Barnabas Monkeypants

This is going to be a sappy one today. Just a warning.

One year (and 10 hours) ago, Henry arrived into this world with all the fanfare that would accompany a boy of his impeccable lineage. There were trumpets blaring. They dimmed the lights for 5 seconds in the city of Chicago. The Queen of England took pause.

And he was covered in his own poop.

I cannot believe that today is Henry’s first birthday. It has gone so, so quickly. Too quickly, really. Sometimes I look back at the previous week or month and I worry that I’ve forgotten that he’s done something or that he’s changed so much that he’ll soon become unrecognizable. And today I’m thinking, “It’s been a year! What have I forgotten? What did I miss?”

Sigh.

But this past year has been the best year of my life: hand’s down. (Not to speak for Kristen, but I bet she’d agree.) A day doesn’t go by that I don’t either love being with Henry (and Kristen, naturally) or miss them when I’m not. (Like the past two days as I was stuck in New Jersey for work. Henry/Kristen>Secaucus, New Jersey.)

I love everything about him.

I love playing with him, stacking up blocks and watching as he pushes them over.

I love feeding him and burping him and putting him down for his nap.

I love holding him in my arms, his head resting on my shoulder.

I love sitting down next to him and having him put his hand on my leg.

I love giving him hugs and kisses (and having him hug and kiss me back).

I love picking him up when he’s crying and rocking him and telling him everything’s okay until everything is okay.

I love giving him baths and changing his diaper (something that’s been getting more and more challenging) and dressing him in the morning or for sleep in the evening.

I love giving him new toys and watching him play with them for the first time.

I love going on walks with him and going to the park, where I can push him on the swings and guide him down the sliding board, or to the beach, where I can make sandcastles for him to smash.

I love writing these silly entries in this silly blog.

I love showing him off to friends and strangers alike.

I love taking videos of him doing amazing things and then watching them over and over and over at work (instead of doing… well, work).

I love playing peek-a-boo with him until he laughs himself silly.

I love combing his fine, blond hair (and letting him comb my brown, thinning mop).

I love walking into his bedroom in the morning and seeing him smile at me.

I love his (three and a half) teeth.

I love his ice blue eyes.

I love the way that he feeds himself and how, if he particularly likes something, will put his finger in the food, swirl it around, and then suck on his finger for a while.

I love that he can be entertained merely by the cats’ presence.

I love that he’s made Kristen an even happier person and she and I have an even better marriage because of him.

That’s a lot. Whew.

But what have we learned this past year?

Well, we learned that there’s nothing that we wouldn’t do for Henry (or for each other).

We learned that Henry made us into a family.

We learned that every challenge, every obstacle was worth it.

We learned that babies are very, very expensive.

And we learned that everyone — even the bad people — need a Henry in their lives.

Happy birthday. Tomorrow you’ll have a cake all to yourself.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under What We've Learned. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.