Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes (plus all the minutes it took me to get around to this post).

In so many ways, this is just one of many small milestones that make up a life. One of many ways we grow together as a family, as individuals, in love. It's one of those moments that come & go (and, lots of going was happening as Liam had a delightful bout of diarrhea on his birthday), but every so often the reality of it catches me off guard. We're parents to a one-year old. A whole year of gorgeous memories, sleepless nights and constant change have already passed us by.

At 24 weeks pregnant I wrote:
We're pretty convinced our lives were damn near perfect before you & are sometimes a bit skeptical that you are going to make them even better. This will most certainly be the reality of it though.

The many, many ways you have enriched, invigorated & in-frustrated our lives. Liam, you bring us unspeakable joy. The way you love to make your Dad laugh during your night-time books, when you wrap your arms around our necks (the only sign of affection you show), the way you must be directly between us & the counter when we are standing in the kitchen, the way you wave bye-bye to Daddy every morning, multiple times, even on Saturdays. How freaking jowly your face looks when you are really really enjoying yourself, most often when you are attempting to rip all the hair out of my head.

You are a total bruiser. No matter the size of the child in the sandbox, you are convinced you will be able to get their toy away from them. Seventeen other toys may be strewn all about, but you must have the one spade that is in the hand of another child. You are also so freaking friendly. It constantly surprises me the business men you can get to wave back to you. Most days though, you are flat out ignored, but still your waving frenzy continues. You often rock the double wave, both arms held above your head, hands waving furiously. You have taken to crawling over to other moms at the park and just planting yourself in their laps, or next to their strollers, then turning back to me, smiling & waving.

You love to jam to any music. The way you bop up and down is hysterical. Seemed you really enjoyed the beat of JT 'What Goes Around...Comes Around' so we imitated his moves from the video Now, you hold one finger up when it, or another random song comes on. It's one of my favorite things.

Of course, you do lots of other crap that drives us crazy. But, we prefer to measure the love, and lucky for us there's plenty of that going around. Finger up.