Happy Birthday Miss Ava!

Today is Ava's first birthday. I can hardly believe that she's a year old all ready. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. A year ago at this moment, I had just had my epidural. Holy cow. Ava came as such a surprise. I was at work the day before she was born. At 4 a.m. my water broke, but I was so exhausted, I thought I was peeing my pants. Seriously. But the water wouldn't stop coming, so I called my mom and she said to go the hospital. Poor Nate woke up to me sobbing on the toilet. We packed up and headed to the hospital around 6 a.m. My mom and mother-in-law met us there. I wasn't having any contractions, so they gave me some petocin to get things started. At 9:00 I had my epidural. Around 11:30, the nurse came in and said they were having a hard time monitering my contractions, so they would have to stick this thing up me to tell how hard I was contracting. She started to stick it up me, and then she said "Well, you're at a 9 1/2, so we'll start pushing now." And at 12:18 p.m. my beautiful baby was born.
I sobbed for 20 minutes after she was born. I couldn't help myself. She was so pretty and just perfect as can be. When they weighed her, she was only 5 lbs 4 oz. So tiny! I vividly remember holding her for the first hour while she just looked around. She had the biggest eyes and I couldn't stop looking at her. I was in love.
Fast forward one year, and she is a wild one year old. Some days, I can harldy keep up with her. She is so stubborn and opinionated it's ridiculous. She has 1/2 of a tooth with 6 more almost poking through. I can't believe just how much she's learned. She knows what a doggie says, how to wave hi and bye, and patty cake. She wants to feed herself everything and loves drinking from her princess sippy cup. She knows how to put the binky it all by herself, except half of the time she puts in upside down. She loves putting on necklaces and loves draping them around her neck. She is trying to put her clothes on by herself and helps me put her shoes on. She loves to read books and she points at everything! It's hard to take her grocery shopping because she doesn't just sit there anymore. She's up and down, in and out. I have to put her in the big basket and she watches over the food for me. She is also standing up by herself. She won't take any steps, but she will squat and then stand up.
I seriously can't imagine my life without her. It's crazy how I thought my life was complete when it was just Nathan and me. How wrong I was. I now understand the joy of parenting. When she accomplishes something or learns something new, I am so proud of her. When she is sad,it breaks my heart. When she giggles, my heart is full. I am so blessed to have her and to be able to teach her and love her. She's my little Ava bug.