Happy birthday to two very important women

Happy early birthday to my mother-in-law, Diane, and to my mother, Judi!

Diane's birthday is Monday, February 21, and Mom's birthday is Tuesday, February 22. No, despite intense lobbying, neither was able to convince a then-in-utero Andrew to be born on her birthday last year. (His big day is Thursday.)

One reason that Diane is very special to me is because she alone of all my family members reads what I write. My grandmother, Mama Lou, also used to read what I wrote. She even subscribed to the newspapers I wrote for. But of course, she is gone now. But I am not writing into empty space. Despite being very busy, Diane always reads all my blogs and she often even makes comments on them. It's nice to know that someone out there not only cares that I have written something but takes the time to read it and say something about it. Something thoughtful and nice, even! (Hint, hint, Mom and Daddy. And David. And John. And...)So thank you, Diane, and have a most deservedly happy birthday!

Mom may not read what I write but she did at least help build the foundation for helping me learn to read and write--and to love doing so. When I was a little girl, she used to drive me around to all the public libraries so I could check out my favorite books. Over and over. We drove to the Homewood library to get the Lotta Crabtree biography, and we drove to the Vestavia Hills library to get the Amelia Earhart book and all the books in the Carolyn Haywood "B is for Betsy" series. We went all the way downtown to the Birmingham library to get some random ballet books that I don't remember too much about now except that I really loved them 30 years ago. Thanks, Mom, for humoring me and encouraging me to love the written word. Happy birthday to you!

Here's a photo taken after we celebrated Diane's birthday with dinner and cupcakes this evening. See, everyone's happy! Well, everyone was happy and William was full of cupcakes and icing.