The Great Reveal

Sean and I did a ridiculous amount of research on the hottest, most fun, and educational toys for 1 year olds in preparation for his birthday. We kept important things in mind: the toy must grow with the child, be reasonably priced, practical, and most importantly, hold his attention and engage him for, lets face it, the period of time it might take to say- tidy a room.

Sean and I shared an excited smile when we finally loaded the box into the car after braving lines full of frenzied Christmas shoppers.

Oh, we had such high hopes.

The gift we settled on took 20 minutes to assemble while Kelan was napping. When he woke up, we brought him downstairs to discover it in all of it's glory. Here is the great reveal... enjoy!

Firsts

I have this habit of trying to figure out where I was and what I was doing exactly one year ago, at any given time. I think I do it because it’s a good way to gauge time. It’s hard to grasp how a year can feel like forever, but can also seem like a few minutes. A couple of days a year, this is really easy to do - like Christmas, and I guess now, Kelan’s birthday.

He is my first child, but I wonder if all parents think of the day their child was born on their birthday every year. Is it just on the first birthday that the day they were born feels so tangible? I know it sounds pathetically cliché to write this today, but it does feel like yesterday. Maybe it’s because things get burned into your memory during major life-changing events. I feel like if I closed my eyes I could be back in the hospital with newborn Kelan: watching reruns of Friends with Sean, holding Kelan, and feeling that surreal I can’t believe I am finally holding my son feeling.

Even now, when Kelan talks to me (you know those completely incoherent babbles that only a mother could recognize as words from the English language) or as he is standing up trying to reach for something completely dangerous that he shouldn’t even be near—I’m thinking to myself, How can you be doing this? I can still smell that antibacterial hand wash that all the nurses use! I want to hold onto the baby Kelan memories, but I also want to skip ahead and find out what his little personality will be like in a year or two. Parenthood is strange that way.

So Happy Birthday Kelan and a big thanks to Sean. We made it through the first year virtually unscathed! This blog is a sort of a present for all of us. Hopefully it will be a way to bridge the time between this birthday and next. So that next November 29th, 28th, or 30th for that matter, when I am trying to figure out where that year went- I’ll have my answer.