The Three of Us

Family. My definition of family has transformed since I have made my own little family. I heard my husband say, "the three of us" the other day- and it hit me, though our daughter is 9 months old, I don't think I have really yet thought of us as "three".

I used to think of family as the group of people who were related to us, before our daughter was born. We were family to those people too, but somehow, we didn't think we were family to each other, my husband and I. I suppose we thought of ourselves as a couple.

Now we are 3-not just a couple. And it feels sort of separate-from the rest of the group of 12 who are immediately related to us. We realize that we are part of that bigger group-but we feel that "the three of us" is somehow a separate little group-something we didn't expect to feel when we became parents.

Just another little unexpected surprise about parenthood, I suppose. So many things have been unexpected about going from "the 2 of us" to "the 3 of us". So many sweet, best, worst, best again, fleeting little details. I wonder how it feels to go from "the three of us" to "the four of us"...