Nature Girl

Annalee made her third trip to Pedernales Falls State Park -- the first one after considerable rain, and thus the first one when the river was really moving. She hadn't slept well, and soothing her through the last fifteen miles of road required some imagination. "Do you see how the trees have gotten their leaves since last time we were here? Do you see the wildflowers? There's going to be a lot more water than last time, I bet." Etc. To her credit, she is interested in such things and looked out the window beside her car seat with real curiosity until her teething pain distracted her again ten or fifteen seconds later.

As happened on both her first trips to the falls, she took in the scene with real wonder. In this case, brown flood water was pouring across the solid rock sheet tilted at a 30-degree angle to level -- and making some sound. As also happened on her first trips, she wanted to walk up as much of the hill as possible on the way back to the minivan. She took great strides up the cut-stone steps, then the gravel path, as her mom held her hands in her own over Annalee's head. Her cheeks were kissed by the sun, lightly, and flushed with the exertion of her nature walk as well. Though her teething pain can't have gone away, she was a different person on the drive home.

Special Day

Somewhere in America today a man sat in a rowing scull, pushed off from the dock, and rowed a couple of miles into a headwind. As he neared the diminishing end of a narrow island, he was greeted by his wife and 20-month-old daughter and had the best moment of his day, just seeing them standing beneath a tree and smiling his way.

In fact, the competition for my favorite moment of the day was fierce, which is to say that Daddy had a good birthday. Other contenders for best moment: Seeing Annalee wearing a new white dress, white headband, and pink shoes to go out for Dad's birthday dinner, holding her hands in mine as she ran on the sidewalk downtown after dinner, and seeing her sneak a glimpse of herself in a storefront window in all her finery. She loves to look good!