On your first birthday.

Oh, Sweet Asher Bug. My buddy. Sweet, sweet Ash.

Boy, did you rock our world. Did you ever.

At this time last year, we had no idea what was about to hit us. A big love. A giant love. A giant challenge. An adventure of humongous proportions.

You've taught us patience. You've shown us a love like no other. You've kept us awake far too many hours for my liking, but I do suppose you are worth it. Every bit of it.

From your first three months of non. stop. screaming. To your first steps. We've loved you each and every moment. And more and more along the way.

I'm not going to sugar coat things here and say we loved each moment itself, because like I said, you rocked our world. There were some (ok, a lot of) rough times. Hours of crying (mostly you, but some of me, too). Goodness you were hard to please.And we had every gadget in the store. We tried so many things to help you get comfortable.

But, you've always been nosey. You'd rather make yourself (and us) miserable staying awake to see what's going on. You're the only newborn I know of that could stay awake and alert for hours, just taking it all in.

And when you weren't being nosey you were crying. Screaming. I think you missed the memo about how newborns should sleep all the time. In fact, I think you missed any memos regarding sleep. You are just not a sleeper. At naptime, you'd think we were torturing you with the nose sucker or something.

And boy, the way you scream is quite impressive. I've recorded it so I can play it back for you one day. Not kidding. When you bring home your little one from the hospital one day, and you call me saying Mom, he won't stop crying. I'll say, We know all about that. Cue: screaming Asher audio. Isn't that great?

For all your nonsleeping and lotsascreaming moments, there are a zillion more that are just plain awesome. You get more awesome by the day. By the hour and minute, too.

When you see one of us come in the door, you light up. Grinning from ear to ear. And just tonight, I noticed what may be the start of dimples. Won't those be adorable?

You squeal loudly.
And babble nonstop.
And destroy entire rooms in record time.
You've won Jax over.
You love watermelon.
You love the outdoors.
You like to travel with sticks.
You gather and collect. Organize and reorganize.

When you repeat thdank dhu (read: thank you) after me, I think my heart may burst with love. When I hear you calling mamamama or dadadadada, I just love it. And your version of egg, egGUH, made my Easter that much more divine.

When you do something particularly awesome, or not even particularly awesome, one of us usually says something like I can't believe that's our kid. We made him. We are so proud.

It's a hard concept to grasp. How you can love someone so much. How your every move has two (or more) grown adults completely entertained. For hours.

How this first year with you has flown by and crept by at the same time.

How parenthood can be so simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating.

How loving you can make me love your dad in a whole new, stronger way.

How I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds. Every tomorrow.

Especially this tomorrow. Seeing your face in the morning and singing you happy birthday is going to be one of the best highlights of my life.

Thank you for being my Asher, our Asher.

Thank you for the lessons you've taught us and the love you've shown us.

For you, we are so very thankful. And with this love, we are so very blessed.

Happy, happy, happy first birthday.

lybttu,
Your momma