What's In a Year?

Note: Maelee's birthday festivities started this past week and will end tomorrow so before I do her birthday slideshow I thought I would get the gushy post over with so I can get onto the fun here and now stuff. The pictures below don't necessarily go with the writing above or below them - but there is 12 pictures to show how much our sweet Maelee has grown in the past 12 months.

What's in a year for a new mom, dad, and baby?

Watching your husband grow into a daddy and seeing the gray hairs start to come as he already thinks about the boys that will date her when she is only hours old.

Holding your sweet baby and thinking that you would never be able to have this much love and give this much of yourself to any other.

Sleepless nights of zombie walking downstairs and rummaging through the kitchen for a baby spoon, plate, applesauce, and teeny tiny enzyme capsules. Walking back up the stairs and tripping over the two hours of sleep you just left behind, spilling the plate of applesauce all over the stairs. Going back down the stairs and creating a new plate of "sauce" to give to the baby before she can eat all the while listening to the frantic screams of a hungry baby.

Doing more sincere cheering and applauding for your baby and new tricks that you though was possible. Being to scared that you won't hear the baby through the monitor if she wakes up and sleeping on the floor in her room the first few nights of her being in her crib and not the bassinet. Realizing in a new way the testimony you have of a loving Heavenly Father and Savior and despite the fact that you and your husband don't get to hear much of the messages of Christ on Sunday (because you are walking the halls, feeding the baby, changing a diaper, etc) you still go to 3 hours of church every Sunday.
Embarrassingly realizing that you aren't very good at sharing the responsibility of caring for your baby with any one else.
Thinking that this baby will never stop crying, grow out of this newborn phase, or learn to do this or that skill and your husband can't get home from work soon enough - and then wake up one morning to realize your baby is a year old.
Reading a book and talking to a nurse and getting so obsessed with keeping your hands clean that you use enough alcohol gel and soap that your hands crack and bleed and no lotion or cream seems to heal them.
Worrying, worrying and more worrying (I am told this doesn't ever get better or is something you grow out of no matter the kid or the age of the kid).
Seeing a very special look in your own mother's eyes when she looks at your baby and talks to her granddaughter.

Realizing that every thing I say and do is being watched and learned from by a person who will do exactly what they see and hear good or bad.