Today, my baby is one. It's so hard to believe that twelve months ago, we didn't know this amazing little guy yet, that he wasn't yet part of our family, that we didn't yet have to ask for a bigger table at the sports bar on the corner. He's added so much to the Small World, I can't imagine that we didn't always know he was meant to be here.
Birthday letters (okay, 2011 letters, since O's is so overdue) coming up here soon for all three small Smalls, I promise.
For a third child, L. has been pretty lucky in the photo taking department. I've made a pretty concerted effort to keep my camera around and capture most of his major first year events. There are not quite as many of him without his brother and sister in the frame, but that's okay. That's what life is like for him.
Something I've particularly tried to do this past year is to take a picture on or around the 20th of the month, so that I have a photo record of him as he turned each month old. I wasn't quite with it enough to do something so cute as to take his picture next to a big stuffed animal for scale, say. And these photos are not probably the ones that I would choose as completely representative of that month in his life. But, I like them anyway. So here we are, a year in the life -- the first year in the life -- of Mr. L.
Birth Day! Looking at Daddy for the first time.
October. Scared.
November. Sweet boy.
December. Something to say, but not quite ready to say it.

January. Charmer.

February. Flirt.
March. Crawling.
April. Where's your clothes?
May. Beautiful.
June. Suddenly a little man.

July. Clown.

August. Seriously, the cutest.

Happy Birthday, you amazing kid.