Bon Vivant

(We are nearing the time that I retire the Dad Writes blog. The comments I have received from readers known and unknown have added to the pleasure I have taken in writing about my precious daughter, and I want to thank everyone who has visited the site. My goal was to chronicle baby's first year of life with 365 entries, a mark I hit a few days ago. So, I will produce a few more and then redirect my paternal pride and love to other tasks. Thanks again.)

When baby gets excited enough, she puffs out her chest and chases it in a broad circle, prancing and smiling for all to see. Tonight, the arrival of her father home with dinner was enough to justify the joyous dance. So, too, over the course of the day was hearing a song on the stereo that she liked and being extricated from her high chair when she had had all the fun in it she could have. The food she loved the best today was the day's second breakfast, french toast. But that was only until she was introduced to celery sticks with peanut butter, at which point she realized that she had never really lived before, mesmerized as she was by the new tastes, smells, and consistencies. She is a bon vivant.