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In the final hours of May 12th of last year, I walked through the quiet hallways of Alta Bates Hospital, following Heather in her gurney. I remember the relief that it was all over: our rushed return home from our honeymoon, the scramble to find a place to live, and the furnishing of our house and the bedroom for whatever, or whoever was going to live with us. Finally, everything we were planning for was complete. Holden was here, and we could finally relax. When we reached the recovery room, Heather and I fell asleep before they turned the lights off.

An hour later, I had my first wakeup call. Holden was screaming that he was hungry. I was confused where I was, then about how we were supposed to feed this creature, what I was supposed to do, what Heather was supposed to do, and what the hell we were going to do when they finally kicked us out of the hospital.

A year later we are celebrating that we made it. We made it through the first year. And I have a little feeling of deja vu.

It of course has been a year of amazing ups and downs: from multiple screaming awakenings every night to watching him crawl over and bite Heather’s toe, just to make us laugh. And we do laugh, even as Heather half-heartedly tries to fend him off and I tell him toes are kinda dirty and probably don’t belong in his mouth.

Now I think back to that first crazy night in the hospital and smile a bit to myself about what comes next. It’s not that I have any idea what the next year or two or three will bring, but somehow knowing that we made it through the first year, and that there is an up for every down (even if they are months apart) makes me very excited about what comes next.

And with that, we present more pictures. First up, a party at the YMCA, a yard sale, and Holden’s first camping trip… (captions are on the way..)

It’s time to declare it. Holden’s official first word is key. He loves the car keys. He says key (and lunges for them greedily) whenever he sees them. He also says key for:

• the plastic key for his toy house
• zippers or metal necklaces that have satisfying key-like properties
• when he only hears the keyless remote beep the car locked or unlocked
• when we approach the front door and he knows I need to get them out

He also says “dada” but I’m not quite sure he knows what he’s saying. For instance, I will say, “can you say mama?” and Holden will answer back, “dada”. When Alec comes home, it’s “dada” too.

He seems to understand many words at this point and it’s amazing to see him learn more every day. Our baby calendar says that he will learn 100 words for every one that he can speak. Should I bore you with the ones he knows too? Ok… tummy, mama, daddy, water, milk, eat, banjo, ball, book, kamela, plant, rhino, giraffe, bear, no (well, sometimes!)… and those are the confirmed ones.

See more 11 month pictures. First birthday on May 12th. Yippeee.

We’re getting a little lazy posting pictures over here, but we’re still taking them like mad. He’s just waking up from his nap a little grumpy so I gotta run! Enjoy the pictures…