The Franklin Park Zoo

Today I visited the Franklin Park Zoo with my pal Cameron. After reading "Zoo's Who" 127 times, I was finally able to meet my furry animal friends in person. I saw gorilla's, zebra's, snakes, camels, giaraffe's, tigers, lion's, parrot's and kangaroos! Quite the list of first encounters today for the kid.

Taco Flavored Kisses

We have officially graduated to real people food! I can eat whatever my mom and dad eat (except peanut butter and shellfish)- sorry folks, no reeses pieces crab cake for this kid. Tonight, I enjoyed taco meat, green beans, and macaroni. Of course, no one's happier about this milestone than my dog, Piper

And Daddy like's it too

Cameron's Birthday Party

Today was my buddy Cameron's 1st Birthday Party! Check it out!

I was in the ball pit! This is Cameron, the Birthday Boy

My dad loves merch

For those of you who don't know my dad- he has a huge appreciation for music. This in turn, has also made him a big fan of the merchandise table at concerts, or as the kids call it, "the merch table". My awesome sense of style is a direct result of those impulse buys. Behold:

Johnny Cash T-shirt

The Killers

U2

The Raconteurs

Nirvana

The Year of Julian

Dear friends and family,

Finally, the Deech's have a blog! This site will be updated periodically so everyone near and dear to us can read about our family's on-goings. And what better time than now, as our son Julian just turned one.

This year has been filled with so much excitement, change, learning, and love. Our hearts grew bigger, our love stronger, and our sleep, well, it got shorter. Julian graced us with his arrival a bit earlier than we expected, but in the end, it has just meant more time for us to know him. In these 12 months, we've seen it all- but what never ceases to amaze us is how each passing day with him seems to be better than the one before.

From sitting up, to rolling, to laughing to crawling, Julian seems to change so quickly, and has won the heart of everyone he meets.

So to commemorate this amazing year, in honor of this amazing boy, we spent the day at the beach where his daddy spent most of his summer days as a child. Happy Birthday Julian Joseph DiChiara! Thank you for every special moment of this most special year.