The Souvenir: first birthday

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Alas, I couldn't stop time.

So, Phoenix's first birthday has come and gone. It was heartbreaking, but he had a good time..and the grandmothers behaved themselves (long story for another post). Now it's time for a photo bomb. These are pictures of the party and the morning after.

This one is without a doubt my favorite. This was the morning after.

The set-up

A very sleepy birthday boy.

Balloons!

He'll kill me for this picture when he's older.

He wasn't crazy about the mess...at first.

Then he got into it...

Sweet daddy making sure he got to enjoy some of the cake. <3 p="p">

Testing out the goods the next morning.

A trinket box "cupcake" that came on his cake.

I can't believe that I forgot to get "before" pictures of the cakes. I think I was too nervous about having both of our moms in the same house (for the first time since my baby shower) to think about much else. But lo and behold, I think the pictures I got were adorable. And it turned out to be a nice day. Now, excuse me while I go bawl my eyes out over the fact that my sweet baby boy is a baby no more...

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

At this exact time a year ago, my contractions were starting to get incredibly uncomfortable, I was dilated to about 3cm, and my wonderful husband had his laptop playing Jewel's Lullaby CD with his (uncomfortable) chair pulled up to my bedside while I was trying to catch some sleep while the pain meds were doing their job.

All day, I've found myself stopping and thinking "At this exact time last year....", and it's literally been breaking my heart. My sweet baby boy will be a whole year old tomorrow and I'm never going to get to do this again. No more baby stuff. No more fun baby stages. None of it. I can't say that I'll miss the sleepless nights, but I'd still take them to do it one more time (I always wanted 4).

My labor with Phoenix was the most emotional experience I've ever had with Dayton. While of course we had been through it twice before, for some reason (maybe because we knew this was the last time), we bonded more in those few hours than we had in so long. We had been so scared for the weeks before (due to the scare with his brain ventricles and being told he would need a shunt immediately after birth and would probably be mentally impaired) and when the time actually came, we were definitely in it together. I didn't feel alone for a single second during the process.

Anyway, here I am...freaking out that Phoenix is a year old, and yet, this is just the beginning! We've just gotten going. His little personality is starting to really shine. He's starting to develop in the most amazing ways. And I can't wait to see what he and Michael will do once he's a little older and they're really capable of running a muck! And I keep telling myself, "ANYTIME NOW! ANYTIME NOW HE'LL START SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!"....I'm probably not that lucky, but I keep telling myself that to ease the baby fever ;)

We'll be having his party on Sunday and I can't wait to see how he reacts. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of our first year together! =)

Happy Birthday, baby boy! <3 b="b">