Before Aryana was born and had a name, Karen called her Babula. When she felt her child's head emerge from the birth canal, she said, "I love you, Babula. I can't wait to see you." The mother and child, both heavily stressed from the birthing, were able to enjoy a few moments together before Karen was taken to surgery.

From those early moments, Aryana has always been keenly aware of her surroundings. She seemed to track voices around her the very first day. In contrast to the anguish that enveloped the labor and delivery wing of the hospital as Karen's condition deteriorated, Aryana emanated joy as she was handled by at least two dozen different people--in direct violation of several hospital policies.

Many people from the community and our families stepped up to help this suddenly motherless newborn and her grief-stricken dad. In the meantime, Aryana has developed the most infectious smile and laugh. By six months, she had shown several attributes that she clearly inherited from her mother: a huge capacity for joy; finds pleasure in the faces of others; strives for personal mobility; loves to talk and make silly noises; extremely opinionated without being judgmental; enjoys flexing her muscles. At nine months, she was fully mobile and just after her first first birthday she took her first unassisted steps. She revels in the awesome power of the opposable thumb, which she quickly figured out how to put to use in an endless project to manipulate her immediate surroundings. She is particularly fond of observing the effects of gravity, although she apparently has no fear of it.

Aryana has re-arranged her dad's CD collection many times, but these days she's more into playing with cleaning products and putting cat food in her mouth. She is drawn to danger and destruction. Were there a switch in our house that would detonate a nuclear bomb, Aryana would seek it out and try to flip it.

We baptized Aryana May 23 at my mom's home in Salt Lake City in a backyard ceremony led by the Rev. Gwyneth Murphy, the priest at my mom's Episcopal church. I was struck by a squirrel hopping around a tree with great athleticism behind the priest during the ceremony. This creature reminded me of Karen, who's presence I continually feel. The event was a double header as we were making a good Christian out of Aryana's cousin Nathaniel Caedmon Maffly (aka "Chin-shi," which means Thousand Stones in Chinese, and "Sumo-san," meaning unknown). Aryana's godparents are Tom and Robbie Gammack, who have been an indispensable help to us while I learn the ropes of my new life as a working single parent. During the day, while I'm working at the Wilderness Society, Aryana is cared for by Barbie Moore Eriksson, the most coveted nanny in western Montana who is expecting her own baby early this spring. Barbie has taught Aryana how to use hand gestures to communicate. By her birthday she had a vocabulary of at least a dozen signs. One of the first was a panting gesture to signify dog (or rather any fuzzy animal bigger than she), but now she just says "doggie," even when she means Q kitty, our slinky black cat. She'll have "kitmo" done soon. Barbie also taught her to call the beautiful dark-haired lady in the photographs on my walls "Mommy."

On the morning of her first birthday, Feb. 5, Aryana woke up early at 5:20 a.m., the exact hour of her birth, and refused to go back to sleep. It had just begun snowing, just as it did the day she came into the world. She wore a red Chinese outfit to a little party hosted by Tom and Robbie, where we got into a cake that Betsy Blacher baked in the shape of a sea turtle. This magical marine explorer is Aryana's guardian spirit animal.

Those interested in contributing to the Aryana Karen Sclafani-Maffly Education Fund may send checks to Mountain West Bank, 1960 N. 19th Street, Bozeman, MT 59715.