1 Year

You are in the kitchen playing with a toy car
You are the house filled with flowers
You are all things bright, strawberry blonde eyelashes, and yellow balloons
--headstands; falling down;  tripping over belly laughs
--tiny tantrums in the grocery store-- chewing a hole in the bandaid box before we buy it
But you are my happy place, my daydream in the dentist's chair.
You are my midnight voyager; polka dotted pjs at 2am; a sigh and snuggle, and back to sleep.  A year of 3 hour increments.  
You are the morning sun, and every day a little bigger, smarter, doing more--
--pointing with a finger, trying to say bird.
 Bringing me a book; today my slippers.

When you were born I loved you instantly.  You slid right into our life and you found your slot; an easy milky-sweet baby.  In a house of three semi-solemn people, you have made us laugh and smile every day.  Over this past year you have transformed our family into something completely new and different.  You have a voice that is all your own, and it has left me speechless and completely in love.

So happy birthday, Eloise.  Today you are 1 year old, and you are magnificent.

One, two, there....

four, five, six...

seven, eight, nine...

ten, eleven...

and twelve.