Happy Birthday Alton

(Katie's Note: I still have a half-finished post about our Christmas trips languishing in my folder, and will finish that soon. In the meantime, Alton's birthday happened!)

My Dearest Alton,

Now you are one year old, and to look at you or think of you makes me well up with pride and tears of happiness. I have watched you every day grow into an amazing person with a personality all your own. You are bright and expressive, you are quick to smile and to kiss, affectionate and talkative, active and a problem-solver like your daddy. You are cuter by the millisecond. I hold you in my arms and watch you sleep, with your beautiful, perfect lips pursed together and your transparent eyelashes resting lightly on your cheeks, and I wish that I could write poetry. I rocked you to sleep tonight in your warm, dark bedroom--nursing you, nourishing you as I have every day since you were born--and I am so grateful for these private, quiet moments with you. You rest your proprietary hand on me and make soft sleepy sounds, so different from the hungry puppy grunts when you were a newborn, opening your wide mouth like a baby bird.

Alton, I love you. You have changed my life so absolutely, and absolutely for the better. I know you can never, will never do wrong in my eyes because you are my perfect, perfect son, and every accomplishment, every bump or scrape will be molding you into the person you are growing up to be. And I can't wait to see who you will be. Right now each day is different, and I am constantly surprised and delighted over the things you learn, and do, and say. Even when you cry I have a smug sense of satisfaction because Mama can make it all better. But Sweet Boy, what do you have to cry about? We love you so much that we cannot help but see our love as a separate being: a warm, strong wind that blows your troubles away and wraps you in a fluffy cloud. Not a day goes by that your Daddy and I don't look at each other in awe of this wonderful son we have created. And when Daddy is at work all day, I have a special little piece of him with me all day long in you. Your smile is a thousand sunrises and sunsets so achingly beautiful that I can never look away.

You are growing up so fast, but you will always be our little baby. I think often of the John Lennon song "Beautiful Boy."

Before you cross the street
Take my hand
Life is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful Boy

Happy birthday, Beautiful Boy.