Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Best Year of Our Lives

One year ago, everything changed. We knew that your arrival would begin a new chapter of our lives, but honestly it made the preceding chapters become prologue. That first day you came out so beautiful, so perfect, so photogenic. That hasn't changed since moment one. But, the changes that have happened are why this past year has been so amazing for us.

There are so many little moments that stand out as evidence of those changes. There are several that stand out in our minds: Grandma Stockman pointing out that you were laughing at us, the first time you rolled over, when you started taking your paci and putting it in our mouth when you aren't ready for bed, that first realization that you were dancing to your toy's music, and your first delight in the Eeyore stuffed animal. It's hard to believe that there will be something that ever beats out the awesome moment we have each afternoon when we pick you up from school. As soon as you see us, you drop to the ground and crawl over to us as quickly as your little feet and hands can go. Those first moments are so exciting, but they become so much more. Now you laugh all the time whether we are dancing for you, pretending to drink from your bottle, tickling you, sneezing or just introducing you to things that make life kind of silly. You now roll out of Mommy's bean bag chair, you stand on your rocking chair, try to climb on your new step stool, try to open the dogs kennel, rearrange the chairs in the breakfast room, and you stand on your own. It blows our minds. You sing into your keyboard's microphone and mash the keys. You hold nonsensical conversations with a million different intonations just to mimic us. You bang on your drums or windows or anything you can get close to. You tackle Eeyore, chase your orange ball and play your favorite song on your exersaucer. You point at every dog you see and call out baba, your new all-purpose word. You have words now, most of them are variations of baba or uh oh, but who knows what you will be telling us next year. You now race your buddy Erwan to get to us at school when we pick you up. Your face lights up whenever you see us. The little firsts we remember were great, but each of those firsts become a routine. It's how those moments become routine that makes this parenthood thing amazing.

You respond to the name we gave you a year ago. You have learned who you are, even though you are only a year old. We have all been so blessed to get to know you, too.

This first year has been the best year of our lives. Your first birthday was a reminder and celebration of how you have forever changes us. Jackson, we love the little moments when we get to see you do something for the first time, but, it's watching those moments become months and years and those changes become part of who you are that make being your parents our greatest joy.

We love you, Little Man, Monkey, Goober, Little Buddy, and all the other nicknames we call you.

Birth



One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months
Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months
Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Twelve Months/One Year

2 comments:

niki said...

This post perfectly captures how we all are blessed by Jac-Mac! Your family is a delight to be around. Many days when frustrations at work would be mounting, Noelle and I would go to the school to see Jackson. His smile, cool disposition and open arms always sent us away with a smile on our face and a smile on our heart. Go, MacGs!

Kristen & Kingsley said...

You really captured the awe of parenthood. I think every person in Jackson's life has already been enriched by the little guy. He just brings joy.