End of an era

I promise to always cherish the moment you came into this world.



I will spare you the gory details for now, though I will tell you the story every year as many times as you ask. (I still like hearing about the day I was born). Suffice it to say- you, in all your gooey, sweet, baby-ness were the most perfect thing I have ever laid my eyes on.

And our first year together commenced.




Now, it ends with a mixture of sadness and excitment. Sadness for all the moments that have passed us by,we will never get them back. Excitement for all the rest, may they be as memorable.

Sweet dreams, birthday boy!

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Milestones

I promise to celebrate each milestone in your life.

That, my boy, is why I began writing here. I have done my best to capture them as they happen.

We have surpassed so many, some of my favorites are

* your first smiles and laughs

* the first time you rolled over- you were so surprised!

* the first time you ate cereal

* the first kisses you gave us

* the first time you turned the pages of a book

* when you said 'boo' and played peek-a-boo

First time you switched toy from one hand to the other!

We have many more to go, and I promise we will celebrate each and every one.

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Promising togetherness

I promise to help you know we are always together

This feels so important now, but I know you are too tiny to understand. Your tears when I drop you off at daycare break my heart everyday. I want to be able to tell you how much I love you and that even though we can't be together everyday doesn't mean I love you any less. There is no way yet for you to understand that even when we are apart, we are together.

I promise as you grow, you will know that I am always here for you no matter how far apart we are. I want you to know when you have a bad day I am the one you can call. That if you feel lost or alone, you will find support, love, and encouragement in me. When you get the best news ever, I will be with you to do a happy dance, even if I'm not there to celebrate. Know that I am your mom, always, and I will be with you always.

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Imagine...

I promise to foster the magic of your imagination.

I often wonder what is going on in that sweet little head of yours, you have such an intent to explore things and find out what they look like, feel like, sound like, what they do, how they taste...I promise to give you the freedom and the opportunities to imagine all the imagineable things. I will help you discover what you can do with all that you encounter, and to imagine the world any way you want.




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Another day's promises

I promise to create a loving and enriching environment for you.

I know how to love you. It comes more naturally than breathing. I hope you always know just how much, and will never question the unending love that surrounds you.

I logically know what's best for you and how you will grow and change over the next few years, because I am lucky enough to have a good education and access to the information to help me out along the way. I promise to make up the difference with what I know intuitively. I promise to use what I know and learn what I don't, to the best of my ability to make your life the best it can be. I promise to give you every opportunity I have had and more. I will keep our home a place that you feel safe and comfortable that allows you to explore and learn and grow.

I promise to love you with all of my heart through all of our lives.

My first promise

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Another day of promises

I promise to dance and sing and play with you for a lifetime.

I love your smile and your infectious laugh, the sweet squeal that comes out at the end, of it, and how much harder you laugh when I laugh too. It warms my heart watching you play and discover the world around you. I have done my best to leave the house in shambles around us, so that we can play and enjoy the short time we have together. You are only a baby for such a short time, and far too soon you will want to play all on your own. Please know that I do my best to make all the other little unimportant things take a back seat to you and our family. (When you get older, you will understand how hard that is for your multi-taskin' momma!) I look forward to all the things we have to experience as you grow up, and promise that I will help you enjoy every last minute of it. Or darn close to it. I hope to give you a safe world that allows you to be a child until you grow up.

I can only hope that showing you how much I love you and how much you matter to me, will build a relationship that makes you want to dance and sing and play with me for a lifetime.

I love you bubba!

My first promise

Promises

While we celebrate my nephew's 1 week birthday, I am settling myself into the Booger's First Birthday Countdown! When he was born, we were given a wonderful book 100 Promises to My Baby by Mallika Choppra. It is not the type of book you sit down to read, but one of those that you come back to when you need a few moments of meditation or a gentle reminder that it (it being late nights, early mornings, diapers, laundry, tears, and inconsolable babies and mommies and daddies) is all truly, truly worth it, especially this amazing first year.

In coming across it again this evening, I realized that it would be a wonderful way to reminisce and celebrate the week leading up to my miraculous son's first birthday. I spent some time looking through and pulled out a few promises that I want to give to him. Stop by throughout the week to watch the flashbacks (in photos) to go along with my Mommy moments.

My first promise on your first birthday;

I promise to love you, with not limits, from the depths of my soul, even when I know that it makes me more vulnerable than I have ever felt before.

I cannot count the number of times I have been amazed that I could love someone this much. Just looking down at you sometimes, I catch myself in awe. In awe of the amazing little bundle of personality that I nurtured and grew for months and months has stopped moving for a few moments and is so soft and sweet. In awe that I am 'the one' that you look for when you are scared or surprised or excited. In awe of the task that I am facing to somehow raise you to be a happy, satisfied, successful, well-rounded, strong-minded, loving, good person. In awe that in one whole year you have changed my life more than I could have ever imagined, more than any person I have ever met.

I know that you give me unquestioning love, and I want you to always know you have had the same love, magnified by thousands from me. I know when you are older, you will probably not believe me because I have to be the 'mean' mom. Always know that I really and truly love you from the depths of my soul, and that will never change.