Twelve

Dozen.

a familiar unit of quantity equal to 12. Division into units of 12
rather than 10 has the advantage that 12 can be evenly divided into
halves, thirds, or quarters. For this reason, units of 12 have been
common since the earliest civilizations of the Middle East. "Dozen"
comes from an old French word dozaine related to the Latin word
duodecem, "twelve."

A dozen years is easily divided into...

Time living in crappy apartments (2 years) and time living in our house (10).
Time before kids (5 years) and time since (a millennium).
Time with cars we couldn't trust (4 years), time since (8).
Time when we couldn't afford it, and time when we could (varies, hard to measure).
Time trying to cooperate and time failing to cooperate.
Time arguing about how to mesh our families' traditions.
Time wondering why we argued about it.
Time spent traveling to places we want to go, and time spent traveling to places we have to go.

Time spent at funerals and weddings involving people one of us had no connection to.
Time waiting in hospital corridors.
Time spent wishing we were done with work and at home with the other.
Time spent worrying about each other's health and safety.
Time building secret glances, gestures, and code words only we understand.
Time sleeping with the cordless phone in hand waiting for your call.
Time collecting souvenirs of our life together.

One thing that I think of when I think about the epitome of what we are:

It's warm outside, probably midsummer like it is now. They're in the van together, traveling down to his parents' house. He's driving; she's looking out the window. Suddenly, she laughs, to herself, really, not even realizing she's audible.

"What is it?" he asks her.

"Oh, I was just thinking about the Bohr Model of the Atom."

He nods, she smiles at him, knowing he probably understands. And they drive on into the evening.