This gift of diversity
How desperately, do I want to teach our kids to be lovers of this world. Interesting then, when it actually came to inviting the so-called ‘world’ into our home (without us […]
reflections
God Bless America.
The first Fourth of July I experienced as an Adult Third Culture Kid was in 2008. We went to some highly political parade in the middle of the country. We […]
Hope for this weary mama
Two lanky girls stumbled into the coffee shop. One following the other. They both wore glasses. Their gait was either demonstrative of high intelligence or the insecurity that comes with […]
Lost in translation
Words are spinning around in my head. I am living and breathing equivalents, false cognates, brilliant translation techniques like compensation even when I put a script down. Currently submerged in […]
Introducing Mandarin
Ayo’s first introduction to Mandarin was uneventful. I didn’t take him to some toddler class. Oh no, it wasn’t that glamorous. I have come to realize that the best language […]
Constant acts of kindness
I find that the mundane often meets the extraordinary these days. Date: Friday, March 7, 2014 Time: 11:30am [Read: soon to be collective meltdown time for kiddos.] Place: Our little neighborhood […]
Mama thoughts at TWO!
We have a two year old! We once marveled at our infant boy’s mini features, wondering who he would become. Today, we already have glimpses of who this little boy […]
The iconic American cookie
I was driving the hubs to the airport the other day when I noticed this hotel shuttle with a gargantuan chocolate chip cookie on the side… The branding person inside […]
Chatty blog “reduction”
Struggling to find the time to do the many things that I love. One of those many things is to journal. A few days ago, I started using the voice […]
Twice Blessed
Woah, as of today, I am considered full-term! 37 weeks is certainly not when we hope to have a baby, but today is the earliest our birth center can welcome […]
East Hampton: a maid’s embrace & survival parenting
After filming all week in NYC, the production team moved to East Hampton for the weekend: a wealthy coastal village located on the peninsula east of New York. Ayo and […]
When less is more…
Last week, I returned our ill-functioning blender we had bought over two years ago. Tall Mountain put it on my “to do list” and I shuddered thinking of the battle […]
Pregnancy 2.0
In case you haven’t gathered from various social media sites or missed the subtle change from “child” to “children” in the blog description, I am 21 weeks pregnant with bébé numéro […]
Watching people age
Last night, we watched the beautiful documentary “56 Up” after having seen “49 Up” a few years ago. In 1964, a group of UK seven year olds with varying social […]
Pico Iyer: Where is home? (TED Talk)
I posted this beautiful TED talk by Third Culture Kid author Pico Iyer to my Facebook wall the other day, but I am not sure the fast pace of social […]
Bastille dreamers
Often, held captive by the prison of our minds, by all the things that might not work, we stop dreaming about change. Those prison walls thicken as we age. By […]
14 months: I love it when…
… he fake laughs to get your attention: “HA. – HA.” … someone looks straight at him and he responds with a bashful ducking of the head and a wide […]
Co-housing thoughts
On Sunday, we enjoyed an impromptu post-church lunch with some friends of ours. They have four children, two of whom were adopted into their family from mainland China. Their four […]
Hindsight is always 20/20
I recall sitting in a cozy café, sipping a frothy cappuccino while reading all the books I could find on the subject of multilingual parenting atop a basketball-shaped belly. I […]
After Boston…
I shudder when hearing news about someone intentionally trying to inflict harm, breed fear and to snuff out life. Who wouldn’t? How sick in the mind do you have to […]
No longer an infant!
It’s Ayo’s very first birthday today and all sorts of thoughts are running through my mind. My first year of mamahood was mundane and humbling. At the same time, it […]
Bend, Not Break
Unexpected packages are the best! Well, non work-related unexpected packages, that is. The other day, that sort of package arrived on our doorstep. It gets better. It was addressed…to me! […]
The early years…
My first two were spent aboard the floating hospital in this 12 minute clip, which aired on 60 Minutes this past weekend. True story! That’s me pictured with my brother […]
Remembering the Sabbath
When asked what was the hardest thing about living in the States, my friend recently responded: “probably the way the Sabbath day is treated like any other day. I mean, […]
Visiting Mrs. L
Mamie has forever suggested taking Ayo to a nursing home to provide some cackling cheer to sweet grannies. We finally got a chance to do so yesterday. Tata Mimi, our […]
8 month favs
Rocking out to music and noticing that my buddy is humming along to it too, but in soprano. The enthusiastic shake of a small plastic bottle filled with dry beans, […]
Living in the tension
Well, on Monday, we flew over to Europe again. I had to remind myself what was in our suitcases as I pictured them still having the contents of our last […]
Confessions
Tall Mountain left for Toronto yesterday afternoon. They got into the Amnesty film festival there, which is pretty cool. I heard someone recently describe Toronto as a “clean New York”. […]
Un peu de tout
A bit of everything. My kid smells like a skunk. I need to strip his dipes again. It’s the second time in five months, so I’m not complaining. Especially, because […]
Lovely London
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the UK. I rediscovered my [other] passport country that I honestly hated during my four undergrad years of university. Let’s face it: I was […]
A walk in the park
Outside: Golden leaves glistening in the late afternoon sunlight on a warm autumn day. Inside: One baby-on-the-mend who had been quiet in his PJs all day. One papa that could […]