After the end of next week I will officially no longer be the mom of an infant. My babies are growing up. And I'm so glad; I'd have to run away from home if they were diaper-wearing, night-waking creatures forever. But at the same time *sniff*, I'm experiencing these precious moments for the last time as my little Claire masters each new milestone and it makes me realize how fast time really flies. So as we prepare to celebrate her 1st birthday, I am taking the time to acknowledge the precious and fleeting moments that I'll Always Remember.
1. Taking 5 minutes to hold you close and breathe you in and kiss your head in the moments after you were born before calling your daddy (all the way in Iraq) to tell him his baby was safe in my arms.
2.
3. The way a warm bath would turn any bad day around for you.
4. How few bad days you've ever had. I love your perpetually content and joy-filled spirit.
5. The way you'd hold my bottom lip with two tiny fingers while I nursed you.
6. Your intensity! That look in your eye when you want something or need to get somewhere NOW. Not frustration or impatience, just enthusiasm and zeal.
7. The eager whispering you do when you've just woken from a nap; as if you've got a world of dreams to tell me about quickly and quietly before the noise of the world interrupts our few peaceful minutes together.
8.
9. Laying on the sun-room carpet with you in a house on Northrup Street. You watched the wind-chime sing in the breeze and I watched you. Felt your soft tummy rise and fall under your onesie with my hand. Loved you more than ever, just like every day before and since that day.
10. The way you happily go to bed at night when your older sister does and then an hour later, without fail, call out to be brought back downstairs where you can pretend to be an only child for the rest of the evening. You are snuggling quite contentedly on daddy's lap at this very (late) moment.
Claire, you are my treasure. I love you in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, and underneath the moon. Happy birthday, sweet girl!
Claire and I waited and watched while Charli rode the ponies in the center (and only) ring.
She loved her $5 ride around the circle. All girl, she already has a thing for horses and she still talks about riding the "baby horsey."
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, CHILDREN OF ALL AGES..." Yup, she is mesmerized.
Family photo fail.
She wanted to sit by daddy. He had the cotton candy bag and willingly doles out more sugar than her momma. Lions and tigers and sugar - oh my!
3. The way a warm bath would turn any bad day around for you.
9. Laying on the sun-room carpet with you in a house on Northrup Street. You watched the wind-chime sing in the breeze and I watched you. Felt your soft tummy rise and fall under your onesie with my hand. Loved you more than ever, just like every day before and since that day.
Let the Valentines festivities begin! 2 big packages arrived for 2 little girls today. Soooo exciting!
Grandma's "present box".
Claire helps.
A pretty butterfly card with pretty nice gifts cards to Gap and Friday's. Mall and dinner tonight, anyone?
Stickering the sister.
Ooooo, sugar!
Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was exclaimed over. Even an issue of Ladies' Home Journal for mom!
Grandma thought of everything. Even "note cookies" (read: fortune cookies). Charlotte loves breaking them open and passing out the notes. Charli's fortune of the day: Your magnetic personality will take you far. I don't doubt it!
She even got excited about finding her sister's bottle in the box that we had left behind.
More stickers!
Grandma knows what this girl likes!
Hooray for "potty treats"! (read: M&Ms)
The candy was broken out immediately, of course.
Pearls for mommy!
Chicka Chicka ABC - a favorite!
Now a package from Kurt!
Claire loved her puppy-dog card from Kurt!
This was the perfect craft project for a 2-year-old. No scissors. No glue. And pre-applied glitter. Charli worked on these Valentine frames for 20 minutes mostly on her own (at least the sticker application portion) - an epic amount of time for this kid. Grandma, Kurt, Grandpa Morsink, and Grandma Perkins and "Grandpa Toe-toe" were the lucky recipients. As Charli would say, "Ballentines means love"...Happy Valentines to all!
