It’s that time of year again – time for a little jaunt down memory lane. It’s a long and winding road, so I’ll just fill you in on the best parts:

Highlight #1: Bringing Bennett home from the hospital. To be honest, the week of February 4, 2013 is pretty hazy for me, but I do remember (A.) backing my car into a column in the parking deck and (B.) buckling Bennett into his car carrier for the first time, putting the car in drive and thinking to myself, “I just backed into a cement column. Am I qualified to drive a baby around in Atlanta traffic?”

Highlight #2: Hearing Bennett laugh for the first time. Newborns sleep a lot and pretty much keep to themselves. This makes the first signs of humanness especially endearing. Chief among these, for me, was the first time I heard Bennett laugh. I know how Geppetto must have felt in the last scene of Pinocchio, because this was the day Bennett became a real little boy to me.

Highlight #3: Buying Bennett his first pair of shoes. Given my own fondness for shoes, it warmed my heart to see Bennett take such interest in his first pair of shoes. He doesn’t seem to mind wearing them a bit.

Highlight #4: Mastering the art of “infant whispering.” I’m not entirely sure how we figured this out – believe me, there was no science involved – but one of the best ways to soothe a fussy Bennett is to sing “We Are the World.” Some of my favorite memories of the past years have been singing duets with my wife.

Highlight #5: Each and every time Bennett goes for a book before a toy. There is nothing I like more than watching my 10-month-old son “read” a book upside-down. This happens more often that you might expect. I’d like to think that this was yet another instance of me showing through Bennett, but the timing doesn’t work out. Bennett’s fondness for books really didn’t manifest until after he started at Primrose.