One Year Later (12/21)

I still can't believe it... it's been one whole year already!! I can still remember the day Braedyn was born as if it were yesterday. I guess you never really forget that day... or the second day after he was born when he wouldn't stop crying the whole night. You know, the night Ben so lovingly refers to as "the night from hell". It makes me laugh just thinking about it. haha (Ben, are you laughing? Come on, you know it's funny now that you look back on it!)

Ben's brother and sister-in-law, Jason & Jess, just welcomed their little girl, Baby Penny, last week. And talking with Jess about life with a newborn got me thinking about when Ben and I were first starting out with Braedyn. I remember Oprah had a show with a lady on it called "the baby whisperer". This lady basically deciphered babies crying patterns. It was extremely interesting and taught us how babies have different types of cries, and how the sound of the cry determines what the baby needed. It really was an amazing show and both Ben and I watched it a couple times. And afterwards, we practiced the sounds and quizzed each other.

Once Braedyn was born, we hung onto what we learned from The Baby Whisperer. If Braedyn made an "eh" sound, he needed to be burped. If he made an "aaah" sound, he was hungry. If he made a "gggrrr" sound, he had gas. Now, I'm pretty sure I just screwed some of those up, but we really did have all five of the cries memorized, and used them religiously. And amazingly, we were able to figure out what our baby needed most of the time. This specific baby language only worked from 0-3 months... after that, babies had a whole new type of language. I remember thinking during Braedyn's first few weeks "oh my gosh, what am I ever going to do after the first 3 months, how will I ever know what my baby needs".

It's funny, because I don't really remember at what point we stopped trying to decipher Braedyn's baby language, but gradually we got to know and understand our baby. And we realized that not everything is learned from a book or video. Most things are learned by trial and error, or by watching and observing. And in some ways, Braedyn basically teaches us what we need to know (he must get that trait from me).

So thank you to my sweet, little, baby boy for teaching me how to be a good Mommy, for making me realize that it's not necessary to always live by a schedule, and for teaching me the meaning of selflessness. And thank you to Ben for becoming the proud and amazing Daddy that I knew you could be. Braedyn has taught both Ben and I more about life than we could've ever imagined. And we are so very much looking forward to the next year of Braedyn's life, and all the surprises and joys that will come along with that. Happy Birthday Braedyn, We Love You.

And to all of our friends and family, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday.