First Things First

What does it mean to be first?

On the eve of the first day of the first month of the first year of a new millennium, it seems appropriate to take stock of what being first is about.

Not as in winning a race. Nothing so competitive. Rather, first as in a first step or first experience or a first anniversary.

To change course, to discover something, to challenge preconceptions, to overcome a lifelong obstacle, those are true firsts.

Here are the stories of seven firsts. The subjects have little in common except for this: Their lives have changed, sometimes profoundly, by accomplishing a first in the past year.

BORN ON 1 / 1 / 2000

Jake Alexander DeLuca, an impish toddler with brownish red hair and brown eyes, may have arrived late in this world, but he still was one of the firsts.

Born at 1:20 a.m. on Jan. 1, he was the first baby of the year 2000 born at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and the first child of Christine Harrington, 29, and Michael DeLuca, 27.

"The year has flown by," Harrington says, holding the squirming toddler, who boasts a three-tooth smile and an indomitable curiosity.

Jake was due on Dec. 23, so when Harrington finally went into labor a week later, she wasn't thinking she could have the hospital's first baby of the year.

"I just wanted him born," says Harrington, who works for a telecommunications company in Columbia.

Harrington and DeLuca, a corporate manager for International House of Pancakes, arrived at the hospital with Harrington's mother about 5:30 p.m. At midnight, the doctors and nurses who had been assisting Harrington slipped out to toast the New Year with sparkling cider. DeLuca and her mother shared a glass as well, although Harrington was too busy to notice.

Not long after, Jake was born with a hearty cry.

The birth of their first child has been a transforming experience, the couple say.

"The first two months were hard," says Harrington. But once Jake learned to sleep through the night, life got easier.

"He's a wonderful baby," Harrington says.

While the couple has had to contend with trips to the doctor for ear infections, those difficult moments pale in comparison to the thrill of watching their son smile when he was 6 weeks old, say "Da Da" at 6 months, and take his first steps when he was 9 months old.

They disagree over who Jake resembles. DeLuca says he looks like Mom while she is sure he looks like Dad.

But they have no doubts that their lives have changed forever because of his birth.

DeLuca says their son's birth has brought his family closer together. His father, who was living in Tennessee, moved back to Baltimore so he could watch his only grandson grow up. Members from both sides of the family take turns baby-sitting for the boy.

And Harrington and DeLuca say their son has also made their bond stronger. They plan to marry in June.

In October they moved from their apartment in Perry Hall to a more spacious house in Chase and talk of having one or two more children.

"I've loved every minute of it," DeLuca says. "Everybody makes it sound like it would be really rough, but he's been really easy. It's just been a really good thing all the way around."

-- Liz Atwood

STIRRINGS OF ROMANCE

Ah, young love, first love, filled with new emotion ... New emotion, new devotion, the songs say it all. Emotion that makes the heart pound, the fingers shake, the stomach feel like quivering Jell-O.

For a cynical culture, we dote on romance to an extraordinary degree. And that leads to one of life's largest conundrums: Romantic love is what we crave, but real life rarely delivers.

For Caitlin Plitt, 13, a seventh-grader at Catonsville Middle School, the first step on the road to romance was ... not what she expected. A movie ("Big Daddy") with Joe Cary, a guy she'd known since second grade.

She liked Joe. He was nice. And really cute. "Blond hair, blue eyes, and taller than me, and I'm 5-6." She had a hard time deciding what to wear on her first date. ("My best jeans, these really, really cool American Eagle shoe boots, a plaid shirt and my winter jacket.")

Caitlin's father drove her to the theater; she made him drive around several times until she saw Joe was there. "I was sooooo nervous." So was Joe. "He just tried to make conversation, like, 'So, what's new with you?' " He paid for their tickets. (She wasn't sure if he would.)

"I thought it would be easy, but it was nerve-wracking."

But, she says, "Nothing really happened. He didn't kiss me or anything." At the end of the evening, they hugged and both said, "See you in school."

They went to two more movies and a few teen events.

At the end of the school year, they called it quits. "We never got to talk a lot, just pass notes, and that was weird. We decided we weren't going to see each other over the summer. We go to different pools."

They're still friends. Caitlin hasn't dated anyone since, but she hasn't given up -- she's got a clear picture of what she's looking for in a first love.