end of summer

i am so excited it is almost the end of August for so many reasons...

1. i love, love, love fall...boots, sweaters, turtlenecks and jeans and things i have knit
2. warm breezes start at night that slowly drop a degree or two each week and  give way to cooler breezes, leaves changing and the smell of fall and colder weather in the air.
3. we are finally having our kitchen updated starting friday
4. we had a great summer
5. most importantly, my daughters first birthday is rapidly approaching and i get to celebrate her life and the incredible  gift i have been given in being her mom.
   

it has been so wonderfully busy here...A started to crawl, wave bye bye, hold her bottle, pull herself to standing in her crib and have a wee bit of a temper all in the same week.      my work travel has been hectic to say the least, 6 nights away between June and July and another 8 in the next 5 weeks.   thank God for my aunt and my mom who sit for A when i am away.  no one besides family has ever put my little girl to bed and that luxury makes me very happy as a working mom...although leaving her never gets easier.  among all my other new found fears i developed upon becoming a mother is that her first words will be "mommy go bye-bye" or "bye-bye momma".