2010

It's been awhile. No money, no internet, no real thoughts worth writing down. Or so I thought at the time. The frustration and the sense of panic had me in a state of mind where as always, I don't feel like sharing. Would rather sort it out myself, or come to the conclusion that worrying about it and talking about it are purposeless. Who was it who said that nature abhors a purposeless thing?

Things are better now, although I am still doing what I had planned to never do again (working in restaurants). The money is good and that hole doesn't look as deep as it once did. Plans have been laid and projects started, and while daily life can be something of a drag, there are bright moments.

Since I last wrote, you have 2 new cousins: Sachiko Grace Liddel and Emiko Grace Ichikawa. Funny that they have the same name, after a great woman. I had the opportunity to meat Sachiko, as well as your other cousins Lulu, Doug, and Jojo, this past February. At 3 months, Sachiko's hand was constantly in her mouth, and her head lolled from side to side like a drunkard, she has a very bright smile, long feet, and a full and very bushy head of hair (which is straight when dry but curls up really tight when wet, adorable!). I took the opportunity to change her diaper when I could, feed her when I could, and tried my best to make her smile (even succeeding on several occasions).

Luana is a talkative and happy girl, energetic and friendly. She crawled into the bed I was sleeping on and blasted a HUGE fart. She loves limes and telling stories about her day. At the park a man gave us some bread he was feeding to the geese and Lulu would not get down from me. She wanted to know if the geese bit, which I told her they didn't as they were biting me.

Doug is quiet and reserved and very thoughtful. He's sensitive and thoughtful, and a cool kid to be around. Like the rest of us, he likes to climb and hang from things, just because they are there would be my guess. When Jojo was acting up at a restaurant and I took her outside when she started crying, Doug asked "if I'm bad can I go outside?"

Jojo is a precocious one, off doing things on her own to show up later with a mouth full of gum. She's crazy confident and jumps from things higher off the ground than I would like. But she does just fine. She's grown into her baby fat, she was a tubby one, and can be found eating whole cucumbers and other vegetables at any given time of the day. She will forgo everything on her plate for some cucumbers. Which we are all happy about.

Emiko was born last week and a month early. Thanks to attentive parents and modern technology Emiko is doing well, breathing on her own, eating and gaining weight. I think she goes home in a week. She looks strangely like her father. I say strange because that's a face that I have always seen as male. She is sooo cute.

More to come later.