One Year Later

One year ago today, I met my little girl for the first time. When I went into labor early St. Patrick’s Day morning, I was certain she would be a holiday baby, but I labored for 36 long hours —  Margot, already 10 days behind schedule, was shy. She was finally born March 18, 2013 at 4:26 pm.

Margot was a mellow newborn, only crying when necessary, and sleeping through the night at only two months old. Each month we clapped excitedly as she gained new motor skills: lifting her head, rolling over, crawling, standing — now my Margot is independently taking 2-5 wobbly steps at a time. She’s also getting better at word recognition. When I ask, “where’s da-da?” she instantly starts waving, and scanning the room for her dad. She does the same when I ask her where the doggie is. It’s precious.

The doggie I refer to is Sally, the new furry addition to our home. She’s an eight-year-old beagle we adopted from the animal shelter, meaning she’s the same age Yango was when I adopted him. Old age brings out the sleepy, peaceful, ‘kumbaya’ attitude in dogs. She’s gentle, and reminds me so much of my sorely missed Yango.Anyway, Margot is a one-year-old now. She’s also going to be a big sister! If you haven’t heard, our second child is due early September 2014. We will be sure to share the gender once we know what we’re having. We are excited to have our children close in age. The military lifestyle means our kids will be pulled from their social circles and dropped into new ones in new cities every few years. Having siblings close in age will hopefully make that process much easier on them.

Plus, babies are just the sweetest blessing on earth. How could we not want a few?

So — for her Birthday, we’ll be having a small Birthday get-together for Margot this weekend, she’ll have cake and balloons and all the normal first world Birthday spoils. The real celebrations will come next month, when we head down to Las Vegas, and OKC to visit family and friends, many of whom haven’t seen her since last summer. Hopefully my shy baby will warm up to all the old and new faces quickly during our visit. If they have snacks or toys, I’m sure she will.Happy Birthday, sweet Margot! And many more!