the love more letters-1

I did a guest post for The Love More Shop, which is a beautiful business run by an absolutely lovely woman. She gives back a portion of her profits to a Love Fund, and a lucky couple is given a night out to nurture their relationship. Amazing right?! In this all encompassing journey of parenthood, it's sometimes easy to forget to do just that. We are so attuned to our children, but often not so much to ourselves or to our significant other. But love must go all ways for there to be balance and happiness, I think...You can read my post over at their blog--The Love More Letters.

4/52

I'm trying to catch up with my portraits--digging them out of the archive of millions of photos, but it is a slow process for sure. Here are the next three. And please, can she stop growing up so darn fast?

4/52

5/52

6/52

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2015."

52 project

This is a beautiful project by Jodi from Practising Simplicity. I made my way through most of last year, and then tapered off, much to my regret. This year I am starting in a little bit late, but I don't believe in "too late" anyway, so here goes. Another year of portraits of my furiously growing little sidekick.

1/52

2/52

3/52

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2015."

hello again blog

It's been a while since my last post. I took an extended tech/media fast, and it has continued to linger. It was a much needed break, as we had a million things going on--night weaning, a big move, settling into a new neighborhood, and re-adjusting to life after our Tokyo trip with all of the revelations that it unearthed.

I gave the blog a little makeover in the tradition of starting with a clean slate. I suppose it's the digital equivalent of diving into a fresh, new journal...

It feels nice to be back. I have missed this little space. Thanks (Mom and James!) to you all who are following along.

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"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014."

It's so good to be home after a month away, but the transition has been rocky. She clings to me most days, and it is looks like these that make me want to hold her tight, assure her that all will be well soon, and never let her go.

halloween

We celebrated Halloween a week early this year (yes, this post is a little late), as Julie and I would be in Tokyo for our epic travels during the actual day of dress up and candy overload. My mother-in-law adores Halloween, and she used to make her children's costumes. By hand! I can't even imagine, but I wish I had it in me to make Julie's costumes...Maybe one day. This year the little one was a butterfly. We carved pumpkins, ate delicious food, and smiled as she flew about the house, shaking her little wand.

what we ate (on the road)

We just came back from a month long trip home (one of my homes, anyway!) to Japan. In LA, we live comfortably on a diet of Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and local farmers markets. All vegan, and mostly organic. I'm very aware of just how lucky we are to be able to eat this way. Due to the mild weather here year round, and the food conscious culture that abounds, our options are pretty fantastic. Before our big trip, I was pretty strict with Julie's diet. We rarely went a day without some sort of green juice or smoothie, and I planned her meals meticulously. Well, that went out the window quickly in Japan.

Although there are more vegan options now than there were when I lived there some years ago, it is still work and a trek to find a green juice and organic goods. Getting around in central Tokyo without a car means a very long walk, or braving crowded (understatement) trains, or shelling out for a taxi. All this while hauling around an increasingly heavy and opinionated little one. The good part of all of this was that I finally let go a little because I had to. We ate a lot of white rice and noodles, indulged in some sweets, and had a truly wonderful time. Julie adapted just fine. When we stayed with them, our relatives went out of their way to make us the most incredible meals. Here is the menu from one of our days.

Breakfast-Brown rice with natto, toasted seaweed, pumpkin soup, grapes
Lunch-(on the bullet train) assortment of rice balls and oinari-san(rice balls wrapped in fried tofu), green juice, barley tea
Snack-multi-grain crackers, strawberry soy milk, more rice balls
Dinner-vegetable tempura, yuba (tofu skin), stewed vegetables, rice, pickled kiku flowers