What a year it's been...

It's birthday week here at the Cheng Fitzpatrick household... munchkin turns one this week and, well, wow. I've been thinking back to this time last year, rereading old journal entries and remembering the excitement, nerves and anticipation of the last few days of pregnancy. I knew our lives were about to change in ways that we couldn't even imagine, and I was right. What an incredible year it has been, really just amazing and far exceeding my expectations! I knew it was what I wanted, and I wanted it badly, but it's hard to know what to expect when you haven't at least had close day-to-day experience with someone with a newborn.

I read an article once about how the challenge of parenthood is to make your child feel like they are amazing and special, and yet no more amazing or special than any other child (or person), and while that is of course a bit of a simplification, that just about sums it up for me. I use my personal facebook profile to write lots of "omg! wow! the baby just did this! the baby just did that!" status updates, mostly as my longer more detailed journal entries that I made sure to write in the beginning, knowing it would fast fade into a blur, have sadly tapered off, so this is my record, my new journal. A lot of my facebook friends are more experienced parents, and I feel a little self-conscious sometimes, and occasionally feel I have to note that it's not that I think our kid is a genius, I know all the things he's doing are normal and that millions of kids before him (including theirs!) have done the same, but still, it's amazing all the same. It's amazing in every case, and I guess that's partly why I wanted to become a parent - I wanted to experience the growth and development of a child myself.

It's a pretty saccharine cliche, "every child is special"... but, they are! It's what has driven me to become a baby and child photographer too - the opportunity to capture the uniqueness of what makes each child special. We had a playdate yesterday with a couple of friends from my mom's group and... I got teary watching all three babies crawling and pulling up and walking. We all met when our babies were 6 or 7 weeks old, and it has been such a joy watching them ALL grow up. It really is amazing, there is no other word for it.

So happy birthday, sweet not-really-a-baby-anymore-but-you'll-still-always-be-my-baby boy! We've had an amazing year together and I can't wait to see what's next.

nyc baby, child and family photographer alethea cheng fitzpatrick is based in brooklyn and specializes in contemporary, natural light portraiture. view her portfolio of babies, children or families or send her an e-mail here!