Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Cecelia! It's your first birthday today, sweet girl!

To say that I'm excited about this day is a bit of an understatement. I've always been a huge fan of birthdays, but first birthdays? For the sweetest daughter ever? I can barely take it! There will be lots of exclamation points in this post to you on your big day, so I hope you don't mind.

I have the technical '12 month' post ready to go up on the blog and that's the one that will explain all of the fun things you are doing at this age. But today, on your actual birthday, I just wanted to take the time to tell you how amazing this past year has been. Well....amazing AND challenging. But more happy moments than frustrating ones, I'd say;)

The day you were born will be one I never forget, obviously---but the memories still seem so fresh in my brain, I find it difficult to believe that an entire year has passed us by in between May 28, 2012 and May 28, 2013. But the paradox of motherhood is that even when time goes SO quickly as a whole, certain days can be impossibly long. So it also sort of feels like a lifetime ago when you were in my belly and we hadn't yet met our little girl.

When I was pregnant with you, Cecelia, I had so many worries related to how our lives would change with two kids. I wasn't sure I could love anyone as much as I loved your big brother. I wasn't sure I'd have enough energy or patience to split myself between two kids. I wanted you more than you will ever fully understand, Cecelia. Never doubt that --but I just couldn't picture your face, your personality, your addition to our family.

And here we are, a year later. And you are....YOU. Full of spunk and sweetness and a sense of humor that won't quit. It's true what they say: your love just multiplies with another kid, you don't have to divide it. You are the daughter we were meant to have in our family. You are Cecelia and we cannot get enough of you, sis.

From day one you've proven to be your own person. Even though you look a lot like Truman, you've shown us that you will NOT do things the same as your sibling. You refused to take a bottle until we had a stand off with you around 3 months. You spit up a lot more than he ever did. You started off sleeping like a dream but then decided that was silly, and bestowed chronic sleep deprivation on us from about 4 months until just recently at 11 months. So yeah, that was about 8 months of HORRIBLE sleep, my dear and you better believe we will get you back when you are a teenager who enjoys sleeping in until noon (bwahahaha). You have always nursed really well and continue to do so, which makes your mama so happy. When we gave you solids at 6 months you mastered the skill of eating EVERYTHING as if you were an old pro with the food stuff. Then you started to be our little trick monkey, responding to 'Can you clap? Can you give kisses? Can you wave? How big is Cecelia?' appropriately and enthusiastically. Every milestone that you've hit this year has been every bit as exciting as the first time around for us. Because it's your first time to sit up/roll over/pull to stand and the proud grin on your face is enough to make your dad and I weak in the knees.

Oh, how you can melt us, Cecelia. You are emotional and dramatic and full of estrogen for sure. But your sweet innocence in those big blue eyes is enough to stop the world for a bit. You have the best smile, the most adorable laugh, and the most endearing squeaky voice I could have imagined. It goes without saying that I look forward to the years to come, building our mother-daughter relationship into something like my own relationship with my mom. I already love when it's just us girls hanging out or shopping or playing together. I can only imagine how awesome it will be when you're at my eye level and I can be both your best friend and your worst enemy depending on the minute;) My biggest hope for you as you grow up is to find a peaceful contentment with yourself, a sense of confidence, and the knowledge that we love you unconditionally forever. I want you to be happy, of course, but more importantly I want you to love yourself just half as much as I love you---I think you will survive the high school years if we can show you that you deserve the best life has to offer.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet. Teenager Cecelia seems so abstract and scary to me, so we just won't think about her right now. You are ONE after all, and I still get to dress you and cuddle you and force you to do whatever I want to do right now. I sure hope you feel loved and confident right now--and we will tackle the rest later.

It's your birthday, Cecelia. You are changing at lightning speed every day and giving us such joy in the process. Thank you for being a part of our family. Thanks for the awesome year and the countless moments of entertainment. You are the best and we are so blessed to call you ours.

I love you, Cecelia. I love you so much it makes my heart ache at times. I hope you know how celebrated you are this year and every year.

Mommy

(the photo slideshow I made for your birthday party---12 minutes of pictures set to music. It's worth it, I promise. I only allowed myself two 'sob songs' because I can barely handle this little montage already, even without sappy music. But I loved making this and reminiscing about your first year, big girl.)
ceceliaoneyear from Julia H. on Vimeo.