The Art of Running in the Rain

Last Saturday miss Mirabella Emma turned 365 days old. It was funny, I woke up at 4:21am and thought to myself, ‘it was almost this time exactly last year that I was grabbing our little girl and putting her on my chest.’

This year has been a wild ride, and Mira you have taught me so much about myself and this world we live in. I’m working my way closer and closer to a growth mindset. Everyone in my world is pushing me to grow as a human and sometimes it is hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Mira celebrated her first birthday surrounded by some friends and with funfetti cake, and she was simply in heaven!

Since our last update Mira has had a few firsts:

-Visit to the zoo

-3 hour nap (it was glooooorious for both of us)

-Race day (Mira walked 7.6 miles during bloomsday with her aunt, uncle, and nonna)

-Extended trip from her papa

-Night away from mama

-Pee pee and poo poo in her potty (we’ve been doing some mild EC….before Mira came into the world I wanted to do it from the beginning, but it was all I could do to just survive those first 6 months with sad Mira. Now that she’s happier with life we feel like we can try it out a bit 🙂

When talking about Mira’s firsts I’ve been trying my best to steer clear of ‘developmental milestones’ because the only people that really need to be aware of them are Mira, Dave, myself and her pediatrician. I’ve observed some parents become really anxious/concerned when sitting around with others’ talking about whose kid is crawling/standing/walking/sitting up/eating this/eating that (and I was victim of the worry as well). Since that bout of worrying, specifically about crawling, I realized that it was all this talk and comparing that was holding me back from really enjoying who Mira was in that moment, regardless of what she could or could not do. Not to mention that it’s good to get out of the habit of verbally comparing her to anyone else, she doesn’t need to be hearing/doing that. I get that it can be hard though, especially if you’re having serious concerns about your child’s development, and in that case maybe sharing with other people is the best. I just feel that it was taking away from my life rather than adding to it (every child is different, and every parent is different as well….NO judgement).

I have to say that I am 100% thankful for my family, friends and this blog (oh, and my therapist) because they have all been a place for me to externalize the ups and downs of this last year. I feel grateful that I am able to share all this with the world, because it’s important that people see the good and the bad on social media (it’s not all flowers and sausages). Plus I just feel like when we experience the world as it is rather than trying to construct a world as we think it should be, we are able to heal and accept ourselves and others as they are.

**note the Oliver licking his junk in this photo**

Mira and Oliver have really been enjoying playing with each other, I believe if she could say it, dogs would be her favorite animal. She waves ‘hello’ to every dog we see. She has a specific utterance that sounds like ‘Oliver,’ it’s basically just the intonation, and it’s extremely cute!!!

I can’t even put into words how much happiness this little girl has brought into my world. Dave and I were extremely excited to meet our little girl when she was still inside me, but I have to admit that I was also very nervous. Nervous because my love for Dave is so deep/hard that I was concerned about how this third person would integrate into our family unit. Well I tell you what folks, this little girl has made me love Dave even more, and I feel like everyday I am just so looking forward to things we will be doing together.

This year Dave celebrated his first father’s day, and I celebrated my first mother’s day and it was everything we ever thought it could be. Dave’s mom was in town and we enjoyed a brunch out (complete with endless bloody marys).

 Mira’s face says all that needs to be said about endless bloody marys.

Mira’s been really into dancing lately so we’ve been really enjoying some daily dance parties.

It’s been an amazing year, and I’m so glad I could share it with you all and create this virtual memorabilia for Mira. Stay tuned for year two of Mira’s life, probably not with as frequent updates, but updates nonetheless.

Be well.