A Year in the Life

What a difference a year makes. I started this blog just over a year ago, pretty much to track our descent into parenthood and, primarily, to let folks who knew us know more about what was going on with all of us without having to send emails out every other day. The event that triggered this was, of course, the impending birth of our son. The first picture below is me and him almost 365 days ago to the minute, give or take an hour.



This is us now!:

I can hardly believe that an entire year has gone by. Babyhood is apparently officially over and Xan is creeping slowly upward into Toddlerville. Seriously: standing is now a constant, happy activity (when done up against something relatively solid) and, as of the last couple days, he can wobble down the length of the coffee table to nabsomething that caught his eye (usually the wooden puzzle my cousin gave me, seen under the table here, which he is allowed to play with; or my computer, which he is not).



We had a really (really) small party this evening, with my parents around and a couple friends. My parents have been really great while they have been here. Among other things, they arrived right when Angela left for a conference... and right as Xan got sick with only his second cold, meaning that he basically clung to me for three days straight. (Hence, my grading time was not what I expected this spring break. Sorry, class.) They have been wonderful though and my mother in particular is having a ball being the crazy Oma.

Speaking of crazy, perhaps our idea of an ideal birthday gift for Xan is a little nuts:



We saw him play with a giant drum at a birthday party, the first any of us had gone to in our new roles and he took to it very quickly. As you can see -- and really, this is what amazes me -- he instinctively seems to know which end of the mallet is to be used to hit the drum, and which is to hold. This photo is really within the first five minutes of him acquiring the drum, and we did not show him what to do. This may, however, thwart Angela's plan for him becoming a violist. I mean, really, would you pick viola over precussion? (I put this to Señor Pájaro and he said, "Viola." So, maybe the quarter will still happen.)


Today also served as an introduction to the world of cake. More specifically: cupcake. After a full year of mostly organic foods, carefully prepared or bought at Whole Foods, and milk either from the breast or made with the one formula I could find that didn't use corn syrup solids as an ingredient, we go and blow the whole thing with a Duncan Hines cake mix that was oh-so-yummy. Some kids apparently react really negatively to experiencing so much sweet after having had almost exclusively eaten food that was not nearly as sweet. They either spit it out, cry (usually both) or mash it into their (or their parents') hair. Not my boy: he ate the whole darn thing. And, son of his mother, the frosting was the best part.




525,600 minutes, as the song goes: this is a good measure of a year.. Happy First Birthday, baby boy. We are very glad you are here.