And we have a toddler...

Well would you look at that, it's officially November! I don't know how that happened, and the fact that Christmas is lurking it's ugly head right around the corner is something I just can't process at the present moment. Because one week ago today, our sweet and lovely (with a side of sass) Emme turned one. One! I can barely believe it and in fact, I'm still recovering from all the celebrating we did last week & weekend. It's hard to believe just how fast this all happened...

We celebrated with family, Wegmans subs & cupcakes on Halloween (yep, remember I gave birth on my favorite holiday??). And then we capped off the weekend with a big 'ol party with family & friends on Saturday. I was up late the night before cursing Pinterest (seriously, what did we do before Pinterest...apparently we had boring, non-creative parties), we crammed as many people as we could into our tiny house, I was sweating for a solid 3 hours, shoveled some food in my face & chased after a toddler all day. It was good times! No seriously, it was. I'm joking people! But just don't expect me to do this again next year! Oh, and I didn't take one single picture that day. I hired my sweet friend Liz to document it all, and let me tell you it was hands down the BEST money I've spent in a long time. Plus, she volunteered to photoshop the sweat off my forehead in all the shots. Winning! I'll be sure to share photos soon...

And here's our little owl on her birthday (aka--Halloween). The fact that she kept her hat on--the essence of the costume--is nothing short of a miracle.

 

 

 

 

Funny, even at age one she knows how to inspect her loot....

 

Anyway, since Emme's birthday, it also dawned on me that I never shared her birth story (something I thought about doing). But then I got thinking about it & honestly, do people really want to read about that stuff? For documenting purposes it might be smart. But then again it's something I'll never forget. I mean, I lived it! But in case you're curious, I'll give you the condensed version....I was large & overdue, went to the hospital the night after my due date to get the ball rolling (and subsequently had the worst night's sleep of my life--prior to the sleepless nights we were about to have, btw...), the following morning had the 'do we' or 'don't we' go the C-section route conversation, got induced shortly thereafter, labored all day, experienced the sweet, sweet effects of an epidural (seriously, if you choose to go down the no pain meds road, well then, gurl, I give you mad props!), got stuck at 8 cm for 5 hours, and then ultimately made the decision to have that C-section...after all of that! I was nervous for all of 10 seconds until I realized that I was way too tired to have it any other way. I passed out shortly after Emme was born--a combination of meds and pure exhaustion--and I don't remember a thing that happened in the OR after her birth. Let me tell you something, C-sections are no joke y'all. It's major surgery & something that shouldn't be taken lightly, but in my case was something we felt we needed to do at the time. The recovery is hard and long, and part of my incision never healed after the fact. Which translated to daily home healthcare nurse visits, weekly doctor's visits, and no driving for over 4 weeks. The second I was given clearance to drive, I hauled our asses to Target and it was one of the most amazing outings ever. But here we are, a year later, and that whole experience seemed like a piece of cake. Now, trying to prevent a toddler from banging on her sitter's fish tank every morning? That's what we like to call difficult!

Can you believe we have a full blown toddler living with us?! Yeah, me either. Happy (belated) birthday sweet, sweet Emme! Love you to bits & pieces to the moon & back!