Birthday Eve.

A year ago today I was having these pains in my abdomen that I kept writing off as Crohn's, indigestion, a result of the box of macaroni and cheese I had eaten the night before. In a matter of hours I would be sitting on my couch with my dear friends Crystal and Melissa, eating pizza and watching The Hangover, finally saying out-loud that I might be going into labor.

"My stomach is really, really hurting," I said to my friend Crystal, a nurse. "I don't know if these are contractions or not."

"If they were contractions," she reasoned, "you'd probably be saying, like, 'ow.'"

I wasn't saying, like, "ow." So.

That sounded reasonable enough to me. I went to sleep that night next to a snoring Jason, waking up constantly in serious pain, waiting to recognize some sort of pattern that would signify Adelyn's impending birth.

The next afternoon I had an already-scheduled doctor's appointment. During the drive the pains started coming every six minutes like clockwork. We hadn't even brought our hospital bags, the ones I had meticulously packed weeks before.

I was already four centimeters dialated when we got there. And eight glorious, painful, intensely exciting hours later, Adelyn was here.

Tomorrow is her first birthday. Jason and I already gave her her big present--a baby-friendly MP3 player, safe for chewing and throwing and stomping and inevitable drooling-on, filled with her favorite songs. (Including "Time of my Life," The Black Eyed Peas; "Let it Be Christmas" by Alan Jackson, a song she FELL. IN. LOVE. WITH. at her grandparents' house over the holidays--seriously, every time it comes on she does nothing but dance and smile; "Whip My Hair Back and Forth," which, if you read this blog you know she loves; "Soul Sister," Train; "Never Stop," by Chilly Gonzales, from the iPad commercial that has Addy bouncing up and down every time it comes on; dozens of others.)

Addy's birthday is, of course, all about her. That incredible, hilarious, attitude-filled, sassy, spirited little creature that I helped create and gave birth to a year ago. But I can't help but let the huge occassion wash over me, too, let it put things in perspective in my own life and this journey and who I am and what I'm doing.

364 days ago my life shifted. Adelyn became the focus. 364 days later and she's ever present right in the center of everything. And that is how it will remain forever, as long as it can. This is the thing I didn't--you just can't--really know, really understand, 364 days ago, right before she made her grand entrance.

Happy birthday eve, Adelyn Belle. You are so loved by so many people. (If I have one complaint--er, request--of your newfound age and wisdom, it's that you please, please stop screaming when I change your clothes. It will be something that I, and then you, will have to do the rest of your life. No sense wasting tears.)

Here...

To here...

Now here.