One Dozen Long-Stemmed Years

On our very first Valentine's Day together, I sat across the table from a tall dark-haired boy and looked into his eyes and decided that he was the one. It was probably our fifth or sixth date, and I refuse to give my 19-year-old self any credit for this decision -- she was an idiot who didn't know anything, but sure as hell thought she did. I suppose I could try to see it as some kind of fate or higher power leading my idiot self in the right direction, or maybe deep down in my rebellious, flightly little soul was a flicker of wisdom beyond my years, but mostly: I was an idiot who got incredibly damned lucky.

On another Valentine's Day together, we went up to visit his brother in Boston. We sat across the table from each other at an Indian restaurant he'd chosen and looked into each other's eyes in a panic because what the hell was this shit? Couldn't we go get some pizza instead? Then we each took a few bites and looked at each other again and realized we loved this and wordlessly pledged to each other that we would spend the rest of our lives seeking out everything new and exciting, to see what else our identical vanilla suburban upbringings had held out on us. We would live in the city and we would eat and we would travel. And we did all that for awhile, and we were incredibly damned lucky.

And then there was another Valentine's Day together, when we held hands in a small exam room while an ultrasound technician pointed at our baby on the TV screen. He was a tiny grain of rice. His heartbeat filled the room and our hearts and I cried because I was just so incredibly damned lucky.

Today is our 12th Valentine's Day together. A dozen of them, some more memorable than others. Gifts and cards and dinners out and lately we always talk about the One Where We Saw Noah For the First Time. It's hard to beat that one, I admit.

I'm not sure we're officially beating that one this year, at least not on February 14th proper. Our excitement is more about another date, eight months from now.

October 14th. My due date for our second child.

We are so, so incredibly damned lucky, I can hardly even stand it.