Dawn was finishing her work to the left of us.  I was behind the camera, watching my newest gift, the one who would call me daddy, looking at him with all that medicine seeping from his eyes, counting the scratches which proved the labor he and his mother just completed.  I stood there, listening to Dawn whimper and Nina Simone croon in the background.  I stood there hearing my son’s breathy gurgles and grunts.

So many things were different two years ago today.  A few things are worse; a lot is immeasurably better.  Happy birthday to the boy who still has little clue how much he’s done and brought and, of course, taken away.