Our New Arrival

Introducing our little Mei. She joined us in the world on 17 September and is making herself at home with us. She is a very calm and content little girl whose only real dislike seems to be disrobing. She is also still rather cuddly and so far not that keen on sleeping anywhere but in […]

This Moment

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see. […]

Mama Came Back

In younger days, when I contemplated parenthood, I had this idyllic dream of raising my children in community – surrounded by family and friends who loved and helped to nurture them. My children, I mused, would be confident and relaxed and outgoing…and happy to spend time with any caring adults who came their way. They would […]

Feeding the Wee One

When we began introducing the wee guy to food and flavours, he was a little reluctant to wholeheartedly consume some of my un-favourites like peas…but he tried everything and generally ate rather heartily for a little person. Somewhere around the 9mth mark he kinda slipped into being a mainly-eats-sweet-potatoes-and-a-few-other-things kinda guy, though he was still […]

This Moment

Of Mothers on Mothers’ Day

I’ve been a little AWOL lately as my mother, Joan, has been visiting from New Zealand. It is only the second time she has visited me anywhere since I left home in 1992 and first time time we have seen one another since my father passed away three years ago. It was also the first […]

Haircut

Finally, after much debate, we decided that this past weekend was the time for Kazuo’s first haircut. He had these strangely long curls that hung over his ears and flew in any direction in the wind. They seemed at odds with much of the rest of his hair. And there were are couple of long […]

Getting Out More

After illness number four of the winter, I had a little bit of a meltdown about how confined I had felt this year. Silly me. But in his inimically pragmatic fashion, Akira insisted that the answer was just for me to get out more in the evenings. Predictably, I balked. He doesn’t get out much […]

New Shoes

It is official. I no longer have a little baby. Our house has been invaded by a toddler! It seemed to happen overnight, though I guess it has been a while in coming. Yesterday, after Akira had spent the afternoon hauling a soft-baby-shoe-clad Kazuo out of the slush and dirt at the ice skating rink […]

A Whole Year of Family Life

This coming weekend we are finally celebrating Kazuo’s first birthday. After eventually ridding our house of the dreaded lurgy, that lingered around far too long for my liking, we are now ready to re-enter social circulation. I think it will really be a party for me… since I have only had three social encounters with […]