Hazel Jane, my darling, I love you.
I love you more than those three words can convey. I finally understand the phrase, “I love you so much, it hurts,” as I find myself thinking and saying that often. It’s true. This love is a love like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. And I’m just so incredibly grateful that I have the honor, blessing and privilege of experiencing it with you.
August 28th marked 1 year of having you in my arms.
One year of feeling like I’m going to explode from the joy I experience, being your Mama.
One year of nursing you around the clock, soaking in our special, sacred time together.
One year of watching you grow, learn and explore.
One year of experiencing this love that I’m afraid I will never be able to explain.
For your first birthday I wanted to write you a letter, simply documenting what I love most about this season with you. I’m a handful of months late so some things have changed as of the date of this letter, but this truth remains: Hazel, my darling, I absolutely adore you. ❤️
At 12 months:
You love to sing! You’re not a fan of getting your face wiped down after a meal, so one day I started trying to distract you by asking you if you wanted to sing with Mama. I started to sing “la la la la la la la la la” and you quickly joined in. You’re a great singer!
You “swam” in the river for the first time!
You love hiding behind your rocking chair and playing hide and seek!
You LOVE when I get on the floor on my hands and knees and growl at you; I’m pretty sure it makes you laugh harder than anything else!
You LOVE foot kisses. Each night when we put you to bed, mommy and daddy sing “Jesus Loves Me” over you, with the following added first that Mama made up during our last visit to Chicago:
It is time to go to sleep. I hope and pray your rest is deep. When you wake we’ll get to play. For now it’s time for me to say— sweet dreams my baby, sweet dreams my baby. Sweet dreams my baby, I love you very much.
After we sing, daddy prays over you while Mama continues to nurse you. When he is done praying, no matter how sleepy you are, you stick your little foot straight up in the air and wait for daddy to kiss it. Often times you do this while remaining latched and nursing. 🙂 It’s the sweetest thing that absolutely melts our hearts every time.
You love the slide at the playground! You’re especially interested in the big kid slides— you’ll stand in front of them longingly signing for “more” as mama tries to explain that you aren’t quite big enough yet.
I’ve lost count of the number of skinned knees/chins you’ve obtained. At first I felt bad about it but your daddy keeps reminding me it’s a sign of a good childhood, and that you’re simply following in his steps of never experiencing a day of childhood without something skinned. 😅
You and I do this real fun thing where we make super excited faces at one another.
You love bananas! They are your favorite snack.
You reeeeally love blueberries and oatmeal. You eat them both (almost) every single day for breakfast.
When I tell you it’s time to brush your teeth, you walk to the chair that we typically sit in to brush them. When we say it’s time for a night night nap, you walk to the rocker in your nursery, where I put you to sleep. When I ask you “where’s the cat,” you sit on the floor at our bed, lift the bed skirt, and find the cat. When we ask you to find any specific baby or stuffed animal, you bring it to me. When I exclaim “there’s a deer,” you quickly run to the door to see for yourself! It amazes us that at 12 months you are already able to not only understand so much, but to make so many connections!
You LOVE when we sing the ABC’s. We started singing it more frequently during car rides when you are ready to get out and be home. Sometimes we sing the song 10x in a row for you, and we delight in your response every time! If we stop singing, you simply joyfully ask for more!
You do this cute little thing where you put your bottom two teeth over your top lip when you are focused and tired.
You love to back up and sit in our lap over and over.
You like putting a diaper on granny bear.
As soon as music starts playing you run to Alexa and start dancing!
You are incredibly observant! You always have been!
You proved everyone right and started walking very early, around 10.5 months; you haven’t slowed down since! It’s so much fun to watch you explore the world around you, now that you get to control where you go! You were made for adventure, just like your Daddy and Mommy!
Hazel Jane, my darling girl, we simply adore you and all that the Lord has created you to be. We are so grateful for one whole year of loving you and watching you grow into the little girl that stands before us today! We love you. So very much.
Huge thank you to Nia Capri Photography for capturing these sweet photos of our family as we prepared for our girl to turn ONE! For those interested in seeing the full gallery, click this link: https://niacapriphotography.pixieset.com/hazelsone/
For His glory and my good 