Turned on the news this morning to hear about the Georgian crisis and all the world's leaders in heated negotiations over Russian borders and withdrawals, but they were nothing compared to the negotiations in my downstairs kitchen to get my two-year-old to eat her pancakes. Through some sly parental diplomacy, including abject dismissal of all distractions brought to the little melamine kid's table, we ate to live another day.

Today, little Grace Weaver turns one! So a big congratulations to her. Also, the Little Ditchman turns 29 months (though it's something of a non-event.) Also significant is that TMST turns one year old today. I was going to herald it with a big wowtastic video and new page design but acchhh... there are other things to do, bills to pay, priorities, etc. Also, I'm not feeling so well and I'm hopped up on meds and I've got a full day's work ahead of me and the family didn't go to Jazzercise so they're here in the office crafting distraction.

So here's a TMST flashback, from a year ago, writing about the new baby Weaver. It all still applies.

Before I got married weddings were just free booze-fest excuses to wear a tie, and a good place to pick up chicks. Now, of course, I recognize them for the momentous, nay, significant occasion that they are. I remember now the difference between the unmarried and the married at my wedding. It was a solemn, content nod that, yes, this New World was a green and fertile one, with a harvest unlike any you've ever seen. And the unmarried? They scamper around like sex-crazed weasels at sun-up. I doubt I'll ever skip out on another wedding the rest of my life. There are some grand days to be had in life -and they are not to be missed.

The births of children are the same. You just can't grasp the overwhelming joy that's felt with the arrival of a newborn unless it's yours. That's why we drove a hundred miles after a day working in the August heat to see this little one. Pure, unblemished joy! When our little Ditchman came into the world, it was quite nearly the happiest day of my life, rivaling only the wedding day. These are the things you want to see, over and over again. You want to see if you weren't so blasted nuts for being so giddy when she came into the world. "I'm not crazy, right? This is a miracle, right?" It is a miracle.

When you get married, you resign yourself to the fact that you will never fall in love again. When you have a child, you realize how wrong you were, and you realize it every single day, and you get down on your knees and thank the Good Lord that you were wrong all along.

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