From the Days of Pacing to the Greatest Joys
April 12, 2026 Dear Little Sophia, Where did the time go? Of course, it doesn’t make sense to ask you a question like that: you’ll read this in 18 or 14 years and you won’t feel the long gap between…
Cameron Powell
Like the Labors of Hercules: The Birth of Sophia
January 13, 2026 Dear Sophia, At about 1:30am on January 10, early Saturday morning, your mom awoke me and said she thought her water might have broken. She tried a test swab but didn’t use it right, apparently, so we…
To Have a Child Late in Life Is a Joyful Act Pregnant With Sadness
February 11, 2026 Dear Sophia, I know I shouldn’t anthropomorphize you, but sometimes I think you are almost like a human and you know very well that you are on the changing table, and you wait until I finish tickling…
Episode 7 – A Dream I Never Knew I Had
Episode 7: A Dream I Never Knew I Had January 2026 Dear Sophia, You’re just days away from your birth and I still have to finish my broad sketch of how I met your mother, and how our unlikely relationship…
Episode 6 – A Breakup Email
Episode 6: An Age-Gap Breakup Email January 2026 Dear Daughter (and Bippity-Bopp), Sometimes I would imagine how the breakup email to your mother would go. Let me read it to you. (Clears throat). My Dearest Boop-De-Doop, Two of the…
Changing, Swaddling, and Tender Nonsense
Wednesday January 14, 2026 Dear Sophia, We woke about three times last night and got you up. We consulted ChatGPT about whether to get you up when you were sleeping and it said yes if about two hours have gone…
“I’m Sorry She’s So White,” I Joke / You’re Such a Good Girl
January 13, 2026 Dear Sophia, You’ve got a tag on your foot, which I believe means you’re on parole. “Her heart rate is perfectly regular,” says the perfectly lovely pediatrician. I cried when I got my German cousin Fiona’s responses…
Episode 5 – Paralyzed
How I Met Your Mother: Episode 5: Paralyzed January 2026 My dear daughter, In May of 2023, your mother moved in with me. She didn’t feel challenged in her job, in New Jersey, and we didn’t see any point in…
When the Levee Breaks (The Clock Starts)
January 10, 2026 Dear Sophia, It’s still dark in the early morning, and with my hand palming your mother’s belly like a basketball, I can feel you kicking. Are you exercising in there? Are you expressing yourself? Your mom walked…
Episode 4 – A Look on Lookout Mountain
Episode 4: A Look on Lookout Mountain January 2026 My dear daughter, Dinner after the wedding was outside, on a patio, under a white tent. As evening descended the lights of Chattanooga were sprinkled across the valley below. The bride,…