Ian's First Birthday

Exactly one year ago this morning, I met and immediately fell in love with my little man, Ian. I remember that all I could say through my tears that morning was how perfect he was. It has been really fun to watch him grow from such a helpless bundle of need to a little boy who can walk several steps independently in only the time it takes the Earth to go around the sun. My household is a bit melancholy today, however, since my wife and I are unable to spend his first birthday with Ian. Due to the confluence of the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox (Easter) and seasonal anchovy migrations in the Cantabrian sea, it was decided, with heavy hearts, that it would be best for Nora and Ian to go with their Spanish grandparents down to Extremadura for a fortnight because Marga's employer buys dozens of tons of anchovies that she has to oversee the processing of, which means long hours at work. We're still going to have a birthday party for him, of course, when he gets back. Who really cares if our memories of his first birthday party are recorded a week or two late?

A side effect of being temporarily childless is that I found a little extra free time, so I've made Ian a little slideshow of photos from his first year of life. Although I never did this particular video for her, I used to do this sort of thing for Nora all the time; such is the unescapable nature of being second.

Happy birthday, son. I love you more than you'll ever know.