Dear Ellie — Your great-aunt Ellen celebrated her 64th birthday last month. Since you’ve only seen her once and she lives thousands of miles away, I want to write you so you’ll know more about her. After all, in my unbiased older-sister opinion, she’s one…
Dear Ellie — It’s been a tumultuous fall. Aside from the November presidential election, your great-grandfather died that same month. He was your mother’s father’s father and his name was William Fendall Pennebaker. He would have been 99 on December 3. Everyone called him Bill,…
Ellie — Right now, there’s a controversy going on: Should the professional football team, the Washington Redskins, change its name since “redskin” is a derogatory term for American Indians? Once you read this, it probably won’t still be a controversy, having been long resolved one…
Dear Ellie — You’re looking really happy these days, busily exploring the world around you. Recently, when Opa and I were talking to you on FaceTime, your little face lit up at the sight of us — we thought. Turns out, you just wanted your…
Dear Ellie — I’m thinking the time has come to introduce you to your maternal grandfather, Opa. After all, his 66th birthday is coming up on March 2, a/k/a Texas Independence Day, which you may not celebrate in Seattle. This is a little daunting. I’ve been…
Dear Ellie — When you’re pregnant, one of the most delightful tasks you have is to pick out a name for the baby. Well, wait a minute. Delightful may be overstating it. It’s a big responsibility to name a new human being, after all. And,…
Ellie — OK, kiddo. Time for a little family history. I want you to understand your more distant roots so that, someday, you’ll have an idea where you came from. I’m hoping it will be meaningful to you when you’re older. November 9, was my mother’s…
Ellie — Your grandfather and I talked to you on Facetime this week. Yes, we were the two wildly enthusiastic faces in that little high-tech rectangle who made lots of loud, gurgling noises and grinned in a deranged manner. No wonder you looked so perplexed. The…
You’ve now been in this world almost 48 hours. Forty-eight hours of photo flashes and prying, poking doctors and grinning, rhapsodic parents and rumbling traffic and leaking breasts and blaring sirens. Kind of a wild, teeming mess, isn’t it? Welcome! I’m your maternal grandmother, Ruth…