My Darling Evelyn

Edit: going through the draft posts that I never posted, I found this from a year ago and I have to share. Brings tears to my eyes.

To my sweetheart,

I have been wanting to write this for a good month now. A letter to you for your first birthday. This has been a gradual work in progress.

I cannot believe it has been a year from when you entered this world. One Whole Year. I have cherished and held onto every second with you. I cannot believe how much you have changed. Looking at your clothing that you were swimming in a year ago and now looks oh so very small.

We have started going to Le Leche League meetings lately, after some battles with biting. Made me reminisce about our breastfeeding relationship. From not being able to latch, syringe feedings, what felt like constant pumping. To the nipple shield and still more pumping. To finally getting a hang of it just in time to go back to work. To pumping at work and still nursing strong. To starting to wean the daily sessions. To us happy with our morning (wake up) and evening (before bed) sessions. But we made it a year breastfeeding! And we are going strong still. A very rough start, that we made it through. I absolutely love our time nursing. You staring up at me, playing with my hair, your smiles, your cuddling into me, your nursing while you are starting to doze. You getting ready for bed but still want to nurse, but then want your pacifier, then decide that you want to nurse more. Loving every second.

Yes the worst part of this past year has been me having to work full time. I know we both want to spend more time together, but that is how life unfortunately is. In the perfect world, I would love to be able to work part time and spend more days with you. This thought has crossed mommy's mind many many times, and as time goes on, I am starting to look into it more. But with that, you have really enjoyed day care. You really enjoy your teachers. You are happy going into the building. You sometimes dive out of my arms into your teacher's arms (very cute and makes me happy you love them!). You have recently moved into the toddler room **tear**. You are still adjusting, but I know you will love it just as much, especially now since you have so much more play room! You love the socialization, the change of scenery.

Your sleeping patterns have become wonderful over the past 4(ish) months. You sleep from 10-14 hours at night! I know, who would have thought when I was a zombie mom waking up every 3 hours to nurse you / cuddle. Sleep training you was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But you sleep so much better because of it. You know you are safe. You know you are loved. And you learned that one of your favorite things in the world is close by and you can sooth yourself any time you want (your pacifier).

Oh the pacifier, or Ba as we call it. You love that thing. Many times you will have one in your mouth, and one in each hand. You like to clank them together or bang them on the railings of your crib. It makes you happy. You are taking after your aunt (but I will not let you use one till 5). We are starting the process of weaning you from it. Trying to not have it during the day and only during nap and bed time. But some how you are able to sneak one downstairs after a nap and you keep finding the ones you hide around the house. It always gets me to laugh. You even like to crawl around with one in your hands....

Speaking of crawling, you are such a mover now! Not walking yet. But a crawling machine. A cruising machine. And a climbing machine (if we let you..). You are a kid who doesn't do something till you know 100% sure you can do it. You rarely rolled. The night you learned to crawl, you did small / slow crawls for a minute, then you were off! When you learned how to pull up, you just did it! We didn't have to teach you how to get back down, you already figured that out.You are standing well (letting go of what you pulled up on). I know walking is a month or so away. But you love your freedom to get what you want.

And little missy, YOU HAVE TEETH! Looking back at those gummy smiles and now the teeth. Such a difference. You got your teeth a little later than most kids, at least the ones we know. They have come in interestingly. You got your front bottom teeth first. Then your 'vampire' top teeth (a month apart per side). Then the middle front teeth. Then a fun nursing biting two weeks. And now you are working on your top molars. The bottom ones were slightly popping out, but I think they went back down. So you have 6 on the top and 2 on the bottom...

And with those wonderful pearly whites, you love to eat! Really. You will eat almost anything, depending on your mood. You love pasta, meat, pancakes, eggs, fruit (apples, blueberries, cantaloupe), veggies (spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas). You are a pro at feeding yourself. You didn't have purees very long, maybe 3-4 months total. Once we started you on finger foods, that is all you wanted. And everyone is so surprised about how much you eat, and wonders where it goes since you are a peanut!

And speaking of your size, you handled your first year appointment well. You had to do a finger prick blood draw. You were so tired, and everyone was anxious to get it over with. And you didn't even flinch. Not what we were expecting. Your check up went well. You are doing wonderful. The doctor told us to get you off the bottle by 15 months, and to start weaning you from the pacifier. She also confirmed (as a lot of them have) that yes you do have eczema, and a good moisturizing after baths helps wonderfully with it.

Your 1 year measurements are:
***insert

And speaking of the bottle, since mommy is writing this a good month late, I am happy to say that we are done with the bottle! Moving to the new room, they no longer held your bottle. So you didn't get much out of it. So one day I made the switch to a sippy. And they were surprised how well you did. That gave me encouragement to be done with them and we have not used one for over a week!

This has been the best year of my life. And each one will just get better. We have had a fantastic summer together. Trips to California. Visiting lots of family. Lots of play time outside. Lots of play dates with your (and my) buddies from mom's group. It has been one busy and wonderful summer.

And the best weekend of the summer, your first birthday. It was a fantastic day. Warm, but not hot. The back yard looked good - we had grass growing just for you. You had your splash mat out, your water table out. Lots of toys were out. You and your friends had too much fun playing. and you LOVED your own personal cake!

I love you Evelyn. Oh so very much. I look forward to the next and next year and next. You are the highlight of my day. You make any bad day end wonderfully. You are the absolute best thing in your dad's and my lives. We love you.

You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are greay
You never know dear
How much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away