It’s been a good year since I’ve experienced this so forgive me if I’m a little clumsy talking about it.

The basics: Dash slept in his own bed last night. By himself. In another room. And only woke for about five minutes before falling back to sleep. And another tooth broke through.

Holy. Crap.

Please please please let this be a sign of things to come. Sweet Jesus, I am ready.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but I ain’t got no village.  But I do have this:  No seriously, he loves it when Laundry Basket comes by to watch over him.  He really does!   To Dash, when he reads this post several years from now: Dash sweetheart… I love you and I would never do anything to put you in danger (that’s why you’re in the basket!). No really, it was just for fun and we took it right off. I swear. Promise. Love you! 

12 months ago on this day, a tiny baby named Dashiell was born.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a full year, but there you are, walking across the room to me to prove it. Your Dad and I have spent the last day retracing our steps of the day before your birth when labor began; grocery shopping, seeing one of our midwives (she just happened to be at the grocery store), and reminding ourselves of when the major milestones occurred; “It’s 10pm and we would have just gotten to the hospital!” It’s been a nice time to reflect on the past year. Going through the many many pictures we’ve taken (a shocking amount, really) brought back all kinds of wonderful moments.

Our lives have changed a lot since your birth (Understatement). Every day it seems there’s something to illustrate this point for us. Take today, for instance. I had planned to write this post out around 10:00, while you took your morning nap. When 12:00 rolled around and you still hadn’t stopped walking around, exploring every corner of our house, I kind of figured our schedule was going to be off. You were a little cranky about it, but we played on. We ate lunch before your nap (a first) and played some more. And then when 3:00 rolled around, you were finally ready to curl up on me and fall asleep. Didn’t take more than a full minute- you zonked out and I sat there thinking about how you can make all the plans you want, but sometimes those plans are going nowhere. And that’s ok. And we both might get a little cranky and that’s ok too. Just one of the many lessons you’ve taught us, Dash.

So now you’re sleeping, I’m exhausted, but I’m going to write this out. I haven’t yet shared your birth story like your dad did here, so I think I’ll start off with that.

The Birth Story (abridged version):

… After about six hours of labor, you arrived. I found it wasn’t half as bad as the movies say it will be, even without drugs. Ok, one annoying part about the birth process was when you kept turning your head from side to side while you were on the way out. Once is fine, seventeen trillion times had me asking our midwife in frustration, “Why does he keep doing that!?”
It was shortly after that that she realized that my/your water never broke and that it was kind of keeping you in. She let me feel your head, still covered by the membrane, like a little wet melon ball. One quick poke solved that pesky water problem and you came right out with a yell. Your cord was unexpectedly short, so instead of placing you on my chest for some skin-to-skin contact, you only reached to my belly. I have to admit, Dash, that I was kind of on another planet at that moment so I was kind of with you but kind of elsewhere too. But I remember perfectly your little body with all the right parts and your reddish blond hair that in the dimmed hospital lights looked a little curly.

I thought your skin was a looking a bit yellow, but no one said anything until the end of the day when everyone agreed that you had a raging case of jaundice. This was where we learned lesson number one from you (listen to ourselves). We knew that breastfeeding would be the best way to get rid of it, but the hospital really wanted you under the bili lights. We could have just gone home at the end of our two day stay, kept you on the boob, sat you near a sunny window, and watched you trade in the yellow for a healthy pink glow. But instead we stayed at the hospital for five days, tried to make you stay under the lights (ha!), and got stressed out over something that was seemingly out of our control.

Lesson number two (how appropriate!) had to do with you, poop, and bili lights. A scary and then hilarious reminder of how important laughter is.
A few days later you got better and we all went home, you arriving there for a very first time as a separate being, and wearing the little red-hooded sleeper that I wore home from the hospital some thirty years before.

We learned lots more lessons over the next few days, weeks, and months. You’re a pretty good teacher. And you grew strong (holding your head up almost immediately and wanting to stand all the time).

I has the legs of a chikun.

You passed through a bad skin stage earlier than we expected, breaking my heart.

Please don’t take my picture. I implore you.

You slept in our bed from the beginning and to this day you love it so much you don’t want to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. I’m… um… glad you love it honey, but sleep is good too. Some day, right? Right?

And now you laugh at jokes, eat regular food, have teeth (two, right on the bottom), walk, scoot around on your butt, chase the dog around, eat cat food, play with electrical cords and everything else you can get your hands on. Your curiosity and enthusiasm seem never ending (especially when you skip a nap) and I can’t get enough of you. Sometimes I just want to eat you up.

This has been an amazing year, Dash, and it’s all because of your presence in our lives. When we celebrate your birthday on Saturday, know that all that fuss is for you. It’s your day, marking the end of one year and the beginning of another. There’s a big world out there just waiting to see what you’re going to do.

It’s your day, and that’s your cupcake. Dig in.

That’s what I think about when I sit down to think about Dash’s first birthday extravaganza. Red carpets, designer clothes, corporate sponsors, and of course, the swag….

Then I think, for someone who didn’t even realize Christmas was happening, is a birthday party even going to register? The answer is most likely no. Though he probably will wonder what all these people are doing in our house playing with his toys and distracting his parents from their true focus: indulging his every whim.

Ah, but it’s not about him, is it? Nah, it’s about me. It’s about us. It’s about planning a fun afternoon for friends and family and the anticipation of letting Dash have a tiny cupcake for the first time ever (question to experienced parents: just how bad are the sugar rushes?).

The planning has been fun so far. Treats and drinks for everyone, some simple decorations (which may not look so hot in our pinkish red dining room. mental note: time to paint that room.), and a quick gathering of extra chairs so people have a spot to plop on. On second thought, maybe just a few extra large pillows on the floor.

And speaking of planning, check out what’s happening in The Other Dash’s life. Such a cute idea (and an excellent way to stay away from annoying disney themed stuff) that I am totally going to steal next year. I’ll probably add cardboard box robot bodies for the adults to do a little Flight of the Conchords. Thanks Liz!

Anyway, I have a little under two weeks to make it happen. I’ll update you so you’ll feel like you’re actually planning the party with me. Won’t that be fun?

Tonya: Say, Internet… could you help me clear off this counter? I’d like to put all the drinks there for the party.

Internet:

Tonya: Hmm… ok. I just thought we were doing this together. Clean the bathroom?

Internet: (twiddles thumbs)

Tonya: Help eat cupcakes?

Internet: I thought you’d never ask.

I figured as much. But before we get to all of that, here’s a quick rundown of our weekend. We put up baby gates (take that you wandering baby, you!), we sold the crib (hello tiny bed for a tiny baby!), and we were blessed by an owl. I couldn’t get too close and my zoom only goes so far, but here’s our little outdoor friend:

And Dash spent some time in a toy store on Sunday looking for a new toy to replace a Christmas gift that we decided was a little too potentially lead-phalate-poisoning-friendly. I cannot stress enough how much he enjoyed it. Naturally, I did not bring the camera in, because well, then I would have had pictures of the event. Silly me.

This is what we brought home:

It took a few turns of us showing him how it worked before he tried it, and then he didn’t want to drop the ball in, he just wanted to bang it against the top. Then when he did let go, he wanted the ball back and kept reaching back in to find it. “Dash sweety, see it rolling down?” No. That ball was NOT the ball he just let go of, that was some other ball. Another turn and he figured it right out and is full-on loving this toy. And by full-on, I mean he has several times now tried to get on top of it, causing it to crash to the ground. Thanks Meme and Grandpa Bum. He really does love it. So much so that he passed out on the couch after much ball tower fun.

UPDATE apparently it’s called a Rollipop, though I prefer Ball Tower, Tower of Balls. Also, it seems we got quite a deal on it. My goodness, it’s a fun toy but I’m not sure it’s worth quite this much.

Or, snowberms, as Robyn would say.

So we’ve been a little cooped up with all this snow that fell over the past week. And though it’s been cold for just a leisurely walk, I had to do it anyway. There’s only so much of the inside of my house I can take.
Time to bundle Dash up in his new snowsuit and head out for a jaunt up the street.

Mom? I can’t move but for all the bundling.

But Dash, I say, we’re going out into the freezing cold to walk up the street. We’ll step carefully on crunchy, packed down snow, our noses will drip everywhere, and we’ll probably slip on some ice on the way. It’ll be so much fun!

I believe you mom. Let’s go!

All of the above did indeed happen (note to self: bring tissues), but it was sunny and our spirits were lifted by the fresh air, so we (I) decided to do the complete block. It’s about a mile around, easy on a mild day, but we tend not to walk it in the winter. But I was feeling ok about it and Dash was enjoying himself, so we kept on walking.

One short portion of this loop falls on a busy, loud street. It’s my least favorite and I don’t even like to admit that we live so close to it. But there are sidewalks and like I said, it’s the short, and last portion of the walk. As we approach it I get this sinking feeling. “What if they haven’t cleared the sidwalks? No, that’s ridiculous. It’s been two days since the storm and it’s a busy street. Of course they’ve plowed. Ha ha, it sure would suck if they hadn’t plowed. We’d have to walk all the way back, another mile, up that steep hill, and the temperature is plummeting. Hilarious!”

My disappointment in the city’s lack of plowing is perhaps best expressed by this picture, taken after the long, unexpected and cold, walk home.

I was pretty annoyed, but then the city got a lot of bad press for dropping the ball during this particular storm (sidewalks not plowed around schools? Come on now.). I still love you Portland, but why you gotta make my baby cry?