This is the 361st post on this blog since Maile was born one year ago. We’ve also posted 133 videos and taken literally thousands of pictures.
According to Google Analytics, there have been 7,550 visitors to this blog over the past year. An average of 20.63 visits per day. 15.85% of people have visited this blog between 100-200 times (you know who you are!)
50 people subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed or get a Maile email every day.
Maile’s videos have been played 5,843 times over on the Vimeo web site and have been displayed on this blog 42,000 times. According to Vimeo, the top 5 Maile videos for the year were:
5. Wink, Wink
4. Sometimes I crack myself up… (probably since the Grandparents have watched it hundred of times)
1. Maile Yoda
(Our top and only “liker” on Vimeo is Alex B. with 38 likes. Thank you, Alex, for your support…)
All these stats are just a dorky way of saying that Christine, Maile and I have been amazed by everyone that has enjoyed following along with Maile and our adventures. We originally started this blog as a way to keep family that lived far away in touch with Maile’s life. I think its safe to say its become a bit more than that over the year. As the primary writer, I can say that I really enjoy putting it together – its a nice way to review and reflect on the various adventures and experiences that raising a child is all about.
I’ve also started to realize (especially going back and culling the “best of” series last week) that this is becoming an amazing document for Maile herself when she’s a bit older. Regardless of whether families blog or not, the proliferation of digital photos and video mean that Maile’s generation is going to have amazing access to what their lives were like before their real memories kick in. I think there are maybe ~20 pictures of me that my parents still have from age 0-1. Maile will have > 5,000. And while more doesn’t always equate to better, I think its safe to say there is a fundamental change going on here in terms of how people will be able to remember their childhoods. I’m not ready to say what that change is yet, but its something I’m immensely interested in and will continue to explore with this blog.
And that brings me to the last part of this recap. My original goal was to make it through the first year documenting Maile’s life. I think we can say that mission has been accomplished. As I said above, I enjoy doing this – and it seems like others enjoy following along too … so my plan is to continue. For the time being, I’ll keep it on the same schedule (new posts Monday thru Friday) and we’ll revise as needed if Maile isn’t producing enough “good material” — needless to say, that hasn’t been a problem so far!
So for those of you who enjoy your daily dose of Maile – THANK YOU from our family for sharing this amazing year with us!
Much love,
Matt, Chris and Maile Girl
7/11/2010
