I’m not going to lie in the slightest or sugar coat it. The first year spent with Ari has been the most challenging and euphoric year of my life. The challenges have been so wide ranging, confusing, unexpected and emotional but the pay off has been one of elation, sense of accomplishment and getting to experience the most intense love I’ve ever had the privilege of feeling. It has been the longest year as well. It certainly didn’t fly by for me. The first two months all my little girl did was grimace in pain and cry. All the other little babies were doing their first smiles long before Ari had anything to smile about. She was born very underweight, suffered from reflux, colic, eczema and struggled to both eat and sleep. So, obviously, those two months felt slightly long.
From about three months she was an angel. She more than doubled her weight, she slept through the night, she hardly ever cried, all she did was smile, we travelled overseas numerous times, and very importantly, she was happy to spend days on end with her grandparents or her aunty, as well as overnights with her nanny and our wonderful neighbors, which afforded my husband and I a much deserved road trip to burning man, and a few weekends away. With all that packed into a year, it felt more like a decade!
But ofcourse I now have a toddler. A climbing, plates smashing, biting, pants pulling, gorgeous, giggling little leech, and I’m starting to understand that every new year will come with its own new challenges and wonderful ‘firsts’ and that I will just have to grow as she grows. And that I will continue to stare at her incredulously at every birthday, thinking, how did I do that?