And now it begins...

As a mom you try to postpone any bad habits for as long as possible. No junk food (there's plenty of time for that later), not too many sweets (being related to me I would like to control sugar intake for as long as possible, seeing as how I am a sugar addict), and especially, not too much TV. I was worried about TV at first, and I still am, to a point. I don't sit Emma in front of the TV for hours on end or anything like that, but she really does enjoy her morning PBS cartoons (Syd the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, Sesame Street). She's only 13 months old, but when I turn on any of those shows, she gets excited. I decided to bring her chair downstairs from her bedroom. It's a green chair with her name monogrammed on it that my mom got for her for Christmas. I never thought she'd actually want to use it at this age, but she started sitting in it in her room, and she LOVES sitting in it when she is watching her shows... I mean look at this picture. Does she not look like she is older than 13 months???




There are alot of things that make me realize that she is no longer a baby. She hasn't been for a long while. But she seems to be growing up a such a fast pace, it's a little too fast for me. I couldn't tell you how many times people have told me "the time flies by, enjoy every minute, they'll be in school before you know it". Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I remember when she was a month old, all I wanted was for her to keep her newborn look just a little while longer. I knew it would change so quickly, and forever. Now she is walking. And I miss her little booty moving side to side as she crawled. Soon she will be talking. And I'm so going to miss her random babbling, which to her, I know, is not so random.

I guess that's why I take so many pictures and video, I try to document as much as I can. I have over 25,000 pictures stored on my computer if that's any indication of how important they are to me. Life gets busy, we get older, and time starts to pass us by. One day we stop and wonder "how did I get here?". I'm very sentimental when it comes to memories, good ones and bad, happy ones and sad. Memories of important people in my life, those who used to be in my life, those who still are, those who I keep in my heart. Now I have a little person in my life and I am scared to death of time just flying by. I am so thankful every single day that I can stay home with Emma, that Conor works so hard to provide for his family and give me a priceless opportunity to spend so much time with Emma before she starts school. Sometimes I just sit and watch her play. Nothing special, just her playing, and talking to herself. But it's the world to me, every little thing she does, such as putting the TV remote or my eye shadow in the dog's water bowl, is the world to me. If I had the time and patience I would record or document it all, but that's just too unrealistic, so I will have to rely on my memories for some of the most precious moments.

Speaking of precious moments, enjoy this video of Emma and her daddy. She adores her daddy, adores him. Just yesterday Conor came home from work and she looked at him and yelled "Da Da!!!!". I couldn't believe it. Conor was on cloud 9. Now if we could just say "Ma Ma"...

I also finally did her one year chair pics... here's a sneak peek of one of my favorite shots: