To LoLo on your very first birthday

Dear Lauren Elizabeth,
The results are in... no one can believe that your first year is over!  Although it seems like it happened so fast, the teeny tiny little newborn that came into our lives exactly one year ago is such a distant memory. 

A year ago I hardly knew you.  A year ago you were a tiny and helpless baby.  A year ago you spent more time eating and sleeping than you did awake.  A year ago I was getting used to you being beyond my own body.  A year ago you knew my voice and not much else.

I am so blessed to have spent so many moments with you.  So now I know you.  I've always loved you from the very moment I found out that you were going to be mine.  But to know you means even more.  You aren't a princess, you aren't a mini-me, you aren't a girly girl.  You are LoLo...something EXTRA special.  People are constantly captivated by your beauty.  But it is your charm and personality that stops people in their tracks.  Because you are the type of girl who wears her brother's underwear on her head and her dad's white tank top (cinched in the back!).  Work it!

 

I can't know now exactly who you will be, but the minute you were born Dad described you as "an assertive little thing."  I will never forget the way you taught yourself to walk.  You pushed and pushed until you mastered it.  When you fell you got right back up and picked up a large heavy object to make it even harder.  You walked without a visible audience.  No cheers, no coaching.  You wanted to walk and you decided that you would walk.  At that moment I knew that you could do anything. 

Today we spent the morning at a photo shoot for Fresno Magazine.  It was naptime, snacktime and lunchtime.  You loved it.  It seems like an appropriate way for a one-year old to spend her birthday!

Lauren at the Junior League/Fresno Magazine photo shoot dancing to Stevie Wonder

Then we got your birthday lunch at In-n-Out Burger. 

 

It has been a memorable day so far.  It has been an amazing year.  I will tell you a little secret.  I am sad to see you grow up.    I love the way you scream like a baby girl.  I love your short curls.  I love your (disappearing) rolls.  I love the way you dance.  I love the way you run to the door when you hear daddy come home.  I love way you rough and tumble with Keith.  I love the way you clap when you see Patrick.  I love the way you cuddle when I hold you.  I won't be able to hold you forever but I will always remember the way you put your head on my shoulder.  Being you mom is the loveliest thing in the world.

Hugs and kisses Sweet Baby. 

I love you!

Mama Lou