Before August
- Via reflects on the brief years that she was the only child. She sees in photos that she really was the "first child, first grandchild, first niece" (2.Before August.1) and the center of her parents' universe. But she doesn't remember at all how that might have felt.
- Via had a doll named Lilly before Auggie was born, so that she could practice her big sister moves.
- When August came home from the hospital, she very quietly looked at him for a while.
- She noted that he didn't look like her doll, but very soon was "all over him: kissing him, cuddling him, baby talking to him" (2.Before August.2).
- And that was the end of her relationship with Lilly the doll forever.