One Year Ago...

I was still pregnant. Today is the last ever day I'll be able to say that. My belly was huge and I was completely oblivious to the fact that I was already in active labor...I would find out later in the day at my 36-week checkup and it would stun me. But on this morning a year ago I was just enjoying my day off from work, padding around in a house that I hated and wondering if it would ever get finished and sold. I was holding my belly low on the left side, where I could feel Topher's hiccups at least once a day. I was running to the bathroom at least every 30 minutes and still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I had a real, live, blinking baby inside of me. I wish back then I could have seen a picture of Topher now. I wish I could have seen what I was creating.

I'm going to be this many!

Today we are packing up and heading down to Kansas City to celebrate Topher's birthday with all 10 of his cousins. I went shopping for his presents last night and it surprised me how much I wanted to buy him everything. I'm usually not like that, but right now I feel like I want to give him the whole world. I settled on just a few fun toys, but as I was leaving I passed a clearance rack of diapers. They were all in his size, and all half off. Well, I couldn't pass that up so I bought every box they had. (I'm admittedly a bit of a diaper snob and will only use Huggies or--more rarely--Pampers, which we usually can't afford.) I think Topher had more fun with the big boxes than any other gift I could have bought him.

We've also recently discovered Topher's love of pillows. If you just throw a couple pillows on the ground, he will roll around, laugh, dive right in. It's adorable.

Topher, a year ago I had no idea who you were or what you would be like. Thank you for surpassing all our expectations and helping us become a little family. You went from being a bump in my tummy to being our universe, and we wouldn't have it any other way. We love you so much.

--KC