Happy birthing day to me

Today is the one year anniversary of the day I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl, also known as Audrey's first birthday. What an amazing day that was, what a lot of work, effort, and pain instantly forgotten when I laid eyes on that lovely little girl.




It is incredible how much she has changed and grown since a year ago. It has been so fun to watch and be a part of this amazing life.

Here she is in her birthday suit this morning, checking out my birthing necklace and opening a present.






Audrey doesn't know how today is any different from any other day but we do and I have been enjoying the memories of the day of her birth. Now I understand why my mom always said she was celebrating my birthday even if I was thousands of miles away.
Speaking of my mom, she celebrated a different kind of first birthday a few weeks ago when she received a stem cell transplant and her body started rebuilding after a massive dose of chemo killed the myeloma cells that had been causing trouble. She is in the hospital under close watch so the doctors can monitor complications, such as the mass that was discovered in her lung a few days ago; she is having a bronchoscopy today to gather more information, so send your hope and healing thoughts, energy, prayers.




Love makes life worth living. I love you Mom. I love you Audrey.

Audrey's first birthday party

We had some friends over for a little celebration. There were balloons, cake, singing, crafts, even a crown..good times.

Check the YouTube link for footage of Audrey's first taste of chocolate (spoiler alert: it's not messy).

Walker

This past week Audrey has become a full-on walker. Gone are the days of taking a couple steps followed by a dive into mama's lap, gone too are the days of crawling as primary means of transport with walking as experimentation only. Here are the days of walking all over the house, falling down and getting right back up again. It is very fun to watch