Ivan Troy

This post has been due since February 3, 2010. Because something happened that day. Something special. You get that word 'special' thrown around much, so much that it's, well, no longer special. But I'm not sure if any other word would do justice.

I'll remember vividly, sitting at a professional development, playing with algebra tiles, interacting with other algebra teachers from other schools. My nephew's birthday was weeks past the estimated date, each day with no ecstatic phone call or text was added build-up to what we all knew would come.

And then it happened. A picture text message showing the face of the newest member of the world. The newest member of my family.

I was ecstatic. I let all the teachers in the conference room know it. I texted all my close friends. Changed the g-chat/fb/twitter statuses. I couldn't hold anything in. Excitement.

A few days later, I'd meet him. With his frail little hands, his super high-pitched crying, his little beanie on his head. I looked at him and I couldn't hold it in. I shed a tear - not only b/c it was such a precious moment meeting my nephew, but because my older sister was now a mother. And this was her son. All of it felt miraculous. Miraculous.

The family hasn't been the same since. The air changes when a baby's in the household. Everyone, by default, is a little more happy, a little more cheerful, and a little more at peace with life. [I don't take it as a knock on myself, my sister, or my brother, but I've never seen my Mom or Dad smile wider than when they're with the baby.] We're in the presence of someone who's so fresh to the world, whose got his entire life ahead of him - all the discovery to be had!

His features are just like ours, only so so miniature. The simple things we take for granted gradually become another one of his great conquests - grabbing something, sitting down, standing up, crawling... He'll one day have his first step, his first day of school, his first best buddy, his first girlfriend. He'll one day have a favorite color, a favorite tv show, a favorite food, and a favorite season of the year. We know this, yet what we see before us is still such a tiny little package. When a human being is this small, the innocence feels contagious - there's absolutely no malintention in his mind. It centers me. Brings things back into perspective.

Anyway, my life and the dynamic of my family has changed forever. My parents' first grandchild. My sister's first child. My first nephew. Ivan's first year of life.