Ode to Leah Rose Miller (and Brad too)

This is a recent picture of my friend Leah and me. I've just been so grateful this week for my husband who helped nurse me through a rotten cold -- staying home two days to watch Atticus and bring me Sprite and heat me up soup. (And now he's sick -- poor guy!) And my dear friend Leah who loves my son and is so "real" and open. We are very different in many ways and yet it is so easy to be with her, so easy to sit and have our broken-up mother kind of talks with our boys playing and us refereeing and always "training" and learning together. She has taught me so many things -- without preachiness; I'm thankful that she's always a little ahead of me in the developmental stages with Calvin being 3. And also thankful for Isaac being half a year younger than Atticus so that my son learns to be kind and gentle with little kids too. I wouldn't be able to be up here in Minneapolis away from the families I love if it weren't for the Millers giving us their friendship and sometimes lending us their second car (when ours is broken) or jumping in to watch Atticus when I have a OB appt. or some emergency or I just need a little break. Thank you, Leah. Thank you so much. I hope that when my family finally recovers from this month of colds and flu and I find my equilibrium after Dietrich arrives, that we will return to seeing each other as often as we usually do.