Wow how time flies - especially when you're busy making plans!

What a year this has been! Oliver will be one year old in a few short days! He has been such a joy to watch as he changed from a smiling little dude to an active toddler who waves and almost walks and plays peek a boo.



How can I summarize a year of experiences? I am SO HAPPY to have such a great husband who really has taken this job of being a daddy to a new level. It would make me jealous or sad that Oliver sometimes wants to go to dad when he gets upset if it weren't so darn cute to see how Tom loves his role as awesome daddy! How did I luck out to have two awesome guys in my life?



It has not been easy to spend so much time away from him and I think the lack of posts in the last few months is in no small part due to the next major development in our lives - I'm planning to open my own business in the fall about 4/10 of a mile from our house! Things are getting close to finalized and this will be by no means a reduction in my work. For the next few years, I will be working more hours and my patients will be taking a much bigger part of my life. However, in the grand plan, this will give me a chance to build something that allows me to have flexibility and passive not just active income. I may have the option to purchase the building I plan to lease which will even further increase the chance that I can become a smarter worker not just a hard worker ;)




And all of this is because of this little dude who smiles with a big toothy grin as soon as I walk in the door. He waves and smiles at strangers and friends alike. I love his late night and early morning snuggles when he buries his head in my chest (even if it means I get snots on my shirts). I am so excited for each new day that I get to spend with him. I am hopeful that changing some things in my life will allow me to be there for all of his important milestones. How can you look at this face and want to do anything but spend as much time and energy with him as possible?

Head bonking

So here is where I come clean about any IQ points my son may have lost over the last few weeks. He is a head bonker. He loves to explore and pull himself up to stand and sometimes, lately, that has meant his little precious head smacks with quite great force onto a hard surface if we are not within arm's length. He thinks his freedom is great. We hope his head is strong enough to make it and that mild concussions are not occurring daily. We are pretty convinced at this rate he will not be able to play football because the total damage his head has sustained by the time he is old enough may be too great.



Oh and did I mention that he loves Cheerios? Loves them! Can't get enough of them. And this allows us to eat dinner in peace. Until he choked on one the other day. He looked at me while we were eating our respective dinners and his mouth agape, I could almost see the stuck Cheerio. I asked him (as if he could answer me even if he weren't choking) "can you breathe?" He looked at me mouth agape as if to say, "um not really". In one calm sift move, he was out of his high chair and had several firm blows between the shoulder blade and not 5 seconds later that suspect Cheerio was lying partially soggy on his high chair tray. He made one little scream as if to say - that was a little bit scary and then smiled. I looked at Tom who had his cell phone in hand, staring at it and trying to figure out if 911 needed calling. Oliver immediately demanded more Cheerios and I obliged. The lesson I learned is that Oliver is not to eat Cheerios without supervision. The lesson Tom learned was that Oliver is not to eat Cheerios unless mom is home ;) Cheerios are henceforth to be known in these parts as Chokios.



And yet I worry about the most unlikely of fates for my child. I do not fear that he will chew through an electrical cord (he loves them by the way), choke on a Cheerio while we are not looking or bonk his head into oblivion. What I really worry about is what would happen if he fell down the stairs while I was carrying him and broke his neck or contracted some rare cancer or got caught in a fiery inferno car accident while I struggled to get to him. I do not worry about him falling out of the tub seat onto his head and knocking himself out (he did fall head first into the empty tub this AM, cried and then smiled). I can keep him from chewing on cords and the many gates and baby proofing devices we are erecting should help slow his pursuit to bang up and bruise his beautiful little face. I can certainly provide Heimlich and other choking cures. No what really worries me are the things over which I have no control, the really scary things that I cannot see and cannot prevent. So I try to find ways in my imagination to prevent, control and plan for them the best I can. And I remind myself that it is not up to me and I do not have control over what he does all of the time. I will try to let it go. After all, he seems to really be a happy, healthy and well adjusted kid. I wouldn't want to mess him up ;)