Chicago Public Radio – July 28
My 16th photo to be selected for the Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ) web page appeared today:
This is of a new building, called "Aqua," being constructed near where the Chicago River and Lake Michigan meet.
Nathan at Two
Nate turned two years old on June 30th. Two years since he changed our lives forever. Two years of growth for him and two years of excitement and fear for me.
He is an amazing child, of course, being the son of 
helloheather. He knows nearly every letter of the alphabet and only occasionally mixes one letter for another. He's been able to count to ten for a while now and he can count to twenty with some prompting. There's no way for me to catalog the number of words he can say...he picks them up with the same ease he picks up sticks in our yard. The other morning (while on vacation actually) I showed him a picture of an avocado and told him the word once. That night he pointed to it and said "abbecaado." I was stunned.
He's patient and polite and he wants to be everyones friend. It crushes me when he greets a slightly older child (3, 4 years) with enthusiasm and a big smile on his face and receives nothing but a disinterested look in return (if he gets a look at all). I want to say to the other child's parents: "what's wrong with you that you can't teach your kid some manners?" Not once has the parent of the other child asked them to return the basic kindness. I worry that Nate will soon pick up on this and be discouraged.
Nathan rarely walks: he runs and runs with gusto. He explores and explores again. "Leave no stone unturned" is a mantra that he keeps close to his heart. He greets me every night with babbles of joy and tales of his day. I wish I knew what he was saying but then I think how wonderful it is to have that little bit of mystery.
I could go on and on about him...he is such a source of both happiness and stress in my life. He daily pushes me into new experiences and new struggles. My heart is torn by thoughts of him growing up and shocked by how much growing-up has already happened. I look back at photos of him from a year ago and struggle to remember how things were before. His second year has been a whirlwind of development in every way possible.
I've uploaded a selection of photos from the past year of Nate. They are sorted in reverse chronological order. Some of the photographs have context and others do not. The album can be seen here:
http://www.bernhard.us/photos/nathan-age1
Perhaps a better way to view these images would be to view the gallery in slide show mode:
http://www.bernhard.us/photos/slideshow.php?set_albumName=nathan-age1