madelyn lane is one

at 6:15am one year ago today, after 31 hours of back labor (only 10 with an epidural) madelyn lane joined our family. this past year has been so exciting for us just getting to know her. when they were talking about the time she was born i thought that they were talking about her weight and was so confused because the ultrasound was measuring her at near 10 lbs.! but i was a little disoriented from not sleeping for more than two days. we feel so blessed to have madelyn. it has been such a joy to watch her discover the world around her and to see matt become a father. i am really excited for this next year when her personality starts to come out more and she develops more ways to express herself.

i was cleaning out our guest room closet a few months ago (i was feeling the need to purge) and came across this picture of me on my first birthday (i will post one of me with my cake when i make maddie's "real" first birthday cake in a few weeks). do you see a resemblance?

of course maddie got some presents this morning. she got a new red wagon from her daddy and i, some dresses, books, and a neat bug (that she loves) from our friends in california liz and john, and a bouncy rocking horse from big pop and grandma. here is some video of her discovering the rocking horse this morning (its long - 3 minutes - she took a while getting to it because she was so excited. when she is really excited about something she gets shy about it and hesitates to touch it - it makes me laugh to see her do that.).

she is really getting the hang of this opening presents thing. she now understands "out" and "in" so i can ask her "what's in there?" and she pulls away the paper to see and then we ask her to "take it out" and she pulls it out. she just started to really get this last week. it has been nice because she now helps me put away her toys.

after the gifts and some breakfast (blueberry pancakes, grapes, and mango), we took her for a ride in her new wagon around the block. she is wearing a dress that daddy got her for her birthday. he started to tell me that it had something to do with a coupon he had when buying the wagon, but i stopped him because i want to believe that he is just a big softy and wanted to get his daughter a dress.

happy birthday, madelyn. love.