It's been 5 1/2 months since my little guy came into the world. Five months of seeing everything new...five months of sleep deprivation...five months of wondering what the hell we got into...five months of amazement...five months of worrying that we're doing it wrong...five months of exhilarating madness.

I used to roll my eyes when a parent would go on and on about 'how much your life changes'. I'd get defensive when they said "You never really know until you have one of your own". I thought I knew how sleep-deprived I could be and still function. I thought I knew how much it would hurt when he cried and I couldn't fix it immediately. I thought I knew the joy I'd feel when he hit a milestone; when he held his head up or smiled or rolled over. I really did think I knew.

And now, looking back, I really had no idea.

It's not a bad thing that I thought I knew. I had an idea of how things would be, and for the most part, I did know. But there's something else, something that no one can know until it's there - there's this tiny invisible rod of steel that links you to your child. That's what pulls you to get up one more time in the middle of the night to feed a hungry baby. That's what yanks you to the pediatric ER on a night when he won't stop crying and won't eat and you know there's something wrong. That's the link that makes you realize that you just need to stay home and play with him one day instead of going to work. It may bend and it may feel like it stretches sometimes, but the one thing you can always count on, the one absolute truth is that it's unbreakable.

Then there are the small things, the things you wish you'd known before you did them. Like prunes. You know prunes are great for getting things moving, and you know that's why the pediatrician recommends them for constipated babies. But when you're trying new fruits and veggies with your baby, and you want to make sure he gets a taste of everything, you don't make the connection between prunes and...well. Prunes. We tried them yesterday, for breakfast and dinner, since I didn't have anything else on hand that he'd already had. Twice in one day. Then he had them again this morning. That's three times. Count 'em. Three prune meals is apparently enough to shoot through his digestive system and push out everything that's been in there for the past week. Twice.

That's one thing I wish I knew beforehand.

We're learning. And one day, we hope to be really good at this whole parenting thing. But right now, he's pretty patient with us. I can look into his eyes and see that he's amused, that he knows that we're completely clueless sometimes. But we haven't dropped him, we haven't forgotten him in a store, we've changed his diapers with minimal leakage. He knows that we love him. He knows that he's adored. And we know that he loves us, that grin he gives us is proof.

We're all getting the hang of this family thing.