Day 365: 1 Year

One year has passed. I can't believe it. His party was Sunday and today, it's quiet time to reflect I guess.

The past year has been the single most amazing journey I have ever been on. I have never been closer to life. Closer to the essence. I would imagine I was close when I went through my first year too but it takes a little distance to see the details sometimes. Observing Atom's launch truly gave me a perspective, I now understand, I had always lacked.

Each second, minute, hour, day, week, and month revealed magic. Never has a single breath carried such weight. Meeting my wife took my breath away, sure, but Atom brought it back. Does everyone feel this way? Did my parents? Are we now part of a larger club of people, let's call them Parents, that has witnessed life in all of it's power and glory and walked away with profound wisdom?

Hmmm. Profound wisdom is a hard hill to climb. Maybe I am getting a little ahead of myself. Profound wisdom probably arrives after the second year or third year. Although there was the one week after college graduation when I was positive I was shuck full of Wisdom…I guess for now I will be happy just knowing that indeed there is beautiful innocence kicking around in the world wrapped up in tiny little baby bundles.

In true year in review fashion I will now proceed with some of Atom's highlights for the year…

Birth
the first night being beyond exhaustion but to excited to sleep or let him out of our sight
how he had no eye brows, wrinkles, and that thing under your nose when he was born
going through 8-10 diapers a day
his first cry (wah, wah, wah)
no knowing how to adjust the straps on the car seat at the hospital so having to change his outfit so we could actually bring him home
operating on no sleep for the first three months
First smile
First laugh
First hug
first time his eyes followed me across the room
watching him watch Sharon
seeing his face explode with joy every time Sharon walks into the room
tummy time
his face eating his first food
his little teeth
making fart noises back and forth with him
holding him tight and signing john lennon's beautiful boy at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the morning
his first crawl
two fingers in his mouth
the first time he "got" something and watching it bubble over his face
wondering if he has memorized every episode Law and Order
seeing him pull himself up
the way he points at everything
seeing him play with peanut
watching our families welcome him
realizing he understands his name for the first time
wondering if he thinks his name is actually Baby Atom
seeing his tiny hand doing the sign for milk even though he cant verbalize it
baby bejourning
sharing him with other people


and finally...watching the people my wife and I are becoming. It's hard to not want to be a better person around him. He deserves it and so do we. I guess we just never realized it until now.

Day 364: Almost One...

Day 350: Looking Who's (Almost) Talking

Did you hear that? I thought I heard something. It sounded like a tiny voice straining to be heard. Atom is not only biting at the bit to put his legs to work but has been performing new vocal exercises lately.

We can't say he is totally talking yet but somewhere between Monday and Tuesday this week it started to sound like his dangling participles stopped dangling. His outbursts found inner meaning. His conjunctions found their function. His one syllable remarks have grew exponentially.

Language is definitely taking shape. He now puts multiple noises together when pointing at things and there definitely seems to be meaning behind his primitive clauses.

Atom's progress made me think of a recent bit of useless knowledge I came across. Prarie Dogs recently were found to actually be capable of complex communications with each other. What sounds like merely a bunch of chrips and barks to us is actually a rich and layered structured language. We simply can't hear it (or understand it). Even if we could understand it, we don't have the tonal spectrum to even hear it. Could it be that way with babies? They start out with cries, grunts, coos, clicks, pops and snorts (seemingly rudimentary communication tools) and then dummy themselves down to the English language?

English has an incredible amount of inconsistencies and plain stupid rules when you think about it. The multiple meanings the word desert(depending on what syllable you put the accent on), the use of an apostrophe, and I'm also talking about you "who/whom".

The language has gotten so out of control that hardly anyone seems to even speak it correctly anymore. Sorry Mom, "ain't" is so accepted that my spell check didn't even blink when I just used it.

But I digress.

I can only assume this isn't going to be the last time my son and I have a hard time understanding each other. But I know, as is the case now, that no matter how confusing language gets at least I am confident we will always "get each other".

Day 340: Dexterity, Focus, and Heaving

For some time now Atom has taken it upon himself to clear off any and all surfaces he can reach. This behavior has led to many a game where we put blocks, cars, teethers, etc. onto the couch and watch in amusement while he earnestly grabs and tosses them to the floor. He does it with so much conviction and pride that it is hard not to share in his feeling of accomplishment with every hand puppet or fire truck that bounces off the floor. With pinpoint focus similar to the likes of Emanuel Lasker or Bobby Fisher, Atom momentarily blocks out his surroundings and goes in for the kill. FLING!

Fortunately he can only reach 12" or so off the ground by himself and, well, anything he grabs while being held or bjorned isn't totally his fault. A thin line has manifested between encouraging this epic feat of dexterity and morning over the occasional cookie, coaster, or ceramic dish that might be helped to an early death.

The thing that really astonishes me is that he never seems to tire of this activity. The "put-an-item-on-the-couch-and-watch-it-go-flying-to-the-ground" (aka P.A.I.O.T.C.A.W.I.G.F.T.T.G) game has never ended by parental desire. The game is only over when Atom decides to move on to something more pressing like the "don't-you-want-me-to-go-touch-that-outlet" (D.Y.W.M.T.G.T.T.O) game or if an urge to partake in C.Q.I.A.R.D* (any guesses?) overtakes him. In fact, it has become a go to time filler in our never ending quest to fill up the day with activities.

As he keeps evolving I wonder where this passion will lead...dexterity, focus, and heaving can only lead to something great in my opinion. Or at the very least, shorter acronyms. 

*crawl-quickly-in-a-random-direction

Day 336: Vitamin Water

For some reason Atom loves his vitamins. Water not so much. We have found a way to combine the two and no one is the wiser...for now.

Day 326: Christmas...It's a wrap

Day 315: Happy Holidays!