a year ago today.

A year ago today, after leisurely sleeping in on a Saturday, I brushed my teeth and immediately vomited as the minty taste of the toothpaste touched my tongue. A year ago today, I woke up feeling hot, sticky, clammy and sweaty for the fifth day in a row. A year ago today, I wrote a whiny blog post about my rotten luck having a stomach bug on Halloween.

A year ago today, I decided to take a shower. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, I didn't really have a stomach virus, I peed on a stick. Two pink lines appeared in absolutely no time at all. So a year ago today, with the shower still running, I sped off to the pharmacy and picked up more boxes of pregnancy tests.

And a year ago today, all 27 tests that I took showed the same result. A year ago today, I wrapped up all 27 of those tests in a big gift box and gave them to my husband when he got home from work. My mom and sister were out of town and because I wanted to tell my whole family together, a year ago today I sipped on water and sat across the table from my dad at a restaurant acting like nothing at all was new and unusual.

A year ago today, I created this blog.

A year ago today, I had this gut feeling that the itty-bitty little dot of cuteness actually growing inside of me was a boy and that we would call him Ethan.

A year ago tomorrow, my husband and I were embarrassingly enough dressed up as Amber and Gary from Teen Mom.

And a year ago tomorrow, hands orange with bronzer, we handed my parents a book titled The Grandparents Handbook and watched as their faces lit up upon learning that there was a little one on the way. A year ago tomorrow, my little sister's gaudy costume jewelry clanked as she jumped up and down and frantically tried to ask if I was really, really, really pregnant. (A year ago tomorrow, I was really, really, really pregnant.)

And today, on this very day, October 30th, 2011, that very little boy is taking his morning nap all swaddled up tightly while the rain pours down outside. On this very day, he is hours away from carving his very first pumpkin and a day away from experiencing his very own Halloween.

Quite simply, a year ago today I learned that my life would never be the same again. My life would be better than I could ever imagine. In a way, my life began the second he arrived and I first heard his cries. A year ago today, I received the greatest news of my life.