Landmarks

Katrina in 2004 in Silver Bay, MN.

Katrina learned to read today, the official, real deal! She read two books cover to cover with just a little help sounding out one or two words. She was so lit up, I doubt a nap will be happening anytime soon. Thank you, Mr. Webster - and Mama, for believing in old-fashioned methods and the natural processes of assimilating information into a childish brain! Katrina and I reflected together that we will never forget this date - the oldest sister learning to read on the youngest child's 1st birthday. Momentous.

Caleb, February 21, 2008: 8 hours old.

My blond-haired baby boy is one year old today. Festivities planned were canceled because of Amelia's illness. Today is a quiet Saturday at home, a quiet and happy boy playing, crawling, sharpening his rudimentary walking skills. A year ago, a finger of purple sunrise glowed just above the trees in the eastern sky as we whirled through new snow pack on country roads to reach the hospital in time. Fifteen of the most intense minutes of my life, and Caleb was born in a rush of water and utter amazement. His first year has included so many changes in my life: I became mother to a son; I was diagnosed with cancer; I weaned him and bottle-fed for the first time; I left a baby for more than 12 hours, something I never did with my other babies. I pray this second year of life is a joy-filled one. Full of more gentle, steady breezes and fewer gusts of change.

She was like a traveler still on the road on one of those evenings when sun and moon, one rising as the other sets, face each other across the world. ~ Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose