Exactly one year ago, I woke up Dust (who fell asleep on the couch watching Saturday Night Live) and said, “it’s time!”

Well, actually, it was more like “DUST!!!! I think my water broke but I’m not sure because I was peeing right before it happened and now I can’t check because it all went into the toilet and mixed together.”

16 hours of labour and a full day of Masters coverage later, at 7:52pm, our little Cy guy came into this world. When it happened, I couldn’t help but cry. Partly, because the most excruciating pain I have ever felt was finally over (and I thought I had a high tolerance for pain!) but mostly, because it was the most unforgettable moment of my life. There are no words, even for a writer like myself, to describe the feeling of becoming a parent. The instant swelling of pride, the overwhelming protectiveness I suddenly felt, the unrelenting desire to hold him as tight as possible and never let him go…the moment of realization – “Oh my god, this is really happening – I have a baby” – all these new feelings. So much happening so fast. Cy wasn’t the only one born that night: Dustin and Marta “The Parents” were born too. That night, everything in the past ceased to matter. Right there, staring right at us, in that neatly swaddled 7 pounds 8 ounce package, was our future.

And it was saying “feed me.”

Despite all the drugs, and pain, and general daze of the whole experience, I will always remember this day with perfect clarity. I cannot believe a year has passed already. There are so many things we have learned in the last year. Like the art of the swaddle…the importance of changing diapers very quickly…that we can survive on 2 hours of sleep and still manage to smile in the morning. We have all grown so much. Our little Cy guy is not a baby anymore. He’s a little man full of personality, character, and charm. And we are parents. Not just two shell-shocked individuals with no idea what to do next. We instinctively scan a room we enter for possible baby dangers. We always leave the house armed with a diaper and a bottle. And we both boast extensive baby photo libraries on our iPhones.

Of course, we will never stop learning. and he will never cease to amaze us with. Next thing we know he’ll be packing for college. But he’ll always be our little buddha baby.