One year letter

Dear Gabriel,

My sweet son, when they tell you that time flies, you just will not understand until you are watching your own child grow up. I keep looking at pictures from those first few days and seeing how much you've changed is one thing, but believing it was a full year ago is entirely too hard. I already miss cuddling your tiny body in my arms, and the long endless days where you'd nurse-cry-nap repeat for hours. I would put you on your playmat and just lay next to you and watch you recognize your octopus friend, then bat at him, and finally giggle at him and grab him. I'd pop you in a carrier and wander around the house, or sing and dance with you, or just walk up and down the street outside for fresh air, and you were so tiny and content to look and watch everything, as long as I was holding you. It was so hard at the time, rarely getting a break and feeling like you never wanted to be put down for a second, but already I wish you would just slow down for a minute or two so I could hold you close and have you fall asleep in my arms.

You are one wild, opinionated, loud, busy kid, but I wouldn't change you for the entire world. You are an amazing little person and your dad and I talk so frequently about how lucky we were to be given this awesome gift from God. We've grown as people, we've grown as a couple, and we've definitely grown as parents. You crack me up every day with that hysterical personality of yours, and you certainly don't fail at challenging us.

I just hope and pray that you always know how much you mean to me. When you are a teenager, pushing your boundaries and learning that the world isn't always a nice place, I hope you remember that you always have someone in your corner, who will love you unconditionally. When you move out, you will never not have a place to come back to. When you get married, God it's going to be hard to give you up to another woman, but I will trust that you will become an amazing husband to the luckiest woman on earth.

I know that you are only one right now, but if the years all go by as fast as this one, I figured I'd tell you all this now before I wake up and you're 21.

I'll wrap it up here. Love you to bits and pieces, Munch. Happy first of many, many birthdays!

Outer Banks '12

Hello hello! It's been a crazy summer. We got back from the Outer Banks this past Saturday and have been trying to catch up since.

We are very lucky because not only do my in-laws share a love of the beach with J and I, they have the means to include us in their vacation plans. They rent a house down there for a week every summer and invite us to go with them. This year was a little different, having a baby and also bringing J's grandmother. Fun? Absolutely. Nothing recharges my batteries like a week of hanging out at a quiet, laid-back beach. It wasn't as carefree as it's been in the past, but I really underestimated how fun it would be having a kid there.

Remember those child-free days (or if you don't have a baby, and this is you!) when you'd see a family while you're sipping your beer and reading a trashy magazine, and the parents are taking turns following the baby around, keeping the baby out of the water/other peoples' areas/the hot sand? And you'd kinda feel bad that they couldn't just sit back and relax like you? Ok, well I used to be that girl. And it's true, you don't get much time to lay out and body surf and play bocce ball, but I really had a blast with Gabriel. He LOVED the beach, the sand, the ocean...pretty much everything. He wanted to crawl into the water and laughed when one of us would hold him and the waves would crash into our legs and spray him. He was unfazed when he stood in the water and the waves would sweep around him and pull the sand out from under his feet.

He had another tooth pop through the second day of vacation, and he slept pretty crappy that night. But other than that, he was a baby rockstar with sleep, taking at least one good nap a day (a couple of times he took TWO!), and STTN the rest of the time. He was happy to climb the stairs, push his walker back and forth and occasionally get into it, and loved the deck outside of the great room. We'd just sit out there and chat or rock in a chair and he was happy to point out cars ("clocks") or babble along.

Poor tired beach bum

He learned 3 new words! The kid is a machine! Pop-pop, which is J's dad; baby, which is what I say when he calls me mama ("Yes, I am mama! And you are baby!"), and dog, I'm guessing because the inlaws' dog came with us. Well that, and we've been telling him that both Cana and Oliver are dogs. I'm so stinking proud of him.

Now that we're home, I'm on to wrapping up the details of his first birthday party. Just be prepared, I'll probably get all sappy on you come Thursday, and then again after his party on Sunday.

No help required. Going to bodysurf.

Uh guys, I think it's a little breezy out here!

Shovel sand into beach bag: Check!

 I have more pictures that I may or may not dump on here later. These are just randoms from my phone. I took about 4 gazillion with the camera, but of course those are at home.