So I hope you all can excuse/follow this blog. I know it is all over the place and may not necessarily make sense, but that’s why I titled this “First Year Thoughts.” Enjoy!
One year has come and gone and I can hardly believe how much Aubrey has changed and grown! People laugh when I say she is turning into more and more of a “little person” everyday, but it is so true. Every day she gets a little more personality and learns something new; she’s as silly as her Daddy (if you can even imagine that!) and also so sweet! Without fail, she amazes us every day!
This first year really did go by in the blink of an eye! It literally feels like just yesterday I was telling Justin that I think I’m feeling contractions and then one day later we were on our way to the hospital! It was such a long week in the hospital waiting for her to decide it was time to enter this world and while I remember the pain being pretty extreme, I don’t actually remember what it felt like…so weird. When it was time to push, I remember everything around me became so surreal. I could feel the pain and it hurt, but I was so focused on pushing, that the pain seemed secondary. And even amidst all of that pain and pushing, I still managed to be curious if she had hair when her head popped out! Haha! Aubrey is the most amazing miracle of our entire lives and I’ll never forget how I felt when she was first plopped (literally plopped) on my chest. I cried so hard because I instantly loved her more than anything in the entire world and I was so happy to see her laying there crying too.
Babies (and of course my Aubrey girl in particular) are simply amazing! I am astonished everyday when I see her learn something new or their natural ability/inclination to start doing new things; rollover, get up on all fours, crawl, pull themselves up, walk! Every time she reaches a new milestone I get the most fluttery feeling in my heart; I guess this is what my Mom & Dad have been talking about all these years when they would say, “My heart is bursting with pride.”
On a side note, Aubrey’s first birthday was a major success and when Justin and I got home we literally talked about what an absolute BLAST we had! It was better than we could have ever imagined or hoped for! I think we may continue this for the next few years! I know she is only one and it may have been over the top, but I truly think Aubrey enjoyed the party as well! She was laughing at all of her cousins and friends in the water; she was splashing everyone and had a smile the entire time! I couldn’t help laughing at the end because it was next to impossible to get the last of the kids out of the pool! Justin made a really great three tier cake with Minnie Mouse decorations and Aubrey made us all laugh when she daintily placed her finger in the icing and licked it rather than just diving in!
Of course we just celebrated Christmas and this year was much different than last year! Last year Aubrey was just over a week old and pretty much slept through all of Christmas; however, this year she was wide awake and helped rip open a few of her presents and was VERY excited about all of her new things! She was cracking us up because she would help tear open a present, be somewhat interested in the toy and then very interested in the paper! At some points she was so interested with the paper or other toy that she could care less about the rest of the presents! It was really exciting to see her face light up with each new gift! Thank you to everyone that made her Christmas so special!
As of today, Aubrey is soooo close to walking and we are anxiously awaiting those first few steps! Right now she will walk with you if you hold her hands and she’ll take a dive towards you if you stand in front of her! She’s also babbling away in some foreign baby language that we can only pretend to understand right now! Although, amidst all of the jargon, we do hear a few actual words; Mama, Dada, pretty (which sounds more like pweee) and hacha (which we’re interpreting as ‘what’s that’ for now). She also likes to shake her head no at us and give dirty looks when she isn’t getting her way; I find it extremely hard to stay serious when she gives me ‘the look’ because it is just so gosh darn cute!
On one last random side note, we just want to say a humongous THANK YOU to everyone that gave us diapers at Justin’s diaper party and my baby showers last year! It literally was a one year supply of diapers for us! We are actually on our very last pack from the diaper party/baby shower and we are both amazed and extremely grateful for all of it! It is a wonderful feeling knowing you have so many amazing people in your life that care about you and your family!
Well I guess that is all for now, we can’t wait to see what this next year brings us and all of the new milestones Aubrey will reach! We’ll be sure to share them all with you and keep you updated! As always, I’ll post some of my favorite pictures below of our little chunker! These are from her birthday and Christmas!
Love,
Candice, Justin & Aubrey
