Wow, Melody is one year old. What a wild year it has been! 

Melody is healthy and amazing! She is inquisitive and funny. She loves studying faces and watching others. She has an adorable sneaky smile when she finds something funny. She is learning and growing so fast! She recently became a great crawler and is on the move and very quick. She's not saying any coherent words yet, but a lot of babbling is happening!

Health-wise Melody is doing great! We have only had our regular well-child visits since her last cardiology checkup in September. Next year we'll see her cardiologist again for a full check up and echocardiogram, but for now it's not even scheduled yet. Probably some time in the spring. The only thing we need to do now is let her grow and have fun! The next surgery will be sometime in between age 3 and 5, but it all depends on how she's doing and how things go.

Sam is still loving being a stay-at-home dad! They play together all day, read books, and practice eating solid foods. Melody is getting better quickly at eating solids - she likes cheese, broccoli, bananas, raspberries, eggs, toast, potatoes, puffs and yogurt melts. She wasn't that enthused with strawberries, peas, or carrots yet. 

Sam and I have been reflecting a lot on the past year lately. When we first learned of Melody's diagnosis we kept hearing if the baby can make it to age 1 and be healthy through that then outcomes look really good. So here we are! Melody has never been sick yet, not even a cold. We've been really careful. And I appreciate our family understanding when we'd cancel plans if we heard someone was not feeling well, or when we'd limit visitors to smaller groups. Melody has never been in a store or restaurant yet. I'm excited for that day, but we're still waiting on COVID to calm down before we do much of that. For now we're doing outings just to see family members in small settings.

The other reflecting we've been doing a lot lately is just remembering where we were on this day one year ago. It's intense remembering because we recall the anxiety, fear, sadness, and stress so clearly, but then we look to how happy and healthy Melody is currently. So, it's a lot to process. We're extremely grateful for the wonderful medical care both I and Melody had, the support of our family and friends, and for each other and that our marriage has stood the test of a very difficult year. Here's hoping for an easier year to come!

Happy holidays to everyone! And Happy Birthday to Melody!