So we went to our favorite park to partake in a morning of swinging, sliding, running around, lolly-gagging, tomfoolery, etc. It was probably the coldest day since last winter. The wind was whipping at a good 30-40 miles an hour, but we decided to tough it out.

Alex was having a blast. Swinging, climbing, see-sawing, sliding. It was a great morning. We were getting ready to leave, but got pulled back in by the ginormous big boy slide. The prospects of going down that were simply too hard to resist. Since Daddy doesn’t slide right, Mommy took him up the stairs, sat down, and started a-movin’. All of a sudden, shreeks of pain and agony.

Alex has a bit of a habit of trying to stop himself from going down the slide by employing the “stick my legs out and into the side of the slide” technique. Unlucky for him, Mommy had the power of gravity, inertia, and momentum on her side and they kept sliding. He cried for a while and we assumed he hurt his leg a little so we headed home.

Once home, Alex couldn’t walk. He would try and try, but he just kept falling down. Not good. Since it was naptime, we gave him some ibuprofen, put him to bed, then called the doctor. They said take him to the hospital, so off we went on a now-beautiful Sunday afternoon. Really turned out to be not such a bad experience. We were seen in under two hours. The doctor was insanely thorough. Of course, by this point, Alex was trying to run around (albeit in a limping fashion); but generally didn’t appear to be in any pain.

The doctor said we should wait and see, thinking it was a sprain, and pass up the opportunity for an x-ray at this stage. So we hobbled home, $50 lighter in the wallet, and with a kid who still walked like the cryptkeeper. We have a follow up at an orthopedist on Tuesday, so we’ll keep you all updated.

Update: Alex had his appointment with the orthopedist last night. He’s been walking fine since Monday morning, so we were hoping it to just be a mere formality. He surmised that Alex cracked a growth plate in his leg, which, while sounding like it should be the worst thing that can happen to any human being, is actually quite normal and relatively benign.

Symptoms include:

• A brief burst of pain followed by seemingly no pain at all.
• Inability to bear any weight on the limb followed by running around like a crazy person.

Check. And check.

Alex has developed into quite the little humorist. In addition to running around the house laughing his butt off and “washing the spider out,” he likes to throw all of his books off the bookshelf (and read the last one left of course), play with his Leap Frog Fridge Phonics set (he can even tell you what “M” and “D” say), and wave “bye-bye.”

He has also taken to copying us pretty severely, so we have to start watching what we say and do. In this video, you’ll see him start to bang on the floor when Stef starts reading Barnyard Dance. She had no idea what he was doing until she realized that’s how daddy’s been doing the “stomp your feet” part since we’re usually sitting on the ground. Scary stuff.

When Alex first came home from the hospital, we were greeted with a vary large stuffed dog from Grammy Barb and Papa. Everyone thought it would be funny to lay Alex down next to it just to show how insanely big this thing was. But, it doesn’t seem so big a year later.

It’s hard to imagine, but our little baby just turned a year old. It’s been an absolutely awesome - in the truest sense of the word - year. Watching Alex grow and develop has given us a new perspective on life, love, challenges, and sleep deprivation.

I had always heard people say that almost immediately after your child is born, you feel this unmistakable urge to love and protect them. When Alex was born, he had a hard time keeping his body temperature up. We spent that first night in the natal care unit while they ran tests and drew blood from his tiny veins and it was the most difficult, painful few hours I can remember in my life. Those feelings have only grown over the past year to the point that it is nearly impossible to even remember what life would be like without him.

Everything he does makes us so proud and we feel like shouting his praises from the rooftop at least 90% of the time. It’s funny, we even find ourselves defending him against even the most casual comment about something that makes him seem less than iconic. It’s a bizarre relationship that exists between parents and children and it can only be given justice through the experience of being a part of it.

What is so cool about this whole state of our life is that Alex has developed into a person who makes us laugh, and who has learned the things we have tried to teach him, and who seems to genuinely love us back. Every day when daddy gets home from work, he runs over to the door with his arms up waiting for me to pick him over and smother him with hugs and kisses. And when he’s feeling sad or sick, he wants to just snuggle in mommy’s arms and just lay there, contented to just be close to her. To feel that kind of love - and to know that you are the pinnacle of humanity to another person - is probably the greatest feeling we will ever have.

When you think of all the things in life that typically brought you joy, they really don’t compare to the things that you get to experience now on a regular basis. Like when Alex roars when Max gets to the place where the wild things are. Or when he belly laughs when we pretend he’s kicking us to the gound while he swings. Or when he runs around the house with his blanket crammed in his mouth hoping that you won’t will catch him and tickle his clavicles to the point that he seems like he’s going to explode.

The first year of parenthood has been more than we could have ever asked for, even though it’s been riddled with colds and sleepless nights and horrifically stinky diapers. I think it has given us the perspective to understand why our parents have been by our sides even when we messed up or disappointed them. You never want to believe that your child is anything less than the ideal you hold them to in your hearts, and thankfully, ours never is.

So Alex thinks he can make us disappear with the scrunch of his little face. Little does he know, you actually have to wiggle your nose too.