1 YEAR OLD!!!

Happy Birthday, Canon!  You've made it through a whole year, and you're just getting cuter and smarter every single day!  He's actually a year old today, but we will be celebrating his birthday with some friends on Saturday.

If you don't mind, since this is my blog and all, allow me to reminisce a bit.

Halloween 2009 was spent in the hospital.  My water broke, but I didn't feel those painful contractions I was expecting.  I was trying to get my delivery on the way naturally, so I was making laps around the maternity ward.  Everyone at the nurses' station were amused at how fast I was going, but I wanted that baby to come out.  After hours of no progress, I was induced to get the ball rolling.  After about 29 hours of waiting, the baby was "in distress" so I was wheeled in for an emergency c-section.  At 10:40AM on Nov. 1, 2009 my little Canon was born.

Before Canon was born I always felt like I was always waiting for life to start... like I was missing something.  Being Canon's mother has filled my life with so much happiness.  I truly appreciated watching the little things, amazed at how excited I would get with each milestone.

It was so great to listen to his first coos...

...see him begin to smile (just in time to get our family portraits in December and for family visits for his baby blessing!!)...

...watch as his head was held up for longer and longer stretches of time...

...witness his discovery of how to roll over (I don't really have a great video of this )-: )...

...see his early morning grins...

...finding his ticklishness...

...finding ways to make him laugh...

...starting with new foods...

...watching him develop his strength from scooting...

...to crawling...

...to walking holding our hands.

There are so many more videos and pictures that I could include, but I will spare your time and just say that I am so happy to be Canon's mommy.  This past year has been a growing experience for me as well.  With all those sleepless nights,  draining days of little energy and little sleep, more dirty diapers than I can count, spit up and other smelly yucky stuff, hours worth of crying and tears- I wouldn't trade a single minute.  Canon makes me smile and laugh every day, and having him in our family has really made a wonderful impact on Mark and me.  We are so blessed to have this little handsome man in our life!

Happy Birthday, little buddy!