The Life and Times of Ella: Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

A year ago today started as a pretty ordinary day. I spent the morning at the gym, grabbed a late breakfast with a friend, got my hair done and caught up with a good friend on the phone. At 5:33p, while I was getting dinner ready and waiting for Michael to come home, I had what I thought at the time was just an ordinary Braxton Hicks contraction and turned out to be the first sign that Baby Krisko decided to arrive two weeks ahead of schedule. As with so many of the "big days" in my life, much of that day into the next was one great big happy blur but a few memories stick out when I think back to a year ago. I remember thinking to myself when I had that first contraction that I should time them so that I would know when I was in "real labor" - hah! I also remember turning to Michael around 9:30p (after spending the last 2 hours googling "real vs. false labor"), with contractions about 5 minutes apart, and letting him know that I thought there was a 50% chance that we would need to go to the hospital that night. I'll never forget how, in our new parent-to-be naivety, we thought it was a good idea to take a detour to Michael's office on our 45 minute drive to the hospital that night so that he could drop off some paperwork that needed to get sent out the next day. I remember that the drive to the hospital felt like it lasted FOREVER but our very short pre-baby time at the hospital felt even shorter than it was. Even though G's birthday is January 28, I think I will always start celebrating at 5:33p on the 27th.

Here are some photos of G with her new birthday gift (we gave it to her last weekend when we rearranged our living room to give her her own special corner). We set up her special corner when she was taking her afternoon nap.