It's hard for my niece to feel special about her birthday and my sister and brother-in-law talk about their anniversary but we'd all be more festive if my sister hadn't broken her leg.

My other niece's birthday was less than a coule of weeks ago. I think they used to celebrate her 'chosen day' (the day she was adopted) about now when she was a kid. (She was two weeks old or so when she was adopted. Her younger sister arrived the harder way a couple of years later.) I take the nieces to an Asian restaurant they like. My niece's husband keeps the boys and my brother-in-law is taking another day off to look after Sarah and my dad stays to advise and help and keep them company.

It's a rare chance for me to talk to the nieces. We have lots of food and linger. Then we are looking for something else to do and decide to wander the liquor store. I buy them stuff and buy something to restock my brother-in-law. (Dad and I are the only ones who partake at his house. I swear we will find the same bottle when we come back.)

My nieces are both in their thirties now. Well on their way to being forty, to feeling the pull of time in a real way. It's hard to believe. They were once babies to me, unformed cute little critters with round cheeks. Here is my niece on her christening day. Now she has fair-haired kids of her own. Even they aren't babies.

We'd revel in the passing of time, the renewal that comes with the appearance of babies in life's stream if we weren't the victims of that passing time.