Happy Birthday, Sawyer.

Dear Sawyer,

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet girl!!  I can't believe it has already been a year since you were born.  They say time flies and I feel like we just blinked and a year went by.  Let me start by saying, you are my favorite.  You are my favorite reason to wake up every morning.  You are my favorite to snuggle with.  You are my favorite to share food with.  You are my favorite to laugh with.  You are my favorite reason to never give up.  You are my favorite.  Your daddy and I love you more and more every single day, more than we could have imagined was possible.

On the day you were born, you were surrounded by people who loved you and cared about you.  Your doctors, nurses, family and friends wore little badges that said "Team Sawyer."  We could not wait to meet you and while I would have given anything to spend every last second with you, things don't always go as planned.  For the first 51 days of your sweet life, you spent them in the Neonatal ICU, growing and learning how to eat, but you had some pretty amazing people helping to take care of you.  The night we brought you home will forever be one of my favorite memories.  We sat in front of the Christmas tree and looked at the lights, we walked around your room, we snuggled for hours.

In your first year, your precious little body has endured more than most and I am constantly in awe of your strength and resilience.  What would break others, only makes you stronger.  You wake up each morning and take what life has given you and embrace it with pure joy.  I see the determination in your eyes and how you take any challenge head on that we set before you.  You continue to teach us new things every day.

A few things we've learned about you this year:  You have a gentle little soul, but you also have a fierce and determined spirit.  You are feisty and sassy.  You are shy at first and take your time to warm up to new people, but once you do, you have the best time with them.  You are very observant.  You are definitely a mama's girl (makes me really happy) and generally prefer to be held by me if I'm in the room, but that's okay.  You love to crawl all over dada or wake him up in the mornings. Your laugh is infectious.

At one year, you are eating everything in sight.  Now you would prefer whole foods to your bottles and want to feed yourself whenever possible.  We introduced you to queso and tortillas and girl, there's no going back.  Some of your other favorite foods are sweet potatoes (in any form), cheese, spaghetti, and applesauce.  Right now, you're taking about two bottles a day still of formula just for extra calories but otherwise, we've made the switch to just milk and water and whole food.

You are a seriously fast crawler but can also stand up and cruise along anything and love to push your walkers and chairs around...I have no doubt you'll be walking soon.  You were officially discharged from occupational therapy right at 11 months and have made leaps and bounds this first year and we are SO proud of you.

I started taking you to a little play gym and you love to chase the other kids around and climb over everything.  Being outside is still your favorite.  You squeal and kick your legs if I mention going outside or as soon as I open a door, you crawl full speed towards it, laughing the whole way. You LOVE your doggies---Bailey lets you pull up on her and kisses your face and you like to chase her tail.  You like to throw Nelly food off your tray.

You can say mama, dada, bay-ee (Bailey), neh-neh (Nelly), GranMary, yay (with clapping) and baaaa for a sheep. You are very vocal and when something doesn't go quite as well as you had hoped...let's just say it's not hard to figure out what you do and do not like. :)  You are still not a fan of elevators or doctors/offices, but we're working on that.

You LOVE to play patty cake and sing songs, especially the itsy bitsy spider.  You still chew on everything and now have four six teeth to help you along.  Diaper changes are a wrestling match and are usually quite an endeavor to undertake....add putting on clothes to that list, too.  You are happiest right after a bath, crawling around like a wild woman without any clothes.

Sawyer, you not only light up our lives, but everyone around you.  You are the star of your own show. We celebrate each of your victories and rejoice with each little milestone.  They say it takes a village to raise a child and Sawyer, your village is amazing.  You have friends and family from all over praying for you and thinking about you each day.  We love you so much, Sawyer.  You are perfect in every way and I am so thankful that God gave me you.  Happy Birthday, Sawyerbelle.

love,

Mom

Here's a special Video of Sawyer's first year :)