Dear One-Year-Old Baby Franco

(**Just to note that I wrote this in January, when Franco had just turned one year old, but have been tweaking it to get it perfect for this blog and will now publish for the world to see...)

Dear One-Year-Old Baby Franco,

You have now lived for one year. What a milestone! I'm fairly certain that in no other year of your entire life will you make so many drastic, dramatic changes. Sometimes it is mind-boggling to realize that a year ago you were getting used to breathing air, and now you are routinely doing things like this... 

     I am pretty sure that Gracie taught you this. It was kind of her trick first.

        The first few weeks and months of your life were kind of awesome. Your dad and I watched tons of hockey games and “Friday Night Lights” on Netflix during quiet evenings, holding you while you slept. During our days together, we napped and read “The Hunger Games” trilogy out loud and  listened to Skip and Stephen A. argue on ESPN and watched movies. Yes, some days were challenging when you acted grumpier than usual. But, that is true of everyone in every single person’s life, so why would I hold it against you?

        We traveled all over with you this past year and you proved a natural-born companion. We spent time in Alabama, flew to Arizona, went to a wedding in Wilmington, spent a week with yinz up in Western PA, partied in Ohio, and of course rocked our weekends in the Blue Lot at WVU football games, where you made friends with all the drunk 20-somethings who sit by us and who took pictures of you as you grew in between each game.  (And...as your Auntie Samantha pointed out, that is "not creepy" at all. HA!)  It has proven a wise strategy, as you are adaptable and up for an adventure at any time. You now go outside regularly  pointing to the car because you spend so much time there. 

We partied in the pool all summer with our friends and you loved it. You wore goggles and splashed and slept on the table in your car seat when you got too tired. I will always remember that summer as one of the best ever. There was (somewhat) less beer than in summers past, but the laughter seemed more meaningful and memorable.

I don't know about you, but this looks pretty comfy...

Old friends and family visited to shower you with gifts and love. You started eating solid foods in June and have never really stopped! Eating is a big time for you, so you fit in with the rest of the family for sure. Once, you ate an entire tupperware full of homemade mixed vegetables and awed all in attendance at the pool. You might have been a skinny little thing, but it was not for lack of trying! You love all kinds of foods and often regale us with your ability to put it away. As a result, we have that whole thing pretty easy and you are growing bigger and stronger every day. 

After Halloween (when you were a precious Elmo in a stroller) and Thanksgiving (when you ate pie and about eight plates of dinner) and Christmas (when you were spoiled beyond belief) we celebrated New Year's Eve by staying up with Kathy and Anderson and watching the ball drop and eating hot dogs with sauerkraut. It was not wild and crazy, but it was pretty great anyway.

What do you mean it's midnight? I'm just getting started here!

Then, it was your birthday!! Oh, what a happy time for us all. We did not have a big party and you did manage to fall and bust your lip on a chair, but that day was awesome. We ate about a pound of cake (a piece) and played and laughed and then you passed out, likely due to the massive amount of cake you ate. Then, your Daddy and Mummy watched movies together and held you while you slept, not unlike when you were first born.

Impressed? You should be!

What? For me?

A lot of times people will say, "Gosh, I can't imagine life without my baby!" (Which is silly because you don't have to imagine it. Life without the baby would look a lot like life did before the baby. Come on.) What I think people mean is this: it is hard to grasp that you have only just arrived. Once, I told your Auntie Rebeccah about something I did a few years ago and she asked, "Well, who watched Franco?" To which I responded, "He...wasn't born yet, you know." And she understood it was silly, but at the same time it was like...oh, it just seems like Franco has been here forever.

Because, it does. And sometimes I wonder if each year will seem the same or if this feeling will just pass with the rest of the phases. And that's okay too, since we are happy to have you move from this point to that. We will always be proud of you in each new milestone, and we will not mourn those times which are passed. 

Because we are not raising a baby. We are raising a man. And so far, we are doing a damn fine job, if we absolutely only ask ourselves and believe our own opinions on the matter. 

The secret just might be all that traveling. And lots and lots of cake.