One!

Our Millie is already a year old.  I can hardly believe that she has already been in our lives for a year!  She has grown from this -

 To this -

Millie came to us as a completely helpless infant and is now a walking, talking, sassing, laughing little toddler.  We are smitten by her. 

I have been thinking a lot about the last year lately. It seems like that first year is just full of adjusting to life with a child.  Life changes completely and you can never fully prepare yourself for that change.  It comes in completely and takes your breath away.  Life is no longer about you, your happiness, your wants and needs. Your life now becomes this child. Your life becomes focused on ounces of milk consumed, numbers of diapers changed, how many naps the baby has had, how much sleep you are lacking.  For a couple that started having children later than most I admit the change was tough. It still is in a lot of ways.  

What I have noticed is that life is no longer about adjusting to Millie.  Our life is Millie and honestly we wouldn't want it any other way.  It no longer feels weird to be in the for the night at 7:00pm.  In fact, it feels weird to LEAVE after 7:00pm. It no longer feels weird to be awake at 6:30am on the weekends.  It no longer feels weird to not be going to dinner, movies over over to a friend's house whenever we like.  Being home feels normal.  Going to bed early feels normal.  Speeding home from work to see her is the new norm, not leaving work at my leisure, heading to the gym, running errands and making it home whenever I like.  Weekends are now based on activities for Millie (with her 2 naps times contained) - not based on sleeping in, reading, cleaning and going out. We know that walking out of the door requires a lot more effort now.  We expect to be late.  We expect to forget things.  That's our life now.

Our life is full of more love than we ever thought possible.  From those first early morning coos and jabbering we hear from her room our hearts burst.  Millie's screams of joy from her crib as we walk in each morning are enough to bring a smile to our tired faces. We are so in love with our daughter.  We love watching her explore this world. 

We love that everything makes her excited - including digging through our night stands to play with a lock, chapstick or earphones - and standing at the washer completely fascinated by the spinning machine. We love the kisses (or boppos as we call them) and the quick hugs.  We love playing "sack of potatoes" on the bed. 

We love the "no no no's" we hear about 100 times a day.  We love watching her run and walk around the house.  We love watching her pull tupperware out of the cabinet and promptly run to the fireplace and throw it inside. We love that she tells us when she is pooping by making farting noises. We love that she drives us crazy throwing food on the floor.  We love that in quiet moments we find her reading on the floor in her bedroom.  We love her animal noises and the fact that she barks every time she sees a dog.  We hurt a little leaving her each morning but we love knowing that she is being loved by so many close to us.  We love coming home to her dimpled smile and throat clearing noises of joy.  We love play time, story time and bath time routines. We love her splashing - and soaking our kitchen.We love that she coos herself to sleep.  

We love building forts in our bed together.

Man, we just love this girl!  She's our everything.  

I wanted Millie's first birthday party to be special.  I'm a bit of an overachiever so of course it was a bit over the top.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.  Millie's party was just a few days before Valentine's Day so I wanted to do a Valentine-themed party.  Here was her invite:

I spent a lot of time prepping for the weeks leading up. I wanted lots of heart decorations and I am happy with the way it all turned out.

I loved having her 12 monthly pictures posted.  It was great seeing how she has grown and changed this year.  

When I was about 7 I asked for a mailbox for Christmas.  I found it in my old toy box at my mom's house and decided to use it.  I had people write Millie birthday wishes.  We saved her wishes and loved reading through theme.  Some of my favorite wishes included "a puppy" and "a baby brother!"

We had a heart shaped cake baked for her and she loved it!

We had about 30 family and friends at her party.  What a loved little girl she is.

The party was a huge success.  She got lots of great gifts, we ate good food, we watched a video I made of her first year, etc.  All in all a great day.  A great year.  A great little girl!