In January, we dug a big hole

and played some cricket.

In February, my baby girl started school and my boy built a tower that reached to the sky.

In March (and a bit of February), I covered a fair portion of Philip Island on my bike.

I also made some necklaces.

In April I found a mermaid at the beach and three days later watched her jump on a hail covered trampoline.

In May, we bought a car and flew to Queensland the next day.

We also bought a new waterproof camera.

In June I sold a piece of jewellery to a stranger for the first time. I also found time for some soccer practice.

In July we played with some giant chipmunks

a giant car

and giant ants.

In August, we did some baby sitting

built a snowman

and made a coffee table for my wife’s birthday.

In September we welcomed a new cousin into the world

and had a super hero birthday party.

In October I was acting Hawthorn Librarian and work took a lot of my focus

but I did find time for a spot of pruning.

In November we went hunting butterflies

spent some quality time with Nanny when she visited from Canada

and celebrated a birthday party with the world’s cutest fairies.

In December I made some vases

a soccer goal

a rapunzel tower

and did some decoupage.

We enjoyed pancakes at Phillip Island with family

and hosted Christmas for the first time.

We played with some critters

ran

laughed

and smiled

And we had spent another year together.

No wonder I’m tired.

You may know 16 simply as the number after 15 and before 17.

You’ll probably also recognise it as the square of 4.

Apparently, 16 is also the smallest number with exactly five divisors.

You may not know that:

• As a power of 2 it has an aliquot sum one less than itself; 15, and is the fifth composite member of the 3-aliquot tree having the 7 member aliquot sequence (16, 15, 9, 4, 3, 1, 0).
• Sixteen is the first number to be the aliquot sum of a lesser number; 12, it is also the aliquot sum of the greater number; the discrete semiprime, 26. It is the fourth power of two.
• Sixteen is the only integer that equals mn and nm, for some unequal integers m and n (m = 4, n = 2, or vice versa). It has this property because 22 = 2 × 2. It is also equal to 32 (see tetration).
• 15 and 16 form a Ruth–Aaron pair under the second definition in which repeated prime factors are counted as often as they occur.
• Since it is possible to find sequences of 16 consecutive integers such that each inner member shares a factor with either the first or the last member, 16 is an Erd?s–Woods number. The smallest such range of 16 consecutive integers is from 2184 to 2200.
• In bases 20, 24 and 30, sixteen is a 1-automorphic number (displayed as the numeral ‘G’).
• 16 is a centered pentagonal number.
• 16 is the base of the hexadecimal number system, which is used extensively in computer science.
• 16 appears in the Padovan sequence, preceded by the terms 7, 9, 12 (it is the sum of the first two of these).

(isn’t wikipedia wonderful)

There was a time I used to know a bit about maths. But aliquot sums, composite numbers, discrete semiprimes, tetration, Ruth-Aaron pairs, consecutive integers, and the Padovan sequence mean nothing to me.

There was a time I didn’t know what it meant to be in love. But all that changed 16 years ago today. So that’s what 16 means to me. 16 years of being in love with, and being loved by the most beautiful girl I’ve ever known.

And I’ll take that over all the consecutive integers in the world.

Happy anniversary J. I love you and can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend an automorphic number of years with.