Be there...

I am happy that we are done with this week.
It was one of those weeks that felt very long w/o enough time to rest or get rejuvenated.

Hubby powered through the last two days with little roo. While I buried myself in the project, they filled their days with grocery shopping adventure(s), making homemade pasta in the kitchen and playing with special socks. Hearing loud giggles from her room is so priceless. I am happy that I can work from home and still be close to her while I work... but my work-day is definitely different from my roo-day.

Week like this makes me want to go back to little roo's photo collection and appreciate how much she has grown from the day 1...  I sometimes do wonder if I am spending enough time with her. I know the way of parenting will never feel "enough" because there is always something more I can do with her and for her... but I hate to wake up on one morning to find her all grown up.

I want to make sure to be there and feel the moment with her everyday.

p.s. pics from the homemade pasta:)

100th day birthday

Today was little roo's 100th day birthday!

Celebrating the 100th day is important in Japan (as well as many countries in Asia). Japanese family prepare elaborate dishes and pretend to feed the baby. This traditional ceremony promises the abundant food for rest of the baby's life.

... and you know how important it is for me to have the abundant food for our little roo...

After doing some research, I figured it would be bit difficult to line up the traditional Japanese recipe so we opted for our very special "German-ese" menu. I cooked some Japanese food, hubby cooked some German food... and "voila!"... we had a tray full of mix & match dishes from both cultures.

Little roo gave some funny faces when the spoon full of food touched her lips but she played the baby role of ritual very well.

I am so thankful to have spent the last 100 days with our little roo... I hope she will always be surrounded by a variety of foods from many different cultures.

And the fun part? We got to enjoy all the dishes afterward with close friends and it was special:)

From left to right: seaweed salad, olives, salmon tartar on top of the potato pancakes with mastard/dill sauce, rice ball, Japanese style hamburger, cucumber dill salad (thanks Susan!) For drinks, we had Japanese beer and red wine.

Live like there is no end...

It has been taking some time to write this post. I have been thinking about it for a few days.

On Sunday three of us were driving on the freeway to meet some friends for a picnic. On our way to the park, we faced a near collision. Out of nowhere a small car in front of us lost its control and started spinning 360°. I was in the back seat with my little roo and all I could do was to hold on to her car seat as tightly as possible. Thankfully... we dodged the bullet calmly and no one on the freeway was hurt.

It was scary.

The life flashed back in those split seconds.

At that time we quickly blushed off what happened so that we could enjoy our picnic...

Only when we sat down at our dinner table on the same night, I broke down.

The truth is that we have been pulled between the extreme of life and death in last six months. Suddenly losing our best friend Norm in such a tragedy then welcoming our little roo's birth a few months later.

I was 12 when my little brother passed away because of a car accident. Since then I have learned how to deal with the concept of life as a child and as a daughter. It has been nearly 20 years and I thought I knew better... but now that I myself became a mother, I am frightened to even imagine what my mother had to go through and is still going through today.

Sometimes the fragility of life brutally scares me because of the amount of love I feel for my little roo and knowing the pure fact that anything could happen to any of us at any given time.

What happened on the freeway was a chilling reminder of that...

That night my hubby and I talked about Norm, little roo, Norm's family, my parents... and us for a long time.

I have barely dealt and processed with what happened to Norm and there really isn't any "patch-it-all" solution to this and I would be foolish to be looking for one...

but I came out of the night reassuring myself that I need to be genuinely content with the idea of "everything happens for a reason" even when I go through a rough patch of life... It is difficult to feel that way when things are hard... but I have to believe in it.

I can never EVER fear life even though some of the knowledge we gain as we grow... leads us to a scary thought.

I don't want to be the one who looks back in life and regrets of things I hesitated... so I am going to live my life like there is no end.

cheers...

... and thanks for reading.

you inspire me, little roo!

Our little roo has turned 2 months yesterday.

One of our good friends told us that we would explode with creativity when a baby comes along because she would inspire us so much... everyday. After spending the two whole months with our little roo, I can't agree more with him.

I would be honest. Caring for a tiny baby has not always been as dreamy as I had imagined. There are times when I didn't know what to do with her high pitch cry... I was physically drained from not getting enough sleep... I couldn't communicate my feelings well to my hubby... or all of above... all at the same time.

But then... when I got beyond some of these obvious (almost cliche like) challenges, I have found so much love and care for her which simply pours out of me... endlessly.

Today reflecting on my thoughts and feeling is like looking into a very deep well... so much deeper than the way it used to be. I can feel that we are growing to be more empathetic and patient individuals... and everything we learn from being with little roo bring a whole new set of insights to life.

Seeing her change everyday makes me believe that we are so capable of growing and learning new things in every moment of our lives... and it is almost impossible not to get inspired... inspired to create more... not in quantity but in quality.

Happy 2 months, little roo. You inspire me everday.

Satchi's corner

I love re-decorating satchi's corner.

When little-roo and I hang out, we spend a lot of time walking back and fourth around this little corner. I share stories about these beautiful goodies. It's so much fun to interact with the almost two months old baby. I can tell that she understands me more and more everyday and tries to talk to me with her big eyes. I also love how "girl appropriate" this corner looks and feels. There is something so soft and warm about it... Don't you think...?


I spelled s-a-t-c-h-i with ABC cards by Julie Morstad. They are taped with mt tape so no holes from push pins. (we are trying so hard not to put anything permanently on the wall... and using mt tape turned out to be a great solution!) I am looking forward to spelling new words every so often to keep things fresh. Thank you Angie so much for these fun cards.
p.s. I am going to be lining up these beautiful mt tape in baum-kuchen shop soon! I am super excited:)

This is Satchi's first shoe correction:) I am absolutely in love with tiny shoes... In a month or so, I can put these on her when we go out for urban adventure! One on the left is from my friend in Spain... beautifully crochet. My best friend Penelope gave the middle pair to Satchi. They are handmade by Gracious May. I love the combination of the soft felt and leather on the bottom. Very very cozy... The right pair was another gift from Angie. I want to say that she got them in Paris while she was there for study. Beautiful flower pattern...

Then there are two lovely art work specially designed for Satchi. One on the left is Satchi's birthday painting given by Heidi, her grandmother in Germany. Hubby and I have our own birthday paintings also painted by Heidi and have them hang above our bed next to each other... I love that Satchi's birthday painting has so much more pink in it than ours... Art work on the right is designed by our friend Courtney. (She and her husband were our amazing wedding photographers. We've been friends since then:) Isn't it cool to have her own logo designed before she was born??? Satchi is going to be such a designer:) I also love the way Heidi's painting and Courtney's logo aesthetically synchronizes with each other (total coincidence!!) We have such a talented artists among friends and families...

We also now have a "pacifier spot" for placing clean pacifiers. I was not a huge fun of pacifiers when we first started using it... but sometimes baby needs something to soothe with. It is placed on one of the WASARA, beautifully designed paper plate.