2-Days Before

So, I am writing this two days before Dylan's first birthday. First birthday. One year! Go Dylan! She has been super healthy, happy, and fun. We are so lucky. She got her first booboo the other day (a tiny scrape on her thumb), and I can't even remember one time when she was sick with a cold or a fever. She also almost never cries, only when she really gets scared if she falls or something. She loves her vegetables, cheerios, drinking water from her sippy cup, flipping through books (even "Life of Pi"), playing her toy piano, dancing, crawling around at super-high speed, laughing, and oh, screaming at the top of her lungs. Everyone jokes that she will be an opera singer.

I started this blog as a way to track the adventure of her first year, with our move to Arizona, my starting graduate school, and everything new that would happen to her. I can say that it has been an amazing and long year. Those who say that you can't imagine how fast the first year goes, well, it definitely didn't go that fast for me. And that is a good thing. I feel like I was able to watch her grow and develop in a way that kept every minute special. I am not sure why I haven't been writing as much lately. My prose does not feel as natural right now. It fels a bit stilted, like I am on a treadmill and I can't quite keep up with the steps. Maybe that is the feeling of having a child, that something new happens everyday, and just trying to capture it all is like trying to capture an entirely new person every day. I want her to read this in the future and have a sense of who she was. But I guess she will still be the same person. That is the most amazing thing, that I feel like I know her so well. I am sure she will surprise me repeatedly when she starts talking, but I also feel that she is Dylan, and now we just get the chance to spend the next x-amount of years hanging out and taking care of each other. I look forward to every minute of it. She will learn more and more, and so will I and so will Nicole. We can keep learning and sharing, and experiencing for many many years.

So, we are spending this summer on the East coast. Our home base is with Darlene and Nana in Niagara Falls. We have spent time with Grandma Jill when in Syracuse for my friend Jamison's wedding. Great-Grandma Joan came up for an evening as well. We will be going to New York City in a few days to see friends and I will play piano with the Dreamland Orchestra on Governor's Island again. Then we will be heading with Grandpa Jef and Grandma Gwen down to Florida for cousin Jody's wedding and to introduce Dylan to Nana Penny for the first time. And spending time with Nana Darlene and Nana has been wonderful. All of her grandparents and great-grandparents love her so much. We could have spent this summer in Arizona, but we wanted Dylan to get to know the family, and for the family to get to know her. I would say it has ben a success so far. She is so happy around people, and especially her family. Oh, I didn't mention that Nana's sister Ruthie lives down the street, so she has gotten to know her, her daughter Debbie, and a bunch of cousins, including 3 year old Chloe who is a big Dylan fan, and I can see them causing trouble (not too much hopefully) together in the future.

I will probably write something again on Sunday, June 10th, but until then, here are a bunch of recent pictures: