Dekita!

(He did it!)

In the night kitchen

I can only vaguely remember a time when the night felt eternally long, when staying up until midnight felt like a feat insurmountable, and waking up before dawn to get an early start on a childhood trip felt like stepping out into a foreign land of vaguely familiar shadows. Now the wee hours of the night are as ordinary as the day. I'm up most nights, creaking the floor boards, and startling the cockroaches out of their happy hour. Our neighbors across the hall are single friends. I'm not sure exactly of the head count, who is living there, who is just crashing on the sofa. I hear them coming home. Their voices lifted up by the drama of alcohol as their night collides with mine. Only a thin wall separating us. On my side I am quiet, swaying with my baby, heavy on the edge of sleep. I'm conducting invisible orchestras for an audience of one, hoping to get the rhythms in time with the lull of the sea, the melody as mesmerising as the stars. And then maybe back to bed. A cross section of our building would tell six very different tales, strangers living atop each other, all of us just being human through the night.

Orange belt...

The official results will not be announced until after Wednesday. But from what me and Pop could observe, Uta did brilliantly.

Love note

Dear Uta

I know you have girlfriends and all but I wanted to say I love you.

love Phoebe

(in this envelop there is a secret of love)

This is not the first confession of love that Uta has received, nor will it be the last. When I picked him up yesterday he handed me the note and said, "Read this in your head". After I finished he said, "I don't get it. Why would she write that?"

Fingers crossed

Tomorrow Uta will take his first Karate promotion test. If he passes he will shed his white belt in exchange for the much coveted orange belt. Good luck Uta!

Sleeping like a baby

I am tired. I'm bumping into walls, leaving burners on, staring blankly into faces I ought to recognize, tired. I didn't know I had it so good (waking every three hours to nurse Kiki back to sleep), until it got a whole lot worse. Lately Kizuki is waking hourly. And not just in need of resettling, she is wide awake and ready for the diversions of day; eyes open, arms flapping, legs kicking, screeching with delight. On top of all that, she has landed her first cold. So even when she wants to sleep her stuffy nose, coughing, and general drippy state pose more than a few challenges. My trusty baby book says that at four months teething can begin, night-waking resumes, and the honeymoon is over. I wasn't aware I was on a honeymoon. But, yes, it is certainly over. Sleeping like a baby? No, not quite.

Go!

One fish, two fish

Kizuki is four months (16 weeks) old today!