Happy Birthday Duke Leavitt!

Happy first birthday to our precious boy!!!  One year old.  Wow.  It really is truly amazing how much babies change and grow during their first year of life. 

This is us exactly one year ago today:

and this is Duke this morning:

I keep re-living this day in my head one year ago thinking how strange it is that this is the day we became parents.  The snow....the ultrasound...the doctor's visit which ended in "he must be born today"....racing home to get our bags and call our families and take some last minute pictures...the dreaded c-section....the perfect boy at 6:43pm.  (Duke's full birth story is here)

Like all new parents, we are learning how to do this as we go.  Each day is a new adventure and brings new challenges.  Some days are longer and harder than others.  Some days I look at our son and this family we have created and wonder how I ever got so lucky.  I married somebody that I love with my whole heart and we have a happy, healthy, thriving baby boy.  We look at him sometimes and just marvel at his presence.  How did he GET here?  He's OURS?  We are responsible for molding him into a responsible, compassionate, and smart human being?  Will we be able to do a good job?  Also, how did he get to be so stinking CUTE?  

Being a parent is a huge responsibility and i'll be the first to tell you that it's also really hard.  BUT - It's also so rewarding and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  It's absolutely true that you don't understand the love you will have for your baby until you hold that baby in your arms.  Until you care for that baby every single minute of every single day (and night).  Oh, when you see that first smile and hear that first belly laugh you could die happy at that very moment.  Now I know why my mom worries so much about me and my brother.  Why she always wants to make sure we're happy and we're healthy.  Because she's our mom.  And she can't help it.

Being a mom is like nothing else and there is no other way to explain it than to say that it is like having a piece of yourself living outside of your body.  Some days I could simply burst with how much I love this little person.

Duke Leavitt, you are one amazing little boy.  Your personality has exploded the past few months.  You have gone from a teeny little helpless infant to a crawling, standing, babbling, laughing, kissing, smiling, little boy.  You are officially into EVERYTHING.  Our little explorer.  You just learned how to clap yesterday and we've been practicing walking every day.  You are SO CLOSE but still end up on your bum every time you try to take a step towards me.  You are a lightning fast crawler and are currently obsessed with climbing stairs.  You also just started "dancing" by bopping your head back and forth.  You think that is REALLY hilarious.  You also think it's pretty funny to stick out your tongue or just open your mouth as wide as you can and growl.  Oh, also you make funny motor boat noises by moving your finger on your lips or just go full on raspberry.  AND just this morning you learned how to flush the toilet!  Yippee! (yes, that is sarcasm.  That one kind of took me by surprise)

You have 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom.  You go to the doctor on monday but i'm guessing you are around 23 - 24 lbs.  You are a big eater and haven't really hated anything that we've given you.  You absolutely LOVE strawberries....like I think you could exist on strawberries.  You also love avocados, mushrooms, cheese, tortillas, mandarin oranges, pasta, tofu, banana bread (but not so crazy about the plain banana), cheerios and Aunt Annie's cheddar bunnies.  You refuse to eat off of a spoon and only like to feed yourself.  You are still nursing all day and all night.  Our biggest challenge with you right now is sleep.  At one year old you have still not slept through the night and still sleep with us.  Which means I haven't slept through the night (not even once) since I was about 7 months pregnant.  I suppose you get used to the sleep deprivation.  Am I sort of jealous of your daddy's work trips which I like to refer to as "sleep vacations"?  A little.  But only the sleeping part.  Not the being away from you for days at a time part.

You are my little buddy.  We spend every second of every day together and I have no idea what I did before you were here.  I must have had a lot of free time and also had many more showers and dates with your daddy and yoga classes and probably had pretty painted toenails.  But i'm happy to trade all of that stuff for your stinking cute smiling face.  I think this next year is going to be chock full of fun and lots and lots of laughter.  We are so excited.

We love you more than you will ever know baby boy.

Happy First Birthday!

Love,

Mama and Dada
ps - we have a pretty fun day planned for you tomorrow so sleep good tonight, ok?!