I can’t believe it.  In a blink of an eye, my baby’s first year is already through.  What a fantastic year.  I’ve always been thankful for the things I have in life but I can’t recall a year in my life where I’ve felt so incredibly blessed.

When I was pregnant with Karina, I used to hear this song everyday on the way to work and usually on the way home too.  Call it hormones or whatever you want but I would dream about this beautiful little daughter of mine and how much I would love her.  This isn’t typical for me.  I’m an optimist but not so much a dreamer.  I’m rooted in my little reality and I’m a practical person.  But when it comes to my baby, I dream.  And I dream big.  So I used to think about her, not knowing what she’d look like or what it would feel like to see her face or hold her and just the hope of what she’d be got me through those stressful days at work.  I had high hopes and high expectations for this little critter.

Then she arrived.  January 10, 2011 at 6:27 pm in Newport Beach.  And she was perfect.  Over the following year, she became my best friend.  She was with me at virtually every moment of the last year.  Her laughter was the soundtrack to 2011.  And despite my optimistic nature and my big dreams for what she would be like, I underestimated her because she was more than I could have imagined.  Beautiful, not just her face, but her soul.  Her little soul gives me hope.

So now you know.  I’ve lost my marbles.  I’m not apologizing.

We took a lot of pictures this year.  More than any other year in the past, that’s for sure!  And while I don’t have a picture for every day, I grabbed one from every day I could and it ended up being about every third day.  I can’t believe how much she’s changed!  I couldn’t think of a more appropriate song to use than that one that I used to dream to in my preggy days.  Happy happy birthday to our sweet little girl, Karina Omkar Nalamwar.  I cannot find words to explain.