[Monk]’s birthday. Where did five years go? I was just starting work on this memoir when we conceived her, in Maine, and now she’s a few months away from kindergarten, full of opinions and feelings, hilarious and stubborn and quirky. She’s come into her own so much even just in the past few months, out of her brother’s shadow and to center stage, a scene-stealer and a show-stopper, a true [Monk]. 

April 29 2020

All this has only become more true in the last twelve months, despite the pandemic.

Also: how strange to narrate having conceived a kid who’s now fully literate. It reminds me of my mom telling me on birthdays how broad my shoulders have always been. Too much information & unwanted images!

But also since then, one of the things I think about when birthdays come up is the Stevie Wonder song, and, more specifically, the Hanif Abdurraqib essay about it on Lost Notes: 1980.

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