Prayer for Lila Pearl

My great friend Mark Barad and his wife Pasquale had a little girl in June - Lila Pearl. We hear she has a serious medical problem that so far has resisted a real diagnosis. Doctors and parents are working hard to manage the situation and there is no sense they can develop of how things are going to turn out. In these cases, Mark says, some children's trouble resolves and some children's trouble gets worse. Lila Pearl is on my mind every day and I pray for her as I do for my own girls. Nothing seems so precious as the health of these little lives.

Evelyn at 6 months

Evelyn appears to be a bit more alert the last couple of days. At least, that's Luciana's impression. She can be very active and smiling at times, and at other times she has a very matter-of-fact expression on her face, kind of like a hardboiled detective observing the foibles and vanities of people.

All three girls slept all night tonight - for the first time - from 8 pm (with a sleepy 10 pm feeding) to 6 am, at which point they woke up in good spirits together and each had 5 ounces of milk. We are making the transition from the medium bottles to the big bottles. I know someday the medium bottles will look impossibly small, but for now the big bottles look impossibly big. But up in the cabinet is a collection of the small bottles (4 ounces) that look laughably and improbably tiny. What the hell were those for?!?!