Happy Birthday

Today is my wife's birthday.

She is the love of my life. We met more than 14 years ago and have had plenty of ups and downs but there is a strength and permanence in our relationship that is more substantial than any I ever known. My love for her has only grown with time. I would move mountains for her and she is quite literally the reason I am alive today. On top of that she has given me the greatest gift in the world: fatherhood, a role I relish and has redefined my entire sense of self. I only hope that I can make her as happy as she makes me.

I love you Katie, happy birthday.

Photo taken by Katie - nap time, June 26, 2008.

The Big Bug's Birthday Bash

Now a break from our flashback series.

The Bug celebrated her first birthday last week. It was a lot of fun!

There was singing and cake (please excuse my tone-deaf singing close to the mic):

And presents:



We saved a few for quieter moments too:




Many of The Bug's friends were there:







We had an awesome ladybug theme going on:

The Bug made sure it wasn't all cake. There were salads and BBQ too!

And beer for the big kids:

See you next year!

June 16th-19th, 2008

We welcome some more visitors, sleep whenever we can, get to know some of her silly faces/diaper discharges, hand out the home-brew, and start to really settle in to this whole parenthood thing. These were really happy days.

June 15th, 2008

I kinda like this whole flashback idea. I think I'm going to make it a series.

June 15th, 2008 we introduced her to some of our friends, Katie finally slept, and we took The Bug home.





She settled in nicely.

The Day Everything Changed

June 14, 2008

I find myself looking back a lot these days. A lot has changed over the past year. But then again, a year ago today EVERYTHING changed.

I don't think Katie cried through all her pain and everything. I, on the other hand, cried like a little girl but what else is new. I changed my first diaper. After three days of labor, Katie finally got a little rest. And a little drink. What? We had a lot to celebrate! I found a new capacity to comfort. And Katie finally got to meet the little person she had grown to know so intimately yet never actually seen. She had a lot to be proud of. And so did I. We finally had our little girl and we were a family now. I fell in love with her immediately. We all fell in love with her immediately.

Juniper Rose Detrano, happy birthday.

Books and Words

Junebug loves to read. Books are one of her favorite toys. She will often take a book off her shelf and sit and flip through the pages. But best of all, she loves to sit on your lap and be read too. She helps turn the pages and has a few books that she loves hearing over and over. She doesn't always sit still, or wait for the story to be over before picking the next book but still, reading is one of her favorite activities!

Maybe I'm biased, but I think she is a brilliant little girl. For someone who hasn't even been alive a year, she has a huge vocabulary and isn't shy about expressing herself. In the clip above she says "Daddy". How one simple word can bring me to my knees so easily I'll never fully understand. And did you catch her shaking her head "no" when she decided that she was done with that book and ready to move on? So far she has a firm grasp on "hi', "kitty/Titi" - pronounced tee-tee (the name of one of our cats, this also seems to apply to dogs too so...), "Mama", "Daddy", "up", and "apple" (a two sylable word!). On top of that she can shake her head no and yes (although I've never seen her do "yes", the babysitter says she can so I'll take her word for it) and she can sign "more" and "finished".

Here is another short video of Mama reading from one of her "word books". It was shot about a month ago and her grasp of the two words - kitty and apple - has gotten even stronger.

p.s. Mama hates that I always take her picture in the morning. Is it my fault that they are so cute together?

Jaws II