Babel is One – Yearly Photo

As you have probably figured out, your mama loves photos and photo series. After a year of Babel Weekly and Babel Monthly photos, obviously I also wanted some kind of photo tradition regarding your birthday. The plan is to take a yearly family photo with us holding the previous year’s photo.

The photo we’re posing with this year was taken in the operation room, after your birth and neonatal resuscitation. I was allowed to hold you for about a minute before they whisked you away to the neonatal intensive care unit. So many emotional memories are attached to this photo. This was when we met you for the first time ever, when I first kissed your super-soft cheek, when I couldn’t stop crying because you made me so happy. Someone took a few quick pictures of the three of us, and then even before Papa had a change to hold you, you were taken away in an incubator.

It was another 6 hours before we finally got to see your sweet face again. It was a really scary and panicky time for me, but everything turned out fine in the end. Late that night, Papa finally got to hold you for the first time. And finally both of us got the very much anticipated skin-to-skin time with our newborn son. We tried breastfeeding, but it didn’t work. A couple of days later, you were discharged from neonatal to the regular maternity ward with me, I learned how to nurse you successfully, and 5 days after you were born we were both deemed healthy enough to leave the hospital and take you home to Buxton.

One year later, you are doing so well. You are a happy and healthy little boy. You’ve done such a great job growing your first year, six teeth are out, you got through several rounds of immunizations successfully, and you are a champ at breastfeeding and we’re still going strong. You’re also doing well at Babel-led weaning and it’s so much fun to see you eat. You’ve been around the world, you’ve moved to a new home, and now you’ve turned one year old. You are our eternal source of joy and we love you so much. You are the best thing we ever did with our lives.

I am very happy with this year’s photo (the one on top of this post). Uncle Djamo was with us, so he could take this photo with his fancy camera and fancy photography skills, lucky us. He took several photos – coincidentally around the same time the photo in the hospital was taken even – and I love them all. Now, all I have to do is print it on a little square canvas and wait till your next birthday to pose with it. In a couple of years I hope to have a nice collection of birthday photo canvases hanging in your bedroom.