Selfishness and selflessness.

One of the many gifts Zoe got for her birthday was a cold. So on Tuesday, she stayed home from school with her Daddy in the morning and me in the afternoon. It wasn't bad at all, though I had to put off my own private celebration of her birthday that I planned to do in the time after work and before picking her up from school (aka the GOLDEN HOUR): a pedicure. I mean, her birthday is a celebration of her and her life but also MY LABOR AND DELIVERY and I think it's a good idea to give myself a little present on her birthday too. Ah well, I gave myself a rain check and spent the afternoon helping her make play-doh bacon in her play-doh kitchen.

The VERY LAST birthday related thing? (I promise.) Last year we donated money in Zoe's name to this organization. This year, we seriously thought about asking folks to, in lieu of gifts, bring canned food to her party for us to take to a food pantry, to donate to a favorite organization, or to impeach the president, the vice president and the secretary of defense in her name. After much debate (and concern that we were being way too overwrought about the whole thing), we decided to let folks bring presents and just do the donating ourselves.

So who to donate to?? Where to start?!?! Well, we chose this fabulous organization and not just because my dear friend B runs the San Francisco chapter. Zoe became a participant of this program through her school when one of her teachers gave her a book bag one day with four books. We brought it home for a week and exchanged it at school the next week for four new books. Zoe loved her book bag and her "new books" often were her favorites. At the end of the program, Zoe "graduated" and received her very own book bag to fill with library books.

This was all free.

I know we are not exactly the target audience of this program as we have more education, time, resources, and money than most parents. We have purchased many books for Zoe and have read to her daily from day one. But the program taught us a lot and encouraged us go to the library rather than buying new books all the time.

So this year, we're donating to Raising a Reader.