You have taught me......

Tay,
What a wild ride these past two years have been! I can only imagine what the rest of your life will hold for us! You arrived 10 days early then decided that you wanted to stay at the hospital a little longer than Mommy! I do have to say that the NICU nurses taught me so much stuff while they were taking care of you! True story: I went in for a feeding and the nurse told me to go ahead and change your diaper while they were getting you ready to be unhooked from the machine! I just stood there very unsure what to do. The nurse gave me a look like "Oh, you are one of those!" I told her I was not sure how to do that! She was very understanding and gave me a brief tutorial on how to change your diaper, how to clean the cord (YUCK), a little trick of putting the new diaper under the dirty diaper before changing-just in case (that one totally came in handy) and a couple of other things I have already forgotten. Honestly, your diapers were the first I have changed and you were the first infant I have ever held. Thanks for being my guinea pig!
The first 3-4 months of your life, I will admit, I was not at my best! If you would have just stopped crying for about 30 minutes I might not have had those thoughts! Which we will discuss at a later date! One thing I did get right was the breastfeeding! It was during these times that we were most in sync, other than when you were sleeping across my chest at night! When I was nursing you, A.) I knew what I was doing (boob goes into mouth) and B.) you were quiet. If only we could have just stayed in that position for 4 mos.
Your Daddy was a HUGE help during those early months! I can only hope that you find a man as wonderful and understanding as your Dad. I hope you don't have Daddy issues, like most girls, but I just want you to always know that there is someone out there who was made to give you exactly what you need when you need it, just have Faith! He would get home from working 9-10 hours, take you and let me either shower or sleep a little bit until you were ready to be fed again! Seeing as he doesn't have boobies he couldn't really help out this way! But he did get up with US at night when you refused to sleep. You thought it was more fun to scream and cry than sleep. (BTW I am still catching up on all the sleep I missed, thank you very much!) You also refused to sleep in the dark. I am convinced it was from being in the NICU and always having the lights on, but for about 6 mos you REFUSED to sleep unless the lights were on! So Dad and I learned to sleep with the lights on. It really is not that hard if you are EXHAUSTED!
Once the Colic was finally over-you were a pretty ok kid to be around! You never really crawled. You went from rolling over to "crawling" on your hands and feet. Much easier and faster than using your knees! Once you mastered this you went straight to pulling up and walking, AT 10 MOS old; and you have not slowed down since.
I am not the mushy type of person, even though I cry at EVERYTHING! But I could not pass up this moment on your 2nd birthday to let you know how much I LOVE being your Mommy!
You have taught me so many things about myself that I will be forever grateful to you.

~You have taught me how to be a better person.
~You have taught me how to have patience.
~You have taught me how to laugh at the smallest things.
~You have taught me how to see the world through new and curious eyes.
~You have taught me to appreciate my own mother & father in a way I never considered before.
~You have taught me that it is possible to function on 30 minutes of sleep.
~You have taught me that Colic-Ease is the best stuff in the world for a colicky-baby!
~You have taught me to not take things for granted.
~You have taught me that sometimes just being me is enough.
~You have taught me that I CAN DO IT!
~You have taught me that it is okay to accept help from other people.
~You have taught me to laugh at myself.
~You have taught me that pee, poop, spit up, and throw-up are not the be all to end all!
~You have taught me that I am more like my mother than I would care to admit!
~You have taught me how to love unconditionally!
~You have taught me how to be a MOMMY!

Thank you Tay for choosing me to be your Mommy and thank you to the Big Man upstairs for allowing this miracle to happen in the first place.
Thanks for caring,
K