bye-bye 28! what a year it’s been!

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What. A. YEAR!! As I turned 29  I started to think about what a crazy freakin’ year it’s been. For instance, I realized that I have never in my life thrown up in a 12-month period (thanks in most part to a crazy labor).

But I seriously can’t believe how fast this past year went.

I spent that week after my 28th birthday in full-on nesting mode! I was patiently waiting for him to arrive for 11 days (which was 7 days past my due date!). Ari made his arrival in full dramatic fashion. And as happy as we were, those next few months were R-O-U-G-H.

Ari was extremely colicky for so long. Like, until I went back to work. But before that, we had our first Thanksgiving as a family, and our first Christmas. We drove to Kentucky to spend Christmas with my parents. It was mostly uneventful, but it was the first time that Ari slept at night. Seriously. Prior to Christmas, he was awake ALL night EVERY night. No joke. So I guess it was kind of a big moment for us. Ha. But the presents/Christmas thing?? Not as fun as it will be this year, I’m sure.

In January I — gladly — went back to work. Colicky baby + funds running low = extreme excitement to return to work. Once I was back at work, our family of three really fell into a comfortable routine. And shortly thereafter, Chad & I had our first real night out at Red & White on Thursday Night.

And we started making getting out of the house a regular thing. Plus we realized that getting out of the house with Ari was increasingly easier. So we went to the Ohio Blogging Association February wine & chocolate pairing event, Babycakes in tow!

Life since that has pretty much been a blur. A blur of fun events; a blur of changes with Ari; a blur of ‘firsts.’ Some items of note are:

• our first family trip to the Akron Zoo.

• Ari taking his first steps at 9.5 months (I realize I’ve been quiet with the monthly updates for a while; so — surprise!! — Babycakeshas been full-on walking for a couple of months now.
• I started my post-pregnancy weight-loss journey and came to terms with the fact that losing weight and staying in shape post-baby is much different than it was pre-baby.
• We had our first family pictures taken, thanks to our incredible wedding photographer! She visited Ohio from Portland, Maine so we had to have her take some pictures of us. We lover her so much!

• We went on our first family-of-three vacation to North Carolina for a week. It was both relaxing and fun and everything we needed.
• Ari learned to swim, thanks to the 12 weeks of swim lessons!

• I did lots of  yoga, fell back in love with running, and decided to start painting.

• I ran a lot of 5ks. And then I ran the Akron Marathon relay!

• We went to three Indians games; Ari came with of us to two of them!

• I went to the #BelieveInCLE yoga + music event at the Rock Hall.

I know it’s super cliche to say how fast time is flying, but I don’t care. It’s true. The older I get the faster time seems to go. I plan on filling my 29th year with as much fulfillment as possible.