Happy Father's Day!

Today is our first Father's Day.  The day that we celebrate Daddy and let him do anything he wants (which was:  sleep til 1pm, watch soccer and eat ice cream).

We have a lot to celebrate in this household.  Matt (Daddy, as Daniel knows him) is a stay-at-home-Dad and devotes his days to Daniel.  They play, go on adventures, meet friends in the park, go to music class and generally hang around town learning about life together.

Matt makes Daniel so happy that when Matt leaves a room, Daniel cries.

I honestly couldn't ask for a better father for my baby boy than Matt and I know that Daniel knows how lucky he is to have such an amazing best friend as a Dad.

So here's to my husband, Daniel's Daddy, the person who all Dads should strive to emulate.

We love you so much and hope that you enjoyed your very first Father's Day!

The Backside of 35

Today is my birthday.  I'm 36 years old.

My best friend called me this morning and said "welcome to the bad side of 35" (which I found hilarious) and I've decided that I would rather like to consider it the "backside" of 35.  I mean, I've never been one to be down on birthdays.  My week-long "Marnipalooza" birthday celebrations have always made me happy and while I'm way more focused on Daniel's first birthday than my own, I would like to say that I am celebrating my life and all of the things that make it beautiful.

Thanks to my mom & dad (who celebrated their 42 wedding anniversary yesterday... WHOA!) for having me!

11 Months!

I've been thinking that Daniel's 11 month birthday would be the least important (not that it's really possible to have a less important month) out of all during his first year since it's so close to the big ONE.  But, now that I'm sitting down with this post, I realize that it's actually one of the most special.  I suppose this is my baby's last birthday as a "baby".  Doesn't he turn into a "toddler" next month?

Last night (his actual 11 month birthday), I came home late from a work dinner (after leaving at 7am, thereby barely seeing Daniel) and I snuck into his room (which I do every night).  Rather than just caressing him, I lifted him out of his crib and held him for 10 or so minutes.  I was amazed by how big he felt - how substantial he felt in my arms and I allowed myself to simply be in the moment - enjoying the weight of my sleeping baby boy in my arms.

Daniel is growing so fast that it's hard to sometimes see him for who is is on any given day, rather than remembering him as a little baby or thinking about what it will be like when he's running around.  Last night, however, I enjoyed every second of my beautiful, babbling, crawling, cruising, smiley, serious, loving and sleeping baby boy.
 

 Happy 11 month birthday, Daniel Bing!

A Couple of Cute Videos

Daniel is pretty hilarious these days.  He's really into dancing and his dance moves change based on where he physically is when he's dancing.  The below is what I like to call Daniel's "Mindless Jamming".  This is when he's clearly focused on something else, but just cannot stop his little booty from moving.  Also, he has started this jam-band type head swinging which I personally love because it reminds me of Phish shows:


Daniel is also finally enjoying laying down again.  Since he started crawling it's been basically impossible to lie him down except when he's sleeping.  Here's his fist attempt at hiding under the covers: