Did twelve months just pass? We're not sure. It sort of feels like a boxing match in which the underdog fighter gets knocked down (not out) a couple of times in the early rounds, but manages to struggle and scrap and somehow come out on top in the end.
We've said to each other that the last year has brought some of the fastest months and some of the slowest months of our lives. We think back to watching the Olympics at 4:00am last summer and those times feel like they crawled by. Then we think about how Easter, Mother's Day, and Father's Day all seemed to occur within one week. Kenzie crawled and held her own bottle for the first time in the same day - that was dizzying. She woke up at 6am every morning for several weeks as a few of her teeth came in - those days felt like they'd never end.
But after all of it, we have to say that our lives have been enriched in ways that we never could have imagined before becoming parents. To look at your one year old stumbling through the backyard with a ball in her left hand and a shoe in her right and then rewind 11 months and remember that same precious creature with eyes barely open, limbs curled, struggling just to bring a hand to her face, is an experience that can't be properly described. To watch one's wife, best friend, and college sweetheart become a nurturing mother and patient teacher is a proud and eye-opening experience of a completely different kind. It is freeing to feel one's own selfishness and self-interest fade away as the concept of a child as an obligation and a responsibility gives way to the reality that that child is a privilege and a gift.
What's most shocking is that Kenzie is the vessel that has brought us all of these experiences. When you think about it, she can't talk, she can't play music, she can't send text messages, she doesn't have WiFi, she can't bathe herself or make her own meals. But she can smile, she can squeal, she can hide behind a chair, she can giggle, she can give us kisses, she can put her fingers in our mouths, noses, and eyes while we rock her to sleep.
Those are the things that have made one little twelve-month period the most significant and rewarding of our 30 years on earth.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Kenzie's First Vacation
The Mirabals ("Noni" and "Popi") took the family on vacation to Perdido Key, Florida during the 4th of July week. This was Kenzie's first family vacation, and she had a blast! Although we think she's definitely a freshwater fish, preferring the pool to the ocean, she had a great time playing in the sand (and eating some along the way.)
10 Months Old - 2 Months Too Late!
Okay, so we're catching up on some old pictures, but we wanted to have pictures to show for every month of Kenzie's first year.
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