Baby Boo has first birthday, with congratulations all around

Dear Jessica,
A Happy Birthday to Baby Boo, to your Baby Boo, to our Baby Boo.
And a very happy birthday to you too, or to you two, you and Tom. Congratulations are in order. This is also your day to celebrate, perhaps with even more justification than for Baby Boo who despite her precociousness, her way-ahead-maturity-compared-to-other-babies-her-age, will not catch on that this is a special day for her. She will not know what all the fuss is about if she even notices the fuss.
You on the other hand know all about the fuss — -Oh boy do you! — — from the beginning, day one, through Baby Boo’s first year of life and even before, if the nine months of pregnancy is to be counted as I believe they should be. Pregnancy too is a period of fuss and bother, a time of discomfort and inconvenience and, of course, joy.
So Happy Baby Boo’s Birthday to you on having made it through the first 21 life-changing months, she developing, growing and maturing in and ex utero, and your lives very much changing too coping with it all, the many, varied and unexpected challenges, the worrisome crises, the wakeful nights then the wakeful days following the wakeful nights, constantly working, overtime and on weekends, no let up, figuring out what Baby Boo wants and needs and then thinking about what to do about it, putting together the puzzle that is Baby Boo.
I wish I could pose as some kind of authority, a knowing and wise person in this baby raising business and smugly say “Been there, done that,” that I have on-the-job experience, that I share your pain, that what I say to you counts. After all Mama and I have been through all this before, the first 21 life-changing months and then some, twice, with Jason and you.
In my mind, however, memories of those times waver and flicker like a candle in the wind still giving off light but vague and uncertain in the outline. Or like the plot of a novel I read a long while ago — -leave it to me to work in a literary reference — -remembering the main action but uncertain about plot specifics and what the characters actually said and did. I don’t even recall the specifics of the day you came home from the hospital.
So what do I remember about those days? A jumble of things: being pleased as punch that you were a girl, the intimidating helplessness of you, you crying a lot, you being unbearably cute, you as a wonder and a joy, you as an irritating distraction, a nuisance disrupting my reading. To my everlasting discredit, and that of the entire male sex for that matter, I know that Mama did most of the work, the heavy lifting, taking care of you.
Unlike Mama I have little to offer you in the nuts-and-bolts category of infant care. What I can offer you is my support, interest, understanding and of course love. Mama takes on rescue operations. I am the fool-on-the-hill type, the fool-on-the-patio staring off into the distance at downtown Glendale. (Every kid should have at least one such spacey relative. I’ll be that for Baby Boo.)
But when all is said and done all parents are on their own raising their infants. You figure out things as we did, at times doing what we did and at other times doing things differently, much differently, all in response to your own feelings, the way you size up the baby situation at hand. From my perspective you two have done beautifully, rose to the challenges, fought the good fight — -at times it must have seemed like a battle — -providing the warmth, love and care that counts as much, if not more than conception in the life of a child.
Baby Boo is in good hands, figuratively and literally. I feel good about your family, our family and even, for that matter, the future of the human race, Baby Boo making her small contribution that way. (It seems to me that the human race is much in need of a boost right now. Every little bit helps.)
Baby Boo’s birthday is an occasion to remember once again, as if I needed to be reminded, that I was there, present and accounted for at her birth, the day when she first saw the light of day after seemingly days and days, weeks and weeks of labor. This adds a further luster to the shine I feel for Baby Boo.
So a pat on the back, high fives all around, on this special day, Baby Boo’s birthday. Another year ahead, more changes, more growth and development, for both you and Tom and Baby Boo. No resting on your laurels…
Love,
Pobie

