Proud mothers.

Tough night, hard to talk myself into walking this morning. But I did get in nearly 4 miles before I remembered to take my break. At which point, my blackberry told me I had an appointment with Belinda at Starbucks, which is good because otherwise I would have kept walking. We don't get together often enough anymore.

We've known eachother since childbirth classes at Swedish. Her sons Claiborne and Cameron were born same day as my son James, and also spent their first days in the special care unit at Swedish. Until the boys were 13 or so, we co-celebrated their birthdays with all their friends. Belinda could think up more innovative kinds of birthday parties than anyone else I've ever met: a magician one year, a trip to the fire station another year; and a Garfield pool party another year. She even found a guy one year who could teach all those boys (and me) how to break boards with a karate chop.

We agree on so many things and have many shared experiences that make us laugh. And we are both from Iowa! Today we agreed that raising kids who are thoughtful human beings, fully present in the world, is more important than grades (though they all have those), fame (they will have that) or good fortune (and we think that they grew up with that).

Like us, their paths are wide open.