One Year Old
Emma turned one on August 19th. She says "Da"; she walks; and she smiles nearly every moment of the day. She may smile due to the end of her arduous start. We can't be sure without any capacity for her to say so. She smiles when she sees "Da", when her sister rubs her curly hair into her belly, when "Ma" lifts her into the air, and when Ni Hao Kai-Lan, with her enormous eyes, sings to her from the funny glowing box. She loves to feel soft food squish through her fingers. She laughs at the bath water when it shoots over the tub. She climbs chairs and waddles through the kitchen. Every task begins and ends with that glorious, unsolicited 6-tooth smile.
Emma is tall, in the top 75% of her age group, and understandably skinny - in the bottom 35%. Her belly button scar from surgeries is now minimal. The memories and emotions of her time in the hospital are still fresh. It is important not to forget life in the moments where you value it most.
A family of Canada geese lives beside our local lake. Every other day or so, for more than a year, the geese walk down a hill through our backyard. The mother and father guarded 6 or 7 goslings. Over time, they entered our yard with less. Five. Then three. They huddle close and eat dandelions before they cross the street to the lake. It may be a uniquely American characteristic to bestow virtue on those who endure. I admire the geese.
Now, the North Carolina summer recedes. A familiar, cool fall wind reminds us that everything is temporary. Even the seemingly infinite love that we feel for our families and friends is tempered by the time in which we have to spend it. I spend it in love with my family. Emma spends it smiling.
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