1 to Grow On

Colin --

Today, you're officially one year old.

The end of babyhood. On to toddler town. This will be followed by a stopover in youngster village, and the next thing I know you'll be borrowing the keys to my car for a ride to some teenage wasteland. After crashing the car, you'll need a loan for your first place in some adult city, some twenty years away from your old folks, who still remember you as their baby.

All silly geographic metaphors aside, it's all going pretty fast.

A year ago, your mother and I had never held a baby for more than 3 minutes in a row. Now, we can't wait to hold you in our arms every morning when you wake up.

A year ago, we had never changed a diaper on anything but a doll in childcare class. We were so nervous that we wouldn't know how to take care of you. Since then, we've both found ourselves up to our ears in bodily excretions too numerous and yucky to name.

A year ago, we never dreamed we could recite Goodnight Moon verbatim without looking, because we'd already read it to you several hundred times. ("In the great green room / there was a telephone / and a red balloon...")

Several months ago, we never thought you'd crawl and we'd be forced to carry you until you got married. Now, we'd love it if you'd only stay in one place where we can watch you before you fall and gash your head against something Daddy hasn't yet baby-proofed.

A year ago, we brought you home from the hospital, proud as punch but scared to death for what the future might bring. The immediate fear has subsided, because you have taught us how to become your parents. Nothing we could have read in a book could prepare us for the joy we feel every day you're in our lives.

Even though today only marks one year, it ends one of the most challenging and exciting years of our lives. It's wonderful to look back and remember all that has happened so far -- how you looked so tiny, how we felt when you first smiled, how we silently high-fived when you slept through the night, how we jumped and cheered when you first turned over, how we cried with joy at your first "da's" and "ma's" -- but we know it is only the beginning of your story.

So, what comes next? I'm sure you've got some surprises up your sleeve (and perhaps tucked inside your diaper) that we haven't even begun to realize. We look forward to all the new challenges that we'll encounter together.

We never realized how cool it is to be someone's parents until we had you. That is, until we become really uncool...if it hasn't already happened. So, perhaps some people think I'm nuts when I'm making faces at you in public. Like they didn't already. And besides, what's that saying about me being rubber and them being glue? Bring it on, glue-face!

(See what I mean? Totally uncool.)

Well, we hope you have a happy 1st birthday. You may not remember it by the time you can read this, but we hope that someday you can look through the words here and understand just what you mean to us and your entire family.

Stick with us, kiddo. There's plenty of good stuff to come just around the corner. Just do us a favor, and don't split your head open on the corner trying to get there.

Now, who wants some cake?

Love, Ma-ma and Da-da.