Note: I started writing this back at the end of 2025, and never finished it. Being it’s February now, it feels weird to be finishing it and sending it out, but it does need to be done! At least to have the draft stop staring at me.

And here we are once again, staring down a new year, looking back at the one that is on its way out. It has been quite a year, on a personal level. Watching our little guy grow so much so fast has been a whirlwind. It’s amazing to look back and see just how far he’s come!

Probably the biggest thing for our parenting life was that our guy started in daycare! It’s an early education/preschool program at one of the local schools, and I’d say he’s taken to it better than I could have dreamed! The teachers send us updates and pictures of the kids throughout the day, and there are only a few kids in the class, so he gets plenty of attention and support when he needs it. The first few days were weird in the house. It was so… quiet. Neither the cats nor I knew what to do.

Another first, over two years in, he finally had his first haircut. We brought him to Cookie Cutters up north of the city, and he was a brave little fellow. It helped that they put him in a sweet car as a seat, and put some Ms. Rachel on during the process. It was sad to see his emo swoop go, but he’s much happier without his hair in his eyes all the time.

In addition, how quickly he’s learning words and to form thoughts has been amazing. He’s counting to twenty on his own, and learning to ask for what he wants by name. Of course, this often consists of asking for specific episodes of Daniel Tiger (“gran-p!” for “Going to See Grandpere” is a favorite) but it’s still impressive.

We did a little traveling through the year. We went up to New York to see Oasis, and he had a great time exploring the parks of Manhattan. Battery Park in particular was a highlight. Of course, the annual visit to Provincetown was a good time; our man likes some seafood! And getting to play on the beach, though the jury is still out on the chilly waters of the Atlantic up in New England.

We also went up to New England, celebrating his second birthday with my family, getting to check out some farms up around Amherst, have a little visit with the Hern-Lacey family, and check out the Eric Carle Museum. While it may not have had a ton geared toward a two year old, he could have played with the gigantic Very Hungry Caterpillar all day. Followed that up with a couple of days in Mystic, CT, where he got to explore the famed aquarium and of course, enjoy ice cream. We decided he was a little young to appreciate the Seaport, but one day!

Outside of the young man, I started the year coming back from the Achilles injury that I developed after overdoing it for Summer GRIT. I worked once again with Emily down at FX Physical Therapy, and jumped right into racing with the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in DC. Genius, right? That said, I’m feeling pretty good, having done a few other races throughout the year—including the Western Mass 10 Miler up in Amherst—and am currently undertaking marathon training, in the hopes of getting a bib for the LA Marathon in March.

We saw some pretty excellent shows. Jimmy Eat World played a free show for the Army-Navy Game weekend down at the harbor and I was stoked to check that out; they played a very Futures-heavy set and I was here for it. As mentioned, Oasis was pretty excellent. After many years of being a fan I finally got to see Sparks live. Our friend Christine came to town and we all went down to DC to see Rilo Kiley on their reunion tour. Murder By Death came through on their farewell tour, and played a fantastic career-spanning set. I finally got to catch One Step Closer after obsessively listening to All You Embrace.

Perhaps the most notable show we saw was Turnstile putting on their free show in Wyman Park that drew 10,000 people from all over and raised a ton of money for Health Care for the Homeless. Our little guy particularly liked that one. I got messages from friends all over who hadn’t been at the show, but saw him bouncing along on my shoulders on Instagram and TikTok. The lad has Baltimore hardcore in his blood, what can I say?

Really, we’ve tried to find joy wherever we could throughout the year. And will continue to do so throughout 2026. There are some things to look forward to, vacations and events and all sorts of things. Here’s to friends and family, and health and good cheer.