"Your Toddler This Week"

When the day arrived last Friday, I kind of mini-panicked. My baby is now not counted in days; she's not counted in weeks or months; she is counted in YEARS. She is a full year old.

When Ramis and I commented to each other what we had been doing exactly one year ago on Thursday and Friday, the memories were crystal clear-- down to the minute. We both knew exactly what we were doing at any given moment from May 13th at 10am to May 15th at noon. That is the 48-ish hours that changed our lives forever. We will never be the same and I can confidently say that it was the BEST 48 hours of our lives: the day when we gained perspective as we had seen pure love in the flesh. But, this isn't news.

The news came as we were driving to work on Friday and I picked up my phone to check my email. We get weekly baby development emails from Babycenter.com. They are really very informative and interesting, so I clicked on it. The subject used to be: "Your Baby This Week", but Friday the subject was "Your Toddler This Week". oh. my. god. What happened to my BABY?!?!

She is a toddler. She speaks an innumerable amount of words, sometimes two at a time.
"Hi! Dada!"
"Acado" (Avocado)
"Good girl!"
"Ta goo" (Thank you)
She cruises and walks with support.
Her hand/eye coordination is ridiculously good.
She is as intuitive as her daddy.
She listens better than her daddy. (haha! exposed!)
She is so social and friendly to other kids, talking ("Hi!") and introducing herself ("Baby!" and points to self).
Age appropriate toys are too boring for her. She needs 2 year old toys or books.
She's probably ready to potty train when she walks on her own because she recognizes and states what she's doing and when.

So, in reality, she is our toddler (w/o toddling). I can't say that's an easy thing for me to admit. It took time for that to sink in, as it's not anything except that every parent telling me to "soak it all in now, because it goes so fast" were right. So, I'm glad we did.

Happy birthday to the happiest, most beautiful, most hardworking and amazing little girl in the whole world. You are sunshine in our universe.


P.S. How many times am I going to cry while writing this?