The past year

This past year has been the shortest and longest year of my life. Up until December, I would regularly write "2013" as the year. That's understandable in January and a funny mistake in February, but completely unacceptable in December.

My inability to recognize the year doesn't discount it's importance. 2014 was one of the best years of my life.

All of the parenthood cliches are true. Having a child is both the most challenging and rewarding undertaking of your life. Each week is an emotional roller-coaster but it's always exciting. They say that you're only given what you are able to handle. Laine and I joke that we must not be able to handle much because Linden is fantastic. :-)

Looking back, it's amazing to see how much has changed in this past year. Today marks the one year anniversary of the day Linden was rid of the monitor that recorded her heart rate and breathing. Today, she's a rough and tumble girl who is always on the go.

This past year was exciting for other reasons as well. Namely that Linden became a big cousin to Van Orion Singley and Ivy Ross Wellinghoff. Linden now has two older cousins and two younger cousins. Funny to think of her as an older cousin to anyone!

We look forward to spending more time with our niece and nephew in the coming year. I'm sure Linden will have all kinds of fun things to teach them.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the kick-off for the holiday season and since we had to take a pass on all the fun last year, we're making up for it this year. 

We spent a couple nights with the Miller family in the Chicago suburbs, including a quick up-and-back to visit baby Ivy in Milwaukee, then finished with a couple nights with the Twanows in Spring Valley. 

It was a lot of fun for Linden to play with her cousins, Bea and Wes during the Miller Thanksgiving. 

Aside from Liz's wedding over the summer, they hadn't had a chance to play together and this was the first time we got to see Wes on the move. 

The Twanow Thanksgiving provided another chance for Linden to visit and play with cousins -- this time with Chapin and Gibson. We arrive one night before they did though, which meant that Linden had her own personal lullaby from "Bumpa" Twanow. 

The next day, we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with family and Linden was perhaps the most satisfied of us all. :-) 

Rough and Tumble

In December 2013, Linden was still so little. We handled her with kid gloves as she was still on a monitor, recording her heart rate and breathing. What a difference one year makes.

Here she is one year later with a head full of blonde hair and a fully developed attitude. We love her all the more for it.

Around this time last year we had a snowstorm and I remember wishing I could dress Linden up in a snow suit and toss her into a pile of snow. Of course there was no way that was going to happen last year. But this year...I don't think I'm going to have a chance to toss her in. I think she's going to beat me out there. :-)

Minivan

I'm excited to announce that my sister Alison and brother-in-law Eric had their first child, a boy, and named him Van Orion Singley. I couldn't be more proud to share my name with this little guy, especially after having had the chance to meet him this past weekend. Let's go ahead and diffuse that "mini-van" joke from the start. It's unoriginal and not even that funny. :-)

Laine, Linden and I flew out to San Francisco to visit our 6-week-old nephew/cousin a few days ago. Unlike Linden, he was born in the typical Miller size -- 9lb 8oz, 22in.

Flying with a 14-mo-old is quite an experience, but Linden was a champ. Airport transit was aided by this amazing contraption that Laine found on the internet and purchased before our trip -- it's a chair that attaches to a carry-on piece of luggage. So Linden got to ride in style through ORD and SFO.

We stayed with Alison, Eric and Van for a couple nights and had a blast. Van's interests include eating, sleeping, and laughing at his cousin. Linden already loves her cousin Van and also thoroughly enjoyed practicing her stair climbing and descending at her aunt and uncle's place.

Here are a couple amazingly cute photos of the cousins caught on camera. There's really nothing to say about them because they are so dang cute on their own, so that's what I'll leave you with.

Jump!

A few days after Linden began to walk, she had a rough morning of falling quite a bit. At first, I couldn't figure out what the problem was. But then, I realized that she was falling because she was trying to pick up the pace. Having mastered walking, she wanted to run. It seems like that's how she functions. Once she has the hang of something, it's onto the next challenge.

For example, we recently had a playdate at our house with five kids under 5 (not including Linden). It was crazy, but fun. One of them was jumping around the living room and Linden was entranced.

Having just learned to walk, jumping will be the next goal. Linden pumps her arms a few times, then tries to jump. She can't get both feet off the ground, but she can regularly pick up one. The video gives you an idea.

As of tonight, she's progressed to a sort of shuffle-step attempt. I'll try to get another video that better reflects her ability. :-)

Halloween

Laine made Linden a penguin costume for Halloween this year and it was perfect. Linden had just started to walk a couple days before Halloween, so on October 31, 2014 Linden had the perfect waddle for the costume.

One Year Later - Part 2

It was one year ago that I wrote an entry about our first week with Linden at home. She'd been in the NICU for 40+ days before we were able to bring her home, and that first week home was amazing.

After so much time visiting our daughter in Peoria, we didn't quite know what to expect having her home. But absence does make the heart grow fonder and we absolutely loved that first week home together as a family.

One year later, it's incredible how much has changed. Not only is she no longer tethered to a monitor, she's no longer tethered to anything! When Laine came home from work today, Linden walked halfway across the room to give her a big hug.

She's constantly trying new things. Balancing and climbing are two of her favorite things to practice. Riding on her little pink car is fun, but so is balancing on top of it or using it as a step to climb higher. She's already reaching for doorknobs even though they're still a foot higher than her reach.

And boy is she stubborn. As illustrated by this photo, she naps on her own terms. If it means she falls face-first into the chair, still on her toes, that's just how it's going to be.

We've tried to take advantage of the nice fall weather and one weekend we visited Rader Farms' pumpkin patch. There were lots of activities and animals, but Linden most loved leaning on and climbing the pumpkins.

Last weekend, Linden served as the flower girl for our friend's wedding. She rode in a wagon because, while she could take some steps, she wasn't quite a walker yet. But she absolutely loved riding in that wagon. So much so that it helped her learn another word: GO. If we ever stopped pulling the cart for more than about 3 seconds, Linden would start saying "go...go..go.go...go" until we started back up again, bringing a big smile to her face.

During the actual wedding ceremony, she really turned it on. She pulled leaves out of the burlap purse that Lexy and Eddie gave her, which is exactly what she was supposed to do but had never done in practice. Linden knows how to perform when it counts.