It's that time again...

To congratulate my tatas on a job well done! Ladies, you made it to a year and are still going strong! We've had a few tough times, clogged ducts and such, but girls you are troopers! Keep up the good work ladies, because although Cody has started drinking whole milk, he is not done getting the liquid gold that you produce. I give you a gold star :) *my goal was to go a year, but Cody has no interest in weaning yet, and I am not comfortable in forcing him to stop. I don't think it is gross for me to continue to feed my son something that is healthy and natural, and our ped is all for us continuing on. I love that I'm giving my son something so wonderful!*

Cody's First Big Day

Well, it happened...my baby boy turned the big ONE! It's hard to describe all the emotions I felt on that day, but I think the best feeling I had was joy. Joyful for the gift God gave us a year ago, jouful for the happy and healthy boy that we have, joyful that we survived our first year as parents ;), and joyful for the family Doug and I have created. Cody's big day was very special for me. We spent the day playing and the evening spending time with family. I knew I wanted to have his party on his birthday, something that I plan to always do. To me, it is just more special. I also didn't want to have a huge bash. I wanted close family to enjoy his special day with us. We had a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme party for Cody. I made the decorations and invitations myself, and we had a BBQ with sides of all the food the caterpillar ate through. After dinner, we opened gifts. Cody hit the jackpot! He got lots of awesome toys and jas had so much playing with them all! Next was the thing I had been looking forward to the most...the smash cake! Cody's cake was cupcakes in the shape of a caterpillar with the caterpillars head being Cody's smash cake. After taking some pictures with Cody by the cake and him almost burning his hand from the candle, we started to sing 'Happy Birthday' to him. It was hard for me. I shed a tear and smiled at my son, who was looking all around at everyone with the biggest smile on his face! He loved the attention! After Doug and I blew out his candle for him, we put him in his highchair with his cake and let him have at it! And let me say, he did not dissapoint. This was really the first time Cody had had sweets, so he really enjoyed it! I am so happy to say that I made some amazing memories this past year. Through tough times and fun times, everything that I have experienced has been a wonderful ride. Cody Douglas, you stole my heart a year ago! I fell in love and continue to fall more in love every single day.

Birthday eve

Can it really be the eve of my baby's birthday? I thought it was supposed to be 365 days until then...wait, it has been 365ish days? I don't believe it! Now he is officially less than 24 hours from turning one. As a new mother, I knew this day would come. Just after birth, I thought "cherish every moment, a year is going to fly by". And it has. Nothing can prepare you for motherhood and all that comes with it. But it's that unknown...the complete unpreparedness that enables me to cherish each new day as a mother. He's grown. I've grown. We've grown together. All of the emotions that I'm feeling on his birthday eve is yet another day of being unprepared. Unprepared for the rollercoaster of mixed emotions I'm experiencing. The complete joy and gratitude for whats to come, joined with a sadness for all that has been and can never be again. I never knew I could love so fully. There is no greater love than that of a mother for her child. Thinking back to a year ago today, I knew my life was about to change forever - for the better. What I didn't know was that even on his own birthday, he gave me the best gift...him.