Valentine's Day

Well, it's Valentine's Day. I wish I could say that I hate Valentine's Day so I don't care that we don't get to be together, but I love Valentine's Day! I'm really sad that I can't be with my beloved hubbie today, but I'm so proud of him that he's doing such a great job in his "new" career.

I hate it when people say that they don't like Valentine's Day because you should celebrate your love every day. Of course you should celebrate your love every day, but you should also give thanks every day, appreciate your family every day, etc. and that doesn't stop us from having holidays that celebrate these things! We work very hard to keep our holidays and family events "especially special" and to make traditions in our family that are significant. We believe that traditions are an important part of family life because they provide rhythm and richness to our lives.

Anyway, off my soapbox. Now I just want to say that I can't believe how blessed I am to spend every day with the most amazing person I know, and the only person I could ever imagine myself partnering with to build a life. Sometimes it feels like we're little working ants just slogging away, trying to be faithful and build the life God has for us, but when I step back I really appreciate our situation. Jeff came home recently and said, "What we have is so rare." I couldn't agree more and I appreciate every single day of it.

Thank you, Babe, for the best adventure I could have imagined. I would rather hang out with you than anyone else in the world and I couldn't be happier to build this family with you.

She Walks!

Lilia has been walking really well holding onto fingers, furniture, etc. for some time now. But, having very unfortunately inherited her mother's overly cautious spirit, she would NOT let go of those fingers for all the tea in China. True to form, however, our friend Jaime was able to get her to let go of the training wheels on Sunday and take a few steps out there on her own! It was lovely to have so many of our adopted Phoenix family members there, but a bummer that Daddy had to work. We're working to get her to walk in front of him now. :)

I can't believe how fast this all goes. This is my little bitty bean, the little darling who used to just stare into my eyes or sleep on my chest and cuddle. And that was pretty much all she did! It's so wonderful to see her personality start to come out and to see her develop and grow. But it's so painful to let go of each one of these precious phases as they go by without me ever being quite ready to loosen my grip. I could bottle this and drink it in for the rest of my life.

One Two Three JUMP

No, it's not a reference to Lilia. It's a reference to me, actually.

I have decided to start a small business website! I'm so scared to put that in writing, but I'm doing it and I really am excited about the whole thing. It's not going to happen overnight, but I'm working diligently and should be up and running with the basics within a few weeks or a month.

I have found a great company that not only helps you to make a website but also teaches you how to build a business out of it. It gives you great tracks to run on, as well as brainstorming software and TONS of research tools so you can learn how marketable your idea is, how profitable it might be with Google Adsense, how many other web pages compete with it, etc. I am a follow-the-instructions kind of person, so this company is right up my alley!

As I've been researching the options this week I came across something that really affected me and pushed me to "get out there." A woman who trains people to start web pages for profit said, "I understand the fear of losing money. But just the fear that no one will look at your website? You can't have that! You have to fail some if you want to succeed." And I realized that I was really held back by just a fear of failure. Not losing a financial investment or anything similar, but just the fear that I might fail. But somehow her description made me look at failure differently, as a step to success rather than an "alternative ending" to a successful story.

I could probably use that thinking in a lot of areas of my life.

ONE

I can't believe that you're a whole year old. I regularly ask you who told you you could grow up this fast, but you just giggle at me.

There are so many, many things I love about you. I love your chubby baby legs and your perfect feet and toes, I love your now-curly strawberry blonde hair, I love the excited way you say, "Daddy!" when you first see him in the morning, I love your little baby kisses and how you play peek-a-boo with anything we give you that's like a blanket.

I hope that I can always remember your smiles and giggles from this year. You are the most open-hearted person I know. You are happy to be fast friends with anyone, playing and smiling and giggling. (Unless you're in the church nursery.)

You play slowly and carefully with your toys. It's like you're examining fine art. You turn them around, you put them in your mouth, you shake them and bang them together to make music. You LOVE music. You will make anything a musical instrument! This afternoon I listened to you singing in your crib when you woke up from your nap. I was just listening in the monitor and enjoying every minute of your little song.

You walk really well, but you're very cautious and won't let go of at least one finger when you're doing it. But practicing walking is probably your favorite thing to do right now. You got a Radio Flyer push toy for Christmas and you've spent many evenings just pushing it back and forth across the living room over and over again.

You also love animals. Your first word was "dog" and you signed it at the same time! It was right when we were getting up in the morning and you were really excited to see our dog Rosco first thing. You signed it and said it over and over again with a great big smile on your face.

I think my favorite thing to watch this year has been your relationship with your dad. You are so crazy about each other! It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever been privileged to witness. I know some daddies don't like to put little girl outfits together or do day-to-day life with their babies, but not your daddy! He knows all of your routines and when you need milk and when you need dinner and when you need a nap, he changes your diaper (and washes them sometimes!) and gives you baths and reads you stories and sits on the floor to play with you. He even lets you ride on his back in the Ergo when he's cooking sometimes, which you love. Do you know why he does all of those things? Because he's crazy about you! And you're crazy about him too. Most babies go through a long time where they only want their mamas, but I think you only did that for one week of this whole year. You love being with either of us, and your favorite thing is when all three of us are together playing.

I don't know if you'll ever know what a blessing you've been to Daddy and me, or how much we love you, even though we tell you every single day. I just can't imagine our family without you in it.

If they lined up all the one-year-olds in all the world, I would choose you every time. Because you are my favorite one-year-old. I love you because you're mine.