Day before the big ONE.....

I’ve been thinking about this ‘day before one’ post for a couple of weeks now. What would I say, how would I say it? How can I describe the emotions that accompany watching the growing of your first baby into a toddler, the turning of ONE YEAR OLD. So now that it is finally time for this post, I’m not sure what to say. All of the thoughts I’d put together so eloquently in my head in the lead up to today have fled and I’m sitting here looking at the screen, writing and then backspacing over the words and erasing them again. So I’ll just try this....

Maddie on your last day before one, you can: clap your hands, do “patty cakes,” wave hi and bye, say Dada, Mama, baba, and no.

You can walk and run, even though you seem so small. You can stick your tongue in and out like a lizard. And you open and close your mouth when we say, “How does a fish go?” You make the cutest “munchkin face.” You love to sing along when we sing to you. You love to dance and twirl around in a circle (the washing machine move) while listening to the “electronica” music channel. You have three teeth –“snaggletooth.”

You love to play with your toys and take them out of the baskets that daddy arranges so neatly. You love for us to read you books and you will bring them to us and get angry unless we do. You love to play ‘sneak up’ on mom and dad and scare us. Your hair is still too short to put into pigtails, although believe me I have tried.

You love to give hugs and kisses. You love to waltz with your daddy. You love to snuggle with mom and dad while you sleep. You hate having the covers on you. You can climb like a little monkey. You love being close to people. You have such a strong will and you are the most fearless little one I know. On your last day before ONE, even though you won’t remember it, I hope you will know how very very much your family loves you, and how much joy you have brought to us. I love you my Maddie.