Anna Zatopek Photographer

Today is my baby boy’s first birthday. Wow. Last year right at this time, my nerves were flopping around in my belly like huge rock butterflies. What is it going to be – a boy or girl, will he be healthy, will we both make it through the surgery, will I be able to handle three of them??? Maybe that was just Liam bumping around in there.

Time flies faster as you get older and the more kids you have. It really sucks. I feel like I opened a door on Oct 19, 2009 and entered into Oct 19, 2010. Everything that happened while I was walking through that door is a big blur. When I sit and think about it, sure I remember significant things that happened this past year, but they seem like journal entries from a time long ago. You want to remember each and every sweet moment with a new baby, but unfortunately, sleep deprivation and screaming kind of wipe those out in an instant. The sad part is, not only is my baby boy one year older, but so are my girls. In the time it took me to successfully keep my baby alive during his infancy, they have grown into a young lady who has completely lost all her baby fat, knows exactly what her life is going to look like when she’s older and has it all planned out, and a preschool age little girl who knows all her letters, numbers, and has mastered the complete bathroom procedure.

It’s a happy and sad day for me. I want them to stay little, but I also can’t wait to see what kind of people they turn out to be.

We played a game at Liam’s birthday party this past Saturday where everyone wrote down what they thought he would be when he grows up. My oldest was the emcee. She declared that the last one read would be his lot. There were a couple of firefighters, an astronaut, a novelist, awesome, and the last – a ladies man. He’s already working on that one.

Happy Birthday, big man.