Happy happy birthday, Mr. C - Part 1

Dear Mr. C,

When I got home from work tonight, you were already fast asleep. Crashed out, as your daddy said.

It’s so hard to believe that a year ago you were still safely tucked into my womb. You were our baby – we didn’t know if you were a boy or a girl. While I hoped I’d be going into labor the next day (or hoped I was already in labor), we didn’t know.

I can’t believe that you are almost one. It’s gone by way too fast! I’m not ready for you to be a year old. I’m loving seeing your development and am excited about each stage, but it doesn’t feel real that my baby boy is almost one. How is that possible?

You love sucking your thumb and holding tight to a blanket or something soft and comforting.

You love playing peek-a-boo.

You’re cruising and started the “standard” crawl recently (until then you had mastered your unique mode of pulling with your hands on the floor, sliding on your belly, and using your right foot to propel.)

You have 2 teeth (but I think you’ve got more trying to break through).

You love baths. You get excited and start laughing/flapping your arms when you hear the water running in the tub. You love splashing and kicking.

You like clucking your tongue and blowing raspberries.

Yesterday when I was typing part of this message you were doing your best to wake up your sister from her nap because

you.want.to.get.the.toy. that.mama’s.pushed.out.of.your.reach.and you can’t.

So you are voicing your frustration.

You also have started biting mama when you’re nursing. You look up after you do it to see how I’ll respond. You’re already testing your limits.

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When my first nephew was born, I fell in love with little boys. I had been partial to girls because it’s what I knew – I had a sister; boys seemed like a foreign world to me.

Then my sister had her first baby. I was blown away by how much I loved him. He was the first baby that was related to me (since I was the baby of the family – both my immediate family and all of my cousins). Head over heels in love.

With you and your sister, we didn’t find out if we were having a boy or a girl. Since I didn’t know what I was having, a lot of people gave me their opinion about whether they thought I was having a boy or a girl. During my pregnancy with your sister, about 50% thought a girl. With you? I only had one person who guessed a girl. I had two dreams about you being a boy (I never had a gender reveal dream when I was pregnant with your sister).

I have to admit that I kind of thought you were a boy because during our two ultrasounds, the ultrasound tech had us look away when we might have seen that you were a boy. They took awhile doing that part of the ultrasound, too. It seemed like it would have gone more quickly with a girl…