Happy Happy Happy

Well, Maggie is four! I can't believe I have a four-year-old child! When I think about my life three years and 364 days ago it brings me to tears. The year after losing Elle I was depressed, terrified, lost, and anxious, and I barely dared to hope that Maggie would be born healthy and alive. Unless you've been through it you can only imagine the joy and relief we felt when we heard that first cry, which, to us, was the most beautiful sound we had ever heard. I will never be "over" losing our sweet Elle but once Maggie was born I feel like we started to wake up from our nightmare. When I think about what she means to us, well, there just aren't even words.

So. We are happy for all four wonderful, hilarious, frustrating, silly, madcap, adventurous years we've had with Maggie.

In our family we celebrate birthday week as introduced to us by our friends the Duprees. Basically it's just an excuse to stretch your birthday out as long as possible. This time I'm afraid we've been celebrating birthday month! We bought Maggie a bike for her birthday (big kid bike with training wheels...it seems huge) and we gave it to her about 2 weeks ago so that she could enjoy it in the nice weather as long as possible. Then we had her birthday party last night, her actual birthday was today, and I'm sure we'll figure out a way to make it last a few more weeks!

Here are a few shots of her on her bike. She zoomed away from me so fast I could only get her from behind at first:
She attempted to go up this long hill (it's longer than it looks) and made it about halfway up. I was impressed.
Here's a close-up of her so you can see how cute she is in her helmet:
Now show me your unimpressed look, Maggie:
Now show me "surprised":
Now give me your best "je ne sais quoi" look. Work it, work it... The party was a big success and I'll post photos when I can. Thanks for all of your birthday wishes for Maggie! We just love that little girl around here.