I know it's true but I don't believe it.

can't be. nope. no way. no how. don't believe it. impossible. there must be some mistake.
we must have skipped a few months in 2009 or something cuz there's no way Natalie just turned one year old. She was just born. truly. what happened to tummy time and swaddling and runny rice cereal? can I really pack away the burp cloths all those stacks of blankets? what happened to my baby? Who is this feisty, fun, energetic almost-toddler? If every year goes by this fast my kids are gonna be grown and gone before I know it. puh-leeeez, someone tell me how to slow things down (other than getting a toothache).

Time is a funny thing. Some moments you want to freeze and hold onto forever and other times you wish you could speed up the clock. I remember writing this on the blog when Natalie was one week old. She would be in the NICU for two more weeks before coming home and each day seemed to drag by so slowly.
It's hard to be torn between my girls here at home and my baby far away in the hospital but patience, patience...we will all be together soon and time will speed by and we'll look back and say, "remember how crazy those first few weeks were?" and before we know it Natalie will be having her first birthday and we'll say, "where did the time go?" It always happens that way. You think time is dragging on and then suddenly you are looking back and it has gone in a flash.

That's exactly what happened. Those first few weeks that seemed so long at the time are now just a little blip. In fact, all the hospital stays and challenges of those first months have been blipped.

2 months at home with an open bladder....blip!
surgery and 10 days in the hospital in Wisconsin....blip!
3 weeks in a cast.....blip!
infection after infection after infection.....blip, blip, blip!

Her first birthday has come and gone and we are already one week closer to the next one. Time marches on....and on and on and on. Wait! I wasn't done playing with that.My Mom with Natalie.My Dad with Natalie and her one birthday balloon.
I wanted to make Natalie's first cake since I had made my other two girls their first. I did a Google search of "how to cut a sheet cake to make a number one". Don't you love the Internet? I got some basic instructions on-line and then my Dad the master cake assembler filled me in on some of the finer points.