Twenty-three!

Does 23 feel different from 22? Not so much. But a co-worker at the bakery asked me nonchalantly what I had learned in my 22nd year and even though he was half-kidding, it made me think. So much has happened in the past year: I graduated college, I moved to NYC, I moved in with Alix, we got a dog, I got two jobs, we moved apartments, we got engaged...I think that's about it. But as for things I've learned? Much harder to pin down. If I had to pick three things:

1. I learned how to let things go. There are people and situations that you will never be able to change and your energy is much better spent changing yourself and your own situation than worrying about someone else's mistakes.

2. I learned that no matter what Alix and I face, we face it together. After an incredibly scary and difficult summer, we came through it together and only grew stronger and closer in the process.

3. I learned that dog parks have weird hierarchical structures, that couches come apart to fit through small doorways, that an old milk jug makes an awesome vase, that there will never be too many cookbooks, that it's possible to love a child who's not yours so much you'd dive in front of a bus for them, and that gratitude is never overrated.








Birthday pictures? Here ya go!















New oven mitts!





















New food processor!

















New Kindle! (Best used with oven mitts on, for protection)

Hint: I also got a new camera. Hence all the pictures. Especially the two up top of our two favorite boys.