Lisa Samuel

Two years and five months, to be exact. Two years and five months of cuddling and singing and reading and playing and cheering on our sweet little baby into a walking, talking toddler with a mind and personality and voice of his own.

I’m curled up in the sunroom of our vacation rental that is perched on a low bluff of San Juan Island, gazing at the sun glinting on the water below and the breeze rustling the leaves of the madrona trees growing into the steep rocky bank. While Theo naps in the bedroom, the white noise…

One year! The night before Theo’s first birthday, Elie and I watched the video from his birth. It was the first time I had seen it, and it seemed like the right amount of time to go back and re-live that night. The battery on the camera died right before Theo was born, but we…

This morning we had a friend come over for coffee. We all sat in the family room, Elie and me on the floor with Theo, playing. He was toddling back and forth between Elie and me, laughing and crinkling up his nose, squinting his eyes and snorting in the way he does now when he…

For those of you who read these monthly posts and enjoy following along with Theo’s first year, thank you. I can’t believe he’s been in this world for almost twelve months. These posts have been so precious to write, to reflect each month on how much he changes and how quickly.

I’ve been thinking about how monumental this first year is, this year of so many firsts. Everything is brand new and every new experience has the potential to be one that shapes the rest of Theo’s life. Am I being melodramatic? Maybe. But I have this compelling drive to make every ‘first’ the best one…

8 months old! This first year feels like we’re flying down the highway, and the milestones keep whizzing by, one by one, before we’ve had a chance to savor them. Sometimes, it seems like he changes overnight.