Birthday Wishes

One year ago, Ethan James Notch was born.
365 days later, my heart has at least tripled in size.
8760 hours have passed since our lives have changed in beautifully complicated ways.
525,600 minutes of incredible memories have been captured both in mind and on film, thanks to my fabulous artist husband.
31,536,000 seconds have been spent thinking about, loving, protecting, relishing, playing with, smelling, feeding, bathing, diapering, snuggling, kissing, teaching, learning from, and being thankful for my beautiful baby boy.


I've been thinking a lot about birthday wishes lately. This is probably due to the hours spent agonizing over the logistics of a party for a one-year-old who could care less about unwrapping presents or blowing out birthday candles. To him, it's just another day, perhaps slightly more overwhelming, but normal nonetheless. To me, it's so much more.

Since Ethan doesn't understand birthday wishes yet, I figured I should make some for him.

I wish you a lifetime of happiness spent with those who love you.


I wish for you the tools to get you where you want to go.



I wish for you to always find joy in the little things.


I wish you a life full of excitement.


And, finally, just in case you get your Mama's sweet tooth, I wish for you to get your Daddy's metabolism!

A Year of Memories and Forgotten Glimpses

This time last year, I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little boy. I was as big as a house (check out this post for photographic proof of my prodigious pregnant belly). I was uncomfortable, but excited. I was on constant contraction alert, and did the "freeze-count-wait" thing about ten times a day, wondering if I was going into labor. I took naps whenever I wanted whenever I could get comfortable enough, knowing that my sleep patterns were about to drastically change. I obviously knew that I loved my baby, but I had no idea how deep that love would become. I feel like I remember this time last year like it was yesterday.

But recently, I discovered that memories that are oh-so-sweet can be oh-so-fleeting.

Our friends Matt and Laurie recently celebrated the arrival of their second precious baby boy. Holding a floppy, gurgly, cooing, tiny newborn again made me realize how much time has passed since Ethan was born.

There are things I can't remember:
~ how intense my labor was (I read this to remind myself)
~ living in a world of equal parts euphoria and insomnia
~ Ethan's newborn noises, smell, mannerisms, and habits
~ how often Ethan nursed and napped in the first few months
~ putting him down and knowing that he would stay in that spot
~ Ethan weighing under twenty pounds

There are things I hope I never forget:
~ my baby's sweet disposition and joyful laugh
~ watching him figure things out and discover his world
~ the excitement of his "firsts"
~ what his smile looks like with only a few teeth
~ how incredibly grateful I am for this little boy

Luckily, I've got a photographer/filmmaker on permanent retainer, and he's madly documenting each and every phase. Here's Ryan's latest project:



*If video is jumpy, pause it and let it completely load, then restart from the beginning*