Choose Joy

Today, my sweet baby girl is 11 months old.

11 months since the morning my water broke and we hurried to the hospital in the falling snow.

11 months since I labored and pushed and gave birth to our daughter.

11 months since she took her first breath of air, cried her first cry, and we held her in our arms for the first time.

11 months since we announced to the world that we finally had our beautiful baby girl, safe and healthy.

This time last year, I was counting down the last few days at work, preparing for a whole year stretching out ahead of me with nothing to do but be a mom. 

Today, I am counting down this last month as a full time stay at home mom, preparing myself to go back to work in just four short weeks. If 11 months have passed by at the speed of light, I know that four weeks will feel like the blink of an eye.

So, for these next 26 days, I will be soaking up all these beautiful moments, cherishing every smile, every giggle, every cuddle, and yes, even every 5am wake up call.

In these coming weeks, we will celebrate our first Christmas as a family of three.

Then, a month from now, we will celebrate Tessa's first birthday and us surviving our first year as parents.

There is so much to be thankful for and to celebrate, and I don't want to spend the last month of my year at home being whiny or miserable.

So, with that in mind, my aim for this next month is to always choose joy. Even when I'm tired, or sick, or grumpy. When my baby is fussy and clingy and teething. When the house is a mess and there are a million things to do and it just.keeps.snowing. 

I will choose to find something to celebrate. 

I will choose to be thankful.