A Sampling of the Best of 2009

10. My daughter, the Tiny One, learned to walk. She was about 20 months old before she took her first tentative steps. She was so tiny that she only looked about a year old. Except she could talk in complete sentences and recite the alphabet. She takes after her mother for whom cognitive development supersedes physical development.

9. We bought a membership to the zoo. Jenny LOVES the reptile house. It may be nasty smelling and old and not even remotely attractive, but it houses snakes and turtles and a crocodile. She can't get enough.

8. Watching Brent and Jenny walk home from church together, hand in hand. The tenderness of watching the two people I love best have a quiet moment together makes my heart swell and reminds me that life is good. So, so good.

7. Brent got a new job. A great, albeit boring, job. A well-paying job that is as secure as one can expect in the banking industry in the current economy. He likes his boss. He likes his coworkers. He likes the company. We have income. He is happy. I am happy.

6. A family outing to Silver Lake. We saw squirrels. We saw fish. Jenny had a shoulder ride. She didn't fall in the water. There is something about being in the mountains that feels more like home than any other place. It is comforting and reminds me of teenage summers spent at camp. Plus the fresh, crisp air filling my lungs and invigorating my mind just makes me glad to be alive.

5. I felt for the first time the growing life form within my belly flutter his legs.

"I'm growing fast in here Mama" he seemed to say. "Thanks for providing such a warm, cozy, squishy place for me to play in."

If only you could know how much I love you, Baby.

4. Brent walked in the house with flowers in his arms. He told me that while he was shopping he got to wondering when the last time he brought his wife flowers was. He couldn't remember. He said that was just sad. So he bought me flowers. Just because he hadn't in a while.

3. A walk in the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was my anniversary with Handsome, and I had packed a delectable picnic. We drank bubbly, ate broccoli/tomato/almond salad and croissants, savored dark chocolate truffles. We let Tiny One run excitedly from tree to flower to stream to bridge. I pushed the stroller. Handsome rubbed my shoulders and kissed me tenderly.

2. Watching Jenny run into the living room on Christmas morning and have her mind blown away by the fantastic art easel set up. Wait! A bike! A BIKE! Must go to bike first!

Wait.

Can't.

Easel.

Bike.

Easel.

Bike.

Indecision splayed across her lit up face as she was torn between two gifts so perfect, so delightful, that her body was filled with delirious joy. Ah, to see her excitement overload brought back to me the brand of magic that Christmas held for me twenty-five years ago.

1. My beautiful boy

flesh of my flesh

apple of my eye

sweetest darling

captain of the babies

was born.

He came to me after a quick six hours of labor in a peaceful and dimly lit birth center in Holladay. Due to the sacredness of the event, I only allowed my husband, my midwife, and my nurse to share the experience with me. It was intense. It was hard. It was glorious. And at the end of the run-away train ride, I held perfection in my arms. Those first few moments of James's life I will cherish always.