My Baby is ONE!

This year has FLOWN by. So much so, that it makes me think maybe I shouldn't have any more kids, since time seems to speed up with each new addition to the family.

Sprout has been such a wonderful addition to our family. After Spud was born, I had a hard time adjusting to my new reality as a stay-at-home mom with two kids. Up until his birth, I was a Grad Student Mom with ONE kid. I went through a really rough patch for about 6 months, and then started feeling pretty normal. After Sprout joined us, though, I realized that I'd still had lingering mild depression for the previous 3 1/2 years. When Sprout entered the world, he brought with him a calmness and serenity that really soothed my spirit. It was noticeable to those who were present at his birth and to those who spent time with him during those first couple of weeks.

Not too longer after Sprout's arrival, I had a bit of a scare with a thyroid issue, and (probably at least partly induced by those crazy hormones) I was paranoid that it was going to be cancer and that I'd die, leaving these three mostly fabulous kids without a mom. Through that experience, I came to realize that I had been wasting so much time and energy on worrying about things I couldn't control and hadn't been using energy on things that would bring me and my family true joy. That's obviously one of those lessons that is easy to forget after a while, but I have tried to make it a part of me, and I can see gradual improvement in my attitude and interactions with others.

Sprout has stayed "babyish" the longest of our three kids, and I've appreciated it. He crawled later, and both of the others were walking well by age one. He's such a big boy that it's kind of nice that his development is not accelerated, just average (Spud walked at 8.5 months--it was so easy to think of him as older than he was, and he's been like that his whole life).

He looks for things to be happy about. He is not one to cry or fuss for no reason, though he really is a mama's boy and prefers to be within eyeshot of me. He is very inquisitive about his environment and does to love to explore (perhaps I should have expected as much given his namesake!).

I'm so grateful to have him in my life. Before he was conceived, I was feeling a little fretful about disrupting our life with a new baby. I was worried about the rearranging that would be neccessary--making room for his crib and carseat and all that sort of thing. After three years, we'd gotten quite used to just being the four of us. I had a distinct impression that there was enough room in our lives for #3, and felt very calm and excited about the person who was coming to join us in time. I didn't worry about it at all after that experience. (Though there was a couple of weeks when the midwife wondered if he might be twins and I thought, "Crap, there's no way we can fit in our car!")

So, happy birthday my sweet little boy. Thank you for a wonderful year!