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It is still quite unbelievable for me that my not-so-baby-anymore baby girl turned one yesterday. What happened to the past 365 days? What happened to the tiny little baby girl who was immobile at the newborn stage?
I am very ambivalent about Annakate’s transition from babyhood into toddlerhood. As much as I am excited about her upcoming learning adventures, I truly miss those days of her being totally innocent, trusting, vulnerable, desperately needy, and new person. She has passed the stage of counting her age in weeks or months. Nevertheless, the good news is, we survived the very first year of parenthood. We made it! (*Raise your glass*)
It has been one amazing year. A year full of challenges, inevitable changes, and countless new experiences. I am absolutely sure that many parents can relate to us:-
- We have disruptive sleep every now and then, and feel like a zombie the very next day.
- We have been drooled on, peed on, pooped on, spit up on, and thrown up on.
- We have been scratched, headbutted, kicked, bit, and pinched.
- We take longer to get out of the house.
- We take longer to travel on our road trips because of the feeding schedule.
- Groceries expenses have increased.
- We clean the house more often because someone decides to throw some food out of the highchair’s tray.
- We learn to appreciate every coo, every word, every hum, every giggle, every smile.
- We have been more careful with our language, especially when driving.
- We learned to multitask with our hands and feet.
- We have given up our personal time with ourselves and each other in the name of parenting.
- We learned all the signs of a diaper actively being dirtied.
- We learned to enjoy all of her slobbery kisses.
- We learned to have more patience.
- We learned to love unconditionally just like how our Abba Father shows us His unfailing love.
- We pray for her safety every single day
- We have laughed with her, cried with her, and those moments were precious.
- We have felt agitated, discouraged, doubtful, exhausted, exhilarated, proud, thrilled, and excited.
- We rock, we sing, we dance, we tickle, we groove to the music, we chase each other around on all fours.
- We seek advice from veteran parents because we feel like we are amateurs.
- We flew on a long haul (more than 24 hours) flight without her being cranky.
- We repeat a word like a hundred times, hoping that she will say that word again.
- and etc, etc, etc!
Different parents will have different stories. I have to admit that parenting is not science, but life experiments of trial and error. What worked for my parents may not work for me. What works for my friends may not work for me. The most important thing is to sit back and learn to trust every parental instinct that we have.
As for now, I am going to get ready some tissues, because I cannot stop watching this compilation video I have made for my dearest one year old.