Happy Anniversary Monster Dad

Wow! I knew that I had started this little blog last June, but just now realized that it was exactly a year ago today that I posted my very first entry (Who Is Monster Dad?). A lot has changed since that first blog, and a lot remains the same...

The past year has simply flown by. When I start thinking about the passage of time and how quickly it all speeds by I'm reminded about all my past battles with Time (as chronicled in Monster Dad vs. Time). The biggest event of the past twelve months was a sad one: the passing of my father. I knew last June that the day would someday come, but I didn't know when and wished it could keep being put off. It was a very difficult time when he left us in April, but I tried to take some comfort in the fact that the cancer that robbed him of his life did give our family a year-and-a-half with him before taking him away, and also from the strange dream I had two nights before he died--see Dreaming Of A Better Life (Or Should I Say Death?).

My two Little Monsters were one of the main reasons for starting this blog, and that remains true. I am still a stay-at-home Dad doing my best to raise them as best he can. The big difference with them is that they both had birthdays this year (obviously). The Little Monster is now five and a half years old and has "graduated" from preschool. She starts Kindergarten in the fall--and a whole new series of adventures will ensue I'm sure. The Littlest Monster is now two years old and is no longer a "baby". I still call her my Baby (actually I still call both of them my Babies), but she's now starting to show signs of growing up--to many signs of growing up (Time strikes again!).

The past year has seen Monster Dad traveling to Pennsylvania for the fourth annual Drive-In Super Monster-Rama (an event I still haven't gotten around to writing about, but will very soon). The Little Monster has watched a number of new (to her) monster movies in the past year, as well as continuing to develop her own personality (which I don't want to stifle by forcing my Monster Dad ways upon her). She has been introduced to Abbott & Costello movies too. And I'm very glad to say that she likes them--especially "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"! Speaking of Frankenstein, she also saw "Young Frankenstein" for the first time last October, and it became a repeated-viewing hit. These movies were both part of Monster Dad's October Movie Challenge last year (chronicled in An Absolutely Horrible Month). It was a fun project that I hope to repeat this year.

As the second year of Monster Dad starts I am thinking about how this blog has evolved. I hope that it is still pretty consistent with what I originally intended it to be. I've "Branched out" a bit by doing some more generalized and less personal stuff, but have tried to keep it in the true overall spirit of Monster Dad. The biggest development in the blog itself was when I just "discovered" that you can check out the stats for your blog about a month ago or so. Suddenly I went from being totally ignorant of such information to being practically obsessed with it (trying to give the blog better exposure and find ways to promote it better to increase the all-important page views). Despite my efforts the blog is still quite obscure--over the past twelve months I've only managed to collect a total of nine followers! Thank you very much to those of you who have taken the plunge and decided to "follow" Monster Dad's exploits. Hopefully this second year will prove to be a good--and readable--one for Monster Dad and his family (and anyone else who might happen to stumble onto this page)...