12 months of this girl.... How lucky am I?

When Larkin First Arrived | St. Louis Newborn Photographer

{six days old}

{eight days old}

{twelve days old}

{fourteen days old}

{sixteen days old}

{twenty-one days old}

{thirty-three days old}

Tomorrow, my tiny last baby will turn one year old. Tomorrow. Do you understand the gravity of this? Somehow, despite all my pleading attempts to hold onto time and try to pull it hard to slow it down, it persisted, and here we are. One year ago tonight, I was finishing up my packing and preparations, getting ready to check in to the hospital in the morning for an induction so I could have her before the end of August. (Check out her full birth story HERE.) One year ago, I had no idea what her specific brand of magic would look like-- feel like. I knew she would be amazing-- that's the incredible joy of having multiple children: you learn early on how incredibly unique and quirky and hard and wonderful each of them are... so completely individual. So incredibly cool to "meet" the newest one and begin to see them become their own self.

And now she is almost one. And she has all of us enchanted. She makes us laugh, and she laughs at us. She is incredibly curious and clever and charming and chatty. She is set on being a full-fledged TODDLER (despite not yet walking, she is crazy-mobile and opinionated already) even before she officially turns one.

She is marvelous, and even as I feel the ache of time passing too quickly, I am so grateful to get to celebrate her like crazy tomorrow and the rest of this week. I am so grateful to be her mama.

And in honor of her birthday, I finally pushed to finish editing the last few newborn photos I took of her in her first weeks (with gratitude to my friend Erin for helping me with the outdoor and mama/baby shots!) and I finally have them all here, blogged... shared. It is gratifying to see them all in one place, and I am so grateful that I've been able to chronicle her life in photographs I cherish. 

I have grand plans for her next round of photos-- just wait til you see her curls and her toofers!-- but tonight, I want to sit in my memories of her as a brand-new baby, my own sweet new Larkin Clementine. Thanks for coming down memory lane with me. ♥

Larkin at 11 Months Old

And then, suddenly, my baby was 11 months old. Only weeks away from a birthday. Nearly a year since I was meeting her for the first time. How wistful and tender that makes me feel. 

But then again, what a marvelous little person this girl is, and every month reveals more and more of her personality. Raising children is pretty magic... truly. Look at this girl! 

{Larkin is wearing a sweet vintage baby dress I bought four years ago at a Vintage Market Days... And I finally remembered to use it! I used Elmer's glue to glue the bow in her hair because I was out of Karo syrup and because the sweet tiny bow seemed to suit her dress better than one of her many headbands.}