Toots Turns One!

My baby girl turned one yesterday.

Toots' BFF "Baby Carrot"

We had a pirate party for her on Sunday.  It was a pirate party because she is my little pirate.  She is wild and happy, a little punch drunk and funny.  She is not stealth or sneaky like her ninja brother.  She is not pulled together, neat and tidy like her dad.  She is pure joy and happiness bursting in all directions.  I marvel at her tiny body wondering how it possibly contains all that personality.

For her actual birthday yesterday we started the day with cupcakes for breakfast (a family tradition).

She and I had a ladies day in the city.  I've been waiting a long time for a mama/daughter city date.  I couldn't have picked a better partner to pal around the Windy City with.

We visited Daddy at work.

And Aunt Ry for lunch.

As I drove us home, racing to make it back for nap time, I couldn't help but think back to April 2012.  She was due April 15th.  Her brother had arrived 10 days early and caught me totally off guard, scrambling to cover the plans and appointments I'd made when I foolishly assumed I'd be pregnant for another 2 weeks.  Armed with the knowledge that most second babies arrive even earlier than the firsts I locked my calendar down for the month of April.  There was literally nothing planned that I absolutely needed to attend.  I figured I'd have a baby in my arms by Easter, the first weekend in April that year.  Each week came and went, more excruciatingly slow than the last.  Each night I would go to bed thinking this is the night I go into labor.  Each morning I would wake up still pregnant.  It was the longest of months.

Finally, finally at the absolute end of the month my baby girl decided to grace us with her presence.  A presence that has been blessing us every day since.

Contrast April 2012 with this past month and you might think we were trying to make up for lost time.  This past month had us in California and Kentucky.  We moved out of our house and in with my parents, caught "The Book of Mormon", played laser tag with middle schoolers, threw a church fundraiser dinner and a first birthday party.  I don't know if we've ever had a fuller month which is saying a lot.

But it's a month filled with good stuff.  The best stuff.  As I think about our lives in April 2012 compared to the same month a year later I marvel at how simply and perfectly Toots fits into our family.  April last year was the aching missing of one we hadn't yet met.  This year it's a month rich with all of life's best stuff and Toot's presence is seamless.  She fits in with our family as only one who is meant to be with us could.  She's rolled with all the punches of this past year bringing us joy and laughter and love.  Our family is better with her.  She belongs with us.