Happy birthday, blog.
Three years old already! Seems like just yesterday I brought you home from the hospital created that first hesitant post. Just look at you then! So tiny. And look! I referred to Life Before Baby because Dacey really was still a baby then - not quite a year old. Awwwwwww! Precious!
It's hard to remember now because it's been so long ago, but when you were born, I only had a very basic Blogger template to wrap you up in. Oh, I was such a proud new blogger. I didn't even know about all the fun ways to fancy you up back then.
And then, as is often the case for mamas mothering toddlers of the flesh-and-blood variety, my devotion to you fell by the wayside for months at a time. But around the time you turned six months old, I knew it was time to encourage your development and so we started a beautiful time of getting to know one another. We talked about all kinds of things, didn't we? Oh hey! Remember the time I tortured all five readers with my never-ending cloth diaper series? Oh, those were the days. You were so young. We had never heard of blog stats and traffic analytics. We just said whatever came to mind, never knowing or caring (too much) who was reading.
This is so embarrassing to admit, but I didn't even celebrate your first birthday. Not at all! In my defense, I was entirely distracted and consumed by the announcement we made one year and five days after you were born. My pregnancy with and the birth of Aliza Joy that year provided tons of blog fodder in your second year of life. We had quite a busy second year full of growth and change. Nothing like a blog in toddlerhood to keep a mama on her toes!
In the middle of that 2007, we finally got a makeover- the very look that old SortaCru(n)chy still sports today.
Later that year I would post what I sorta consider to be the most important entry here - our delayed vaccination schedule. I have no way of knowing how, but that post has made it in to the top ten Google results for search terms like "delaying vaccinations" and "Dr. Sears vaccination schedule." In a way that I never could have known at the time I shared it, this post has actually had an important and powerful impact on the lives of many parents, and that is deeply humbling for me.
Last year, I really did acknowledge your second birthday - see? We had lots of fun growing together in the first part of the year. Oh wow - remember Seven Rooms in Seven Days? Yeah, the SortaCrunchy Cottage could use a bit of that again, couldn't it? We made the much anticipated move to Typepad and we have both been oh-so-very happy here. Three of all my all-time favorite offerings came out of last spring, on topics as varied as toilets, sandboxes, and pancakes. Oh, your growth during this time brought me such joy!
Yet I feel I have to admit to a darker side of bloggy motherhood, for it was also during your second and third year that I came down with a severe case of blog envy. It seemed everywhere I turned in blogland, everyone else's blogs were so much more cute, more clever, more commented-on, more chosen for product reviews and all kinds of free stuff, more of everything that I thought I wanted but didn't know how to get for us. I felt we just didn't measure up. And then I discovered sitemeter and Feedburner which led to even more blogging dissatisfaction. Oh, little blog, I'm so sorry for the way my unhappiness with you then. I was such a young blogger, and I just had so much to learn. Will you forgive me?
If it helps you at all to understand your ol' blogging mama, go read The Life Cycle of a Blog at Naval Gazing at its Finest. I want you to know your blog mommy has finally moved through all the stages of that cycle, and I can say that I no longer let fluctuations in subscriber numbers or dips in page views cast a sad shadow on my day. I do believe we together have finally achieved blog zen. The blog envy is all behind me now, and I choose instead to relish and appreciate with gratefulness all the goodness that has come to my life because of you.
In the course of the past three years, the amazing, generous, thoughtful people who have chosen to hang around here with us have ministered to me in so many ways. Why anyone still comes by here, what with all the blog breaks (announced and unannounced) and randomness and soapboxing . . . well, it's all just too wonderful to say. I've met so many amazing and fascinating friends because of you, far too many to name lest I leave out a single one.
Together we have some wonderful things to share in the coming weeks and months . . . an announcement to make and a slight shift in content and direction and many conversations await us in this, our fourth (!) year.
Again, little blog, happy third birthday. Thanks for indulging a look back with me. It's been wonderful to watch you grow! Many happy returns.
Much love,
bloggy mommy Megan
photo courtesy alibree
