So much happens in a year

By Christina Tuns

My Darling Kathryn:

I remember the moment like it was yesterday. With your daddy and Nana at my side, the doctor proclaimed, "It's a girl." It is hard to believe that day occurred a year ago. As your first birthday approaches, I look back in awe at the whirlwind of a year we have had.

You have added a new dimension to our family, yet it seems like not much has changed. As I sat down to write this letter to you, I realized that 20 months ago, I sat down for the first time to write you. At that point, we didn't know much about you. In fact, we couldn't even answer simple questions about you: were you a boy or a girl, when would your birthday be, who would you look like and what would interest you?

As this, the end of your first year out of womb, draws near, we do have some definite answers. You are a girl, you look like your brothers and you enjoy interacting with people, observing the world around you and animals.

While you love to cuddle and bestow kisses on all of us, you remain a very independent little girl. Katie, you have an amazing ability to light up a room when you enter it. You always bring smiles to the faces of those who look like a smile was the last thing they were planning on giving. And when we are having a day that feels like it will never end, you always find a way to bring it new life.

We have gone from reminding your brothers to support your neck to reminding them to close the gate because you are hot on their trail and trying to follow them downstairs. You have gone from a quiet baby who would lay back and silently observe the world around her to a vocal one-year-old caught up in the excitement of discovering the world around you. You have gone from a child who started life sleeping soundly to one who does not want to go to sleep when there is so much living to do. You have grown from our tiny little angel into our pint-sized little angel. In only 365 days, you have totally transformed as an individual.

There will never be another point in your life when such physical, cognitive and social growth will take place in such a short period of time, where daily you try, you struggle and you succeed in learning more about the world around you and how everything, including yourself, works. Katie I hope that all of the challenges life will bring your way can be faced with as much determination as you have exhibited this last year.

My first letter to you was a reflection of the joy in finding out you were alive. This, my letter on your first birthday, is filled with joy and thanksgiving that you are a part of our lives. Happy birthday, my little one.