Kate is Eight

The newspaper I saved from the day Katy was born has a picture of George Bush taking his inaugural oath on the front page. Thinking in terms of the changes in the world since she was born helps to put the-time-warp-that-is-motherhood into slightly clearer perspective. And so much has changed in me. There is always so much to learn when a new person comes into a family, but the first time it happens, the contrasts, before and after, are the starkest. Katy's birth was an amazing experience, filled with such quiet stillness and awe. As much as I had studied and read, nothing could have prepared me for the beauty of the thing. She was born at home in the tub. The moment when my midwife lifted her up out of the water and laid her on my torso, just as she had laid for so many months, but now on the outside, is forever etched in my memory. She began to cry a little, not knowing where she was, until I spoke and then she and I both knew she was right where she belonged.

As I write this and remember, the house in uncharacteristically quiet. Disneyland is having a promotion in 2009 that lets guests in for free on their birthday. Katy is spending the day there with Daddy and Papa. With a birthday so relatively close to Christmas and her getting to the age when toys aren't such a big thing anymore, a day of fun and excitement without little ones to slow her down seemed to fit the bill. We surprised her yesterday with the news and they left soon after. She is such a good girl and helps out so much at home. When she does get into trouble, it's because she was bored. Give this girl a task or a purpose and she is golden. The two of us are pretty different; I've said before she is much more like her father. But I learn so much from Kate. She constantly challenges me to stretch and become a better person. As much as I am woefully inadequate for the job of mother, I am devoted and so thankful to have her in my life.

Keenly aware of the life force inside, your instincts lead you to nourishment as you

Absorb thoughts, feelings, fashions, and facts, making them your own by design.

Time, the essential element, conserves while cultivation meets content. Your

Heritage, not merely Manis & Mennig, encompasses the whole of what man has seen and done on earth.

Rooted in love and light, you sift through all of nature, waiting to emerge as

You. They ask, what's in a name?

Noble and pure, you are my sweet Kate.

My friend Monica took these pictures over the Christmas Holiday at her grandmother's glamorous house near Charleston & Eastern. It has the most amazing vintage textured velvet wallpaper I have ever seen (or felt) in my life.