Happy Birthday Madison!

Happy Birthday to my darling little girl!
I love you little babe!
Your one now, oh goodness!

Madison's first day :)

Madison and dada.

 

1st family photo

 

 

 

Just look at you now walking all over the place :)

1st birthday and sick with a teary eye, but the happiest little baby still!

                                                             I love you little baby!

My oh My, I survived.

Taken 3 days before Madison was born!

My last belly pic before Madison popped out!

Wow I survived my first year of motherhood! To say that already is overwhelming for me. Jon and I survived parenthood for the first whole year. Through it all, I'm so glad we did go through everything we did to get to where we are.

I'm honestly so proud that I've been able to nurse Madison for her first whole year! No formula, nothing but Mama's milk. Now I have to figure out when to wean her away and switch to regular milk.

I can't believe this time last year I was sitting at home with Jon and we were just having a conversation about how anxious we were with having to wait another 2 weeks. I think someone overheard because Madison arrived the next morning! It's been such a crazy year with a baby and going back to school, but I've learned so much from this past year on love. Madison has taught me a new kind of love that is indescribable until you experience it. It's not the fall in love type of love, but more the first time you love something that is always going to love you back. That's the kind of love Madison has given me.

Thank you Madison for all the lessons of love you have taught me, I love you baby girl.
Happy 1st Birthday Madison.

First & Last.

Madison's Valentines photo...one of many :)

Fifteen minutes ago ended Valentines day and officially started a new day. Yesterday was a great day for everyone in my little family. Madison and I woke up for the day and she had her kindermusik class where she found her first boy valentine besides her daddy. She crawled right up to him and grabbed his cheeks and just attempted to bite his nose off, but it ended up as a little peck on his nose, it was too cute. I wish I was able to record that on video so we can show her (and make her cheeks red) when dating begins in her life that she was after the boys at a young age. After her class we went to have lunch with her grandma at Molbak's and she definitely loved having lunch with grandma. Madison loved it so much she decided to stain her "1st Valentines day" onesie so that was the end of wearing that which only lasted half a day surprisingly. After lunch, we ran errands and came home to a beautiful bouquet of a dozen pink roses and chocolate (yum!). Madison decided she wanted to see her grandma again so we went over to visit for a bit so she could play and show off her newly found walking skills off before heading home. Jon made dinner for us which consisted of fillet mignon and risotto with artichoke hearts (simplified the name since I can't remember the exact name of it), it was very delicious and I loved that we were able to stay home and enjoy Valentines day as a family.

This is the first of the last for Madison's holidays experienced. It might not make sense, but I'll try to elaborate. Her first holidays are all done and celebrated with and the last one was yesterday-Valentines day which was the first of many for her. Now it's time to just prepare her for the next round of holidays and the years to come. Does that make sense? It makes sense to me, but sometimes it is just me :) Just thinking about this today made me happy and sad to know she has grown so much in the first 11 1/2 months of her being. Soon she'll be one and running around like crazy while I'm trying to keep up with her. Actually on a side note, she keeps me in good shape with her crawling around and I'm sure with her running around soon, it will just be even busier for me. So here's to more holidays with Madison as she embraces them throughout the years to come and eventually grow to love them as much as her mama does.

Balance Act.

Oh my gosh, I've been so neglectful blogging, but I guess this is another reason behind this blog...

Baby, school, and taking care of everything else in between is truly the test for proving a mom's test of balancing everything important in life. The need for keeping everything going and going well like a well oiled machine is much harder to do. When home life is going well, my school suffers. When school is going well, my home life suffers. I'm realizing it's all a balancing act and I can't just focus on one, but all of them when it's necessary. Thinking of school when in school should be my main focus, but when I'm at home I'm constantly processing my anatomy material and telling Madison about it. I think if anything I've learned is that at times, I need to combine some aspects of my life when things get tough. I'm so glad I can thank motherhood for the following advantages in life. Thanks to motherhood I'm becoming a much better multi-tasker, I'm able to think on my feet and think ahead much faster than before Madison was here. I can study and learn while teaching my bebe how the functions of the anatomy like the neuromuscular junction (it's a long complex process that I can finally explain to anyone!).  Motherhood has given me a bigger passion for life and in some ways made me realize who really matters in my life :) So much I can contribute to motherhood, but the most important one is that Jon and I are blessed with a sweet little angel baby that seems to amaze us each day with a smile on her face.

Thank you Madison for teaching momma the balance act, I love you little babe.