What a difference a year makes

Caroline will be a year old on Thursday. It is hard to believe that we have been parents for a year. I have been reminiscing a lot over the past week about our lives at this time last year. On July 11, 2005 I was a bundle of excitement and nerves. I was scheduled to be induced the next day, July 12th and my parents had just arrived in town. We ate at Pesto Cafe that night and took a long walk around the park hoping she would make her appearance naturally, but no luck. At 7:30 the next morning (the 12th) we headed to the hospital only to be told that there were no rooms for me and to go back home (I know how Mary must have felt!). At 3:00 p.m. after much waiting we were finally admitted into the hospital and by 5:00 p.m. they had started the pitocin drip. Once things were set in motion my nerves calmed down a bit. It was a long night, but after 9.5 hours of labor and 3 looooong hours of pushing, Caroline Renée Ellcey made her way into the world.












Parenthood was a rough transition for us. Neither of us operate well on no sleep and nursing seemed impossible. But things eventually got better. I wrote this on August 5: "It has been 3 weeks since Caroline was born. Our house is finally free of family, Caroline sleeps more than an hour at a stretch, and I have gone whole days without crying. We are starting to see the light at the end of the post-partum tunnel and have begun to enjoy having a baby in the house. It is true what they say--having a baby changes EVERYTHING, but not all the changes are bad. They also don't tell you how wonderful it is to have an innocent baby fall asleep in your arms or how amazing it is to look into that little face and see a little bit of you and a little bit of your husband...and now I'm going to start crying again..."

Things just kept getting better from there. Now it is almost a year later and I can't imagine my life without Caroline. She is growing and changing every day. She took her first steps on July 2nd and there has been no stopping her. She walks everywhere now. She also "talks". She says nigh-nigh (for night-night), bah (for ball), duh (for duck), and when she sees a dog she goes "woo woo woo". I love it!

This is a photo of Caroline at her Birthday party last Sunday. We had the party early so all Caroline's uncles could attend. It went very well and everyone had a good time--especially Caroline.



She wasn't so sure about the cake at first, but once she tasted it there was no stopping her.


But anyway, this is getting to be enough for one post. For those of you who are wondering, I will still be keeping my xanga so that I can keep up with my friends there, but this will be my primary blog. New years call for new beginnings and I hope to be more faithful with this blog than I was with my other one. Here's hoping ;)