When you bring your child to your anniversary dinner

Our anniversay was March 17th. So was St. Patrick's Day.

We went to dinner. Cara joined us.

She spit out her food the entire night. Stains now cover the shirt I was wearing.

Afterwards, I got a new cell phone. I can now send and receive texts.

My mom thought we should announce to people that Cara is Irish, since, you know, she doesn't have red hair and freckles.

They both look thrilled in that picture, don't they?

Florida Vacation

I was lucky this year because my Spring Break coincided with my week off. We were able to go down to Florida for a mini vacation. This was Cara's first time on an airplane

The flight down to Florida went really well. She fell asleep shortly after take-off and woke up shortly before landing.

Once in Florida, we checked out the hotel's pool:

Notice the little boy in the background, Cara was loving him. Also, it is funny how I would have never appreciated the zero entry pool until I had a child. It was really nice to have such a shallow place where she could sit and play in the water on her own (except she would never sit down).

Cara loved swimming!

We got free tickets to Animal Kingdom, so we took Cara.

She loved looking at the animals



She also enjoyed riding the dinosaur ride with daddy

Then we went to visit Aunt Peggy and Uncle Billy. They live at the beach!

Again, Cara loved the water

She also liked the Minnie Mouse we bought as a souvenier

But all good things must end, and the plane ride home did include some crying. I don't think her ears were hurting, she was just over tired. Because we got to the airport early so Cephas could catch a soccer game (without interruptions) and instead of napping, Cara was doing this:



"They say it's your birthday..."

On February 28th, I took the day off, and decided I will try and do this every year, so I can spend the whole day with Cara. We started out with a doctor's appointment, and yes, Cara had to get some shots. Then, we picked my dad up, and headed down to meet Terre and Ethan at Fiesta Plaza in Ft. Mill. It is an indoor playground where adults can even go up inside. We played for about 45 minutes, and then the adults got tired, so we sat down and had lunch.

After that, we came home, Cara took a nap, and I finished getting things together for her "party." It was just family who got together, and we had tacos (mom's favorite!). 

I know what everyone is waiting for though... the cake pictures!

She had a cupcake all to herself and devoured it so quick, I didn't get any pictures until it was almost gone

If she has too many cupcakes, her belly may stay like this:

And then she got drunk on too much sugar:

In the end, she celebrated all day long!

We love you Cara and look forward to celebrating with you many, many, many more times!

Nine Days Ago

Cara turned ONE! Because I have chosen to be a busy mama, I did not have time or energy to get a blog post up before now. I am sure Cara will forgive me when she gets older.

It was that day, one year ago, that I had been in the hospital all night. The epidural was starting to "wear off" and I was beginning to feel contractions again. I had been throwing up, off and on, since the early morning. It had been several hours since the nurse told me, "it's getting close," in response to my vomiting. I had not been out of the bed since I was admitted, I was on magesium for pre-eclampsia. I had not had anything to eat or drink, and Terre and Cephas were cuddled on the couch, as they had been all night. The nurses shift had changed and I got a new nurse, who was not quite as nice as the one I had all night. The doctor came in around 8:30am and said they were going to go ahead and do a c-section. I felt diappointment, as I had really wanted to do this "naturally," but I was relieved at the same time to know it was going to be over with soon.

As they prepped me for surgery, I kept asking Cephas if he was disappointed, and he never gave me very much encouragement (not his strong suit). Terre though, she was telling me that I was doing great. I remember being nervous and excited all at the same time. They wheeled me into surgery and for the 10-20 minutes it took to get Cara out, I was nausous the whole time. Finally, I heard her cry and out of the corner of my eye, they had taken her over to be checked out by the NIC-U staff. I began to cry, knowing that this was real, she was here. Cephas brought her to me and I could only look at her. I am anxious for the doctor to finish closing me up so I could finally hold her.

They took Cara out of the OR and I told Cephas to follow her. I finally came out and got to hold her and nurse her for the first time. I was so tired, but finally had my baby girl in my arms. The love I felt for her that day is nothing like the love I feel for her now. It took me a while to fall "in love" with my baby, I had to feel confident first in knowing I could do it. I had to get to a point where I realized she was really mine. There are still times I feel like I am only babysitting, and she doesn't fully belong to me.

But I tell you, no one else could be more like me. Cara has my personality. Happy belated Birthday Baby Girl!