My baby turned one!

Daniel's birthday was yesterday. When I look back over the past year there are times that seems like the year has sped by and then I think about how much has happened throughout the year and it seems like a year ago was so much further away. Daniel is so much apart of the family it seems like he has always been here.

Last year at this time we were both still in the hospital. I was recovering from the c-section and Daniel was in the NICU with a hole in each lung and everything was so stressful and precarious. He was so fragile yet so strong at the same time struggling to breathe each and every breath. He healed up and was released when he was 9 days old. Since then he has been very healthy and has had no problems at all with his lungs. He is almost walking now. He can stand without holding onto anything for a little while. He is all into exploring everything and talking in his baby talk. He is so fun to watch. I am so grateful I have been able to spend his entire first year with him as a full-time mom. I so regret that I wasn't able to do the same with Elijah.

I think the best thing this year has been seeing Elijah and Daniel develop their brother relationship. I think the best thing we have ever done for Elijah is give him a brother. The boys play together now and its plain to see the love between them. They will have each other and their special relationship their whole lives and I am so happy about that.

A few days ago me and the boys were standing in a very long line at a store waiting to check out and everyone in line seemed to be sharing the same grumpy feelings about standing in that line. That is until Daniel reached over and started rubbing Elijah's head and patting him and then Elijah turned to Daniel with this doting smile and started doing the same thing to Daniel and then Elijah said, "I love you brother" to Daniel and then they both reached over and hugged each together and started giggling. Everyone in line that observed them started giggling too and commented on how cute they are and then everyone was smiling instead of being grumpy. It was a precious moment. These boys are such a blessing!

We celebrated Daniel's birthday on Sunday with our extended family and we also celebrated my Nephew's 15th brithday and my Uncle's 60th birthday. My uncle let us all know that he has been diagnosed with emphesyma (sp?) and has only 43% of his lung capacity. He is going to be put on the organ donor list. He was a smoker until about 7 years ago. We are praying for him, and as we celebrated the birthdays we again recognized what a gift life is and how important family is. I am so grateful to God for each person in my family especially for our most recent gift he gave us in Daniel. Daniel received two birthday presents. One was from his great-grandma and is a little car type thing that he can sit on and push himself around on with his feet and also has a handle so we can push him around. The other present was something that my parents went in on with me and Doug. It is this playhouse door kind of thing with all kinds of gadgets on it, and it plays music and has lights and sounds. He has been enjoying his presents. We had a mini cake for him to enjoy all by himself but he wasn't very interested in it, so Elijah I think ate most of it.

Daniel is getting so big and Elijah says that now that he is one he isn't a baby anymore. I am looking forward to him getting a little bit more independent and hopefully a bit less attached to me. Elijah says that now that Daniel isn't a baby anymore we need to have a new baby. I'm not so sure about that, but I think its cute that Elijah is so eager to have more babies around. I think thats a good sign that we have balanced having two kids well as oppossed to just one. Today we get to experience a less happy milestone we get to take Daniel to the doctor for his 12 month shots. I hate getting the shots done but I do feel like its necessary. So hopefully the shots will go well, and Daniel won't have any side-effects.