Eliza

My niece was born last week with a head full of dark hair and, as we are apt to say, a button nose. My mother says she looks like my sister -- her mother Elizabeth -- did when she was a baby girl. She's a pretty, precious baby, I can tell from the pictures that have been sent to me, so far away in Oregon.

Maybe also like her mother, this baby girl will one day grow into a gymnast, handspringing her way through the neighborhood, or a cheerleader with a favorite cheer of "H -- H -D-D-D!" Or maybe like her father, Otha, she'll love the outdoors and the peace of a wooded pond.

It's early, for sure, but I'm happy and hopeful and wondering --thousands of miles away -- about a little girl named Eliza.