Welcome, Holden, to this crazy world. Sam and I keep needing to remind ourselves that you know nothing about it—nothing! Not yet anyway. You don’t know that you’re American, or that you won’t grow up in the United States. You won’t remember living in Kazakhstan. You don’t know about dinosaurs, hot fudge sundaes, the internet, video games, mountains…you don’t know any of the people who are excited that you’ve finally arrived.

We have so much to teach you. You’ve already taught us so much:

Female bodies are freaking impressive. I’m probably the billionth woman to be blown away by my body’s ability to grow a human, then feed it too…but HOLY CRAP that’s cool. (Is it possible that I’ve transcended the obsession with my body as a mere object? In other words, my boobs make FOOD!)

It’s possible to do most things with just one hand: peruse Facebook, feed the dog, feed myself. In fact, most of this post (including this sentence) was typed using one hand…in the middle of the night.

Love is not a resource that diminishes. Since Holden’s come along, we don’t find ourselves giving a smaller slice of the “love pie” to everyone else in our lives. Instead, we’ve found that love increases infinitely: there is only more love.

Time, unlike love, is a diminishing resource. Accomplishments are a thing of the past. Life has been boiled down to what can be done in the hour-and-a-half between eating-burping-changing-rocking-back-to-sleep sessions. If we’re lucky. And awake.

{Above: A moment of peace. Obviously this is an opportunity to put things on our child’s head, then take pictures.}