. She pretends to read books. She’s taking more and more steps on her own. She climbs up stairs and loves exploring the world around her.  She dances to music and claps her hands.

For me, this year has been a year of growth and learning.  I know that having a baby is making me a better person.  I can say that the first four months were really hard. Everything was new. And then somewhere around 5/6 months, everything started getting easier. Emma’s naps became more consistent and when they weren’t, I tried to go with the flow.  Emma mellowed out a lot, probably because I mellowed out.  Perhaps one of the most important lessons I learned was to RELAX.

Someone told me the other day to enjoy having just one baby while you can. I’ve thought about that and I realize how special this time is, how lucky I am to be able to focus all of my time on just her.  I hope to have more kids and I know that that will have its own set of challenges and joys. In the process, I’m going to be learning and growing and becoming more of the person I was meant to be.

Here are a few other pictures of Emma:

She had her first hair cut!

She loves swinging.

 

She loves playing and crawling around.