One year ago this very minute I was being checked at the hospital and getting ready to deliver you into this world. (I did it without any drugs and was very proud of myself after the fact. I kept telling Papa, "I totally just DID THAT!!!!") We had just gone through the first 8 1/2 months of babyhood with Levi and I was quite uncertain about how doing it again was going to go. I wasn't a new mama anymore, though, and as soon as the doctor handed you to me, we were set. I knew just what to do for you and how to take care of you. I had been excited about having a baby girl since we found out that we were going to be able to buy PINK stuff halfway through the pregnancy, but, oh, Baby Girl, I had no idea how I would feel to be the mama of a girl. I immediately felt like it was you and me in a secret alliance, you and me taking on the world. You know I love your brothers dearly, but there is a very special kind of feeling a mama has for her baby girl.
Right from the start, you demanded attention. You loved to be held and cried - hard - every time you were put down. Soon I realized that it was because you didn't want to be ignored or left alone. You loved (and still love) being the center of attention. You are such a people person. You seek out physical touch and eye contact and conversation and when you are left alone or put down you protest (usually still as loudly as you did when you were a newborn) unless your brothers are around to give you the attention you want.
You love your brothers. You have adored Lucas pretty much from the first day - and the feeling is definitely mutual. He loves you and does everything he can to take good care of you. You and Levi were a bit more ambivalent to each other at first, but after a few months of rolling around on the floor together, you have become fast friends. I love watching you two grow up together, having each other to play with and knowing that when Lucas goes to Kindergarten next year, you two will get to stay with each other and keep each other company while we spend our days without your biggest brother.
You are starting to walk, though you aren't sure about doing it for very long at this point. A few steps is all you want to take until you plop back down on the floor to speed crawl around some more. You are FAST and you are into EV-RY-THING. Lucas told Grandpa the other day that you are "the beast of all beasts," and we all sort of agree with him. You are a happy, charming, charismatic little girl, but you are a serious troublemaker in your own right. You have NO fear and would dive-bomb down a flight of steps if I would turn my back for a second. You like to stand up in a shopping cart or a booster seat if you aren't strapped down immediately. And you LOVE to splash in the tub. You get water in your face and it just makes you laugh. (You also laugh at Lucas and Levi when they get water in their faces, which makes them react a little differently.)
My sweet Caroline Rose, we love you dearly and love to see your personality shining through. You have not been what most people would call an "easy" baby, but you are so, so, so easy to love. I was holding you while you slept the other day, because you had a cold and weren't sleeping so well in your crib. I prayed over you, my dear-sweet, that Jesus would be your first love and that you would follow hard after Him, no matter where it would take you. It's a hard prayer for a mama to pray, knowing that it might mean you follow Him very far away from me, but it's truly my heart's desire. I hope you will love Jesus the most and that your life will be all about loving others as you love Him.
Happy Birthday, Baby. We all love you like crazy!
Love,
Mama
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