Another Year To Remember

These past few years have been big years for us.  2011 found us engaged, then married four months later.  I moved from NJ to PA and quit working to become a housewife.  In 2012, we bought a house, moved again, and only a couple of weeks later, we became pregnant.

This was the year that we'll always remember as the one in which we became parents.  It almost seems that life before Caleb was another life entirely.  I am a mother through and through.  He is always on my mind.  (Today, for example, we went to Walmart.  I had a return to make that we had left in the car, so after we finished shopping, I left Caleb in the car with Brian while I ran back inside. It bothered me to no end that the line was moving so slowly, because I didn't like being away from Caleb.  I just felt like something was wrong.  After my transaction, I pretty much ran to the car, where I found Caleb crying.  Yes, Brian was there.  Yes, Brian was trying to comfort him.  Caleb was having none of it.  It took lots of talking in my high-pitched voice, distracting him with toys, burp cloths, and blankets, and more driving to get him to calm down.)

Leaving the house was once easy.  Now?  I need to get Caleb fed, change his diaper, put on his shoes, coat, gloves, and hat.  I have to grab his diaper bag and perhaps a blanket.  I have to get on my own coat and shoes and grab my purse.  Then I have to walk out with my purse and diaper bag on the same shoulder, all while carrying Caleb going down two flights of stairs.  (And if there is snow and ice... yikes.)  I'm usually exhausted by the time I make it to the car.

Somewhere during the course of this year, Courtney faded into the background and Caleb became front and center.  It became the year where I had to put my own needs on the back burner because my baby's needs come first.  Is it hard?  Yes and no.  Sometimes I miss the ease of life before (not to be confused with life without Caleb), but at the same time, a mother can't do anything BUT put her baby's needs first.  A mother would give her arm, her leg, her kidney, whatever, if it meant ensuring her baby was healthy and safe.  

For Caleb, it was seven months of discovering life.  Grabbing objects.  Cutting two teeth.  Learning to roll over.  Laughing along with Mommy and Daddy.  Learning what LOVE is.  Knowing he is loved.

There's less than four hours left to this year.  Perhaps next year will be less eventful than these past three have been.  We've no great plans for 2014.  No major life events are on the agenda.  But we still look forward to a great year of firsts.  Learning to crawl.  Taking first steps.  Saying first words. Trying new foods.  Turning one year old.

It was a good year.  It was the year God gave us Caleb, and we look forward to many more years with him.