What A Year!

It has certainly been a whirlwind last few months, and a fantastic year in all.

Looking back when Ethan was born, at Duke hospital that early morning (2am) on September 21st, 2006, that joyous moment is as clear to me still now, yet a full year has now elapsed. This year has brought so many moments of joy, trepidation, anxiety, uncertainty, trust in God, wonderment, and absolutely everything else in between.

With Ethan's birthday party now come and gone, and a dinner celebration a Longhorns for dad and my birthday also past, things have returned to the more peaceful surroundings of mountain living.

Mom is still with us for a few more weeks which is nice. We've been playing Scrabble almost nightly, with a collective score of 782 set a few days ago with Kelly, mom, dad and me. We're still trying to reach that 800 point plateau (The 800 Club), but it's just fun trying :-D Just last night, I placed the word "service" on a triple word score, and with 50 bonus points for a 7-letter word, it totalled 94 points!

But I digress, and what I really wanted to share with this entry is my gratitude and love for everyone who has helped us along the way. How small Ethan was! It still does not cease to amaze me just how tiny of a human being he was, and how much care and nurturing was needed for him to put on those crucial pounds.

On his birthday, Friday September 21st, 2007, we took Ethan in to Kelly's practice to get weighed. His official 1-year well-child visit is not for another week or so, and so we decided to just weigh him ourselves on an accurate scale (not our home scale). Ethan weighed in at 19 lbs and 6oz, placing him roughly on the 10th percentile for boy for weight in the U.S. He had previously been consistently around the 5th percentile for weight, and his renewed interest in eating the past few weeks (he's been eating a ton!) has really packed things in and it shows on the growth chart. Indeed, still "small", but considering he was as low as 4 lbs 9 oz a few days after birth, quadrupling his birth weight is not exactly shabby to say the least. Congrats, Noomz!

And so we had a ton of friends, family, neighbors around, and we even have a family pet - Sparky the black cat. I have uploaded several pictures of the last month or so, including pictures of our time at Tennessee Baha'i School, Ethan's birthday, Sparky, etc... So many photos were taken with my mom's camera that I still need to download, and these include more pictures with family, boating on the lake (Blue Ridge), canoeing with Vipul and Jessica, dinner at Longhorns, and that's all I can remember for now.

You can follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/maxwell.eblaghie/EthanS1stBirthdayPartyTBSMore. Or, click on the side panel under "My Picasa" for photos.

So from our family -- Ethan, Kelly and I -- we say THANK YOU to everyone for making this past year so incredably memorable.

Things we look forward to in the coming year:

Ethan chewing more solid foods, walking, talking; Max going back to work; Kelly establishing her practice; And somehow managing to do it all well enough to have time to visit family and friends.

Love to everyone!