One year later

This week marks our one year move-iversary.

Unbelieveable.

In this short year we sure have lived a lot of life.

Addison is almost unrecognizable now compared to then. Since we left Chicago she has gotten almost all of her teeth.

She has learned to crawl, walk, and now run. She has learned the meaning of hundreds of words, and has even claimed a few as her own.

She has grown like a weed. The clothes she wore this time last year would be hysterical on her now. She outgrows pants on a daily basis.

She has developed an endless imagination and can play for hours on end with her dolls, blocks, trucks, and puzzles. She loves to draw and thinks crayons and finger paints are the coolest.

She has gone from eating pureed mangoes and sweet potatoes to slurping down milkshakes and chomping on shrimp.

She is no longer just a blobby baby... she has all sorts of emotions and ideas. She can be painfully shy or the ring master. She can be patient and giving or irrational and territorial. She can be all rainbows and bluebirds or can give a tornado a run for its money. She is total little person.

She can sit quietly and watch Elmo's World so that mommy can hang out on the computer.

Andy and I have slowly turned our house into a home. At long last, there are pictures on the walls, a pool table in the basement and a seasonal wreath on the front door. We are making landscaping plans and talking to exterminators and picking up paint swatches everytime we are at Home Depot. Neighbor's wave from their cars as they drive by and notice if we are out of town.

At times I look back and cannot fathom that over 365 days have passed.

We have lost loved ones, faced family health crisises, and welcomed new babies into our circle of friends. All of this from our new home. Our new life. And while there are days that I miss Chicago so much it is palpable, I never have once wonder if we made a mistake by moving here.

This is where we will celebrate a thousand new experiences. We will watch Andy's baby sister leave for college. We will put Addison on the bus for kindergarten. We will fight over wall colors and plant choices. We will host birthday parties and Christmas mornings and family game nights. We will have friends come down to cheer on the Cubbies and we will plan family vacations to warm destinations. We will live our lives.

Here.

Not there.

And it will be wonderful, and mundane, and hard, and exciting.

It is home.

And I like the idea of that.