Dear my friend K

The other day I received an email that starts "I have very sad news that I have to tell you."
And my heart started pounding with fear.

I became to know that our friend K died.  And that happened more than a year and half ago.
She was an editor.  I googled her name and found that she was hit by a motorbike when she was riding her bicycle to go home.  She was killed on the spot.  After police investigation her body was sent to her home in south Japan.

I closed my computer to breathe. 
I said to K that I was so sorry for not knowing about that for more than a year.  I had a baby K, and I didn't even tell you about that.  No no, you were not there already when I had a baby.  But if I emailed you about the baby thing, I would have found that something was wrong with you.  Shall I explain why I didn't tell my friends in Japan that I had a baby?  If I do, I know that you will laugh. 

K, but you might not be a baby person like me in the past.  And you would still give me a nice, well selected gift as usual saying that "Hey I don't know how to play with a baby!"

You have small hands, and when I tell you good news, you clap your little hands like a child for joy.  At the same time you are a cynical observer.  That's what I like about you.


You looked bored when we talked about boys when we were in college.  You had never worn skirts in my memory.  You had never talked about your love stories.  Did you ever have your love, partner or whatever it is?  We didn't ask you about that, never.  Your face expression told us not to ask about it.  Don't feel bad.

Do you think you would wear my jewelry?  You don't wear delicate thing, your kind of jewelry will be a simple organic shaped silver ring.  I make things like that too, you know?  I bet you say that you want to wear that on your pinky.

You know we loved you. 
You were K, one and only.

hello!

I feel like I have been swimming under water without breathing for past several months.  Now I know how the life is with a baby.  I just want to hug all the parents in the world.

Before my baby delivery, I decided to sleep as much as I could.  Otherwise I thought I would be sick with too much stress.

To save my sleeping time, I would sacrifice my reading nice books, cooking delicious dishes, and all the fun I had before.  My top priorities were baby, work, and sleeping time.

And it worked!
I go to bed latest 11pm now and sleep until 8am that is when my baby wakes up. 

So here are a healthy baby and healthy me. 

And I'm back!

interview with Lively Magazine

I remember that Lively Magazine had emailed me to do this interview when I was at the hospital to deliver my baby.  At that time I thought giving birth would be something easy so that I could do this right away.  
Because many many people had done the same thing in this long history of mankind, don't you think it would be a piece of cake, right?  I made them wait for so long to get back with all my comments for this interview. 

Here's the interview!

december blue butterfly

As the year comes to close, I want to thank all of you for being there.

This year was very dramatic for me.  
I had this "thunder" baby, and I really worked very very hard from the next week I had a baby.

Last night I had a dream about what happens when you die.
In my dream, everyone's eyes became blue when you die and then you fly as a blue butterfly.
I immediately woke up and thought of my father who died without seeing our baby.

My father asked me about having a baby for the first time and the last time in his bed a few days before his death.  I didn't know what to say to him and I said "It's okay, father."

I sometimes see my father's face expression in our baby and it makes me feel warm.  
It's like baby Thunder continues in footsteps of my father.


Wish you very happy holidays.

Thunder Love

So now I am with this baby boy who is three week old.
I call him Thunder.
In fact we gave him a Japanese name with chinese characters meaning "thunder" and "express".

He surprised us and doctors with his 10 pound size when he came. 
None of us didn't know that he became that big.

I was thunder-shocked by not only his size but also his thick hair outside of his ears.  

The day we first took him to a pediatrician at his day 5, thunder and rain welcomed us.

One thing that surprised me.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to be a housewife for Thunder. 
One day I wondered if I could bake him nice warm carrot cakes in the future if I kept working like this.
That thought made me cry at day 7.

Now I'm listening Thunder Love by Little Dragon at my jewelry studio.
I think he will get used to the fact that he has a hard working mom. 

welcome to NY!

 

My sister and mother are here in NY for a week!  

My sister goes to Diamond District to run errands for me.  I feel like I'm a mom who sends a child for her first errand in her life.  Everything is so different from Japan for them.

After 13 years of living in NY, I tend to forget what it was like to live in overseas. 

To me, my mother is way too polite even to strangers.  I just hope people will be nice to her while she's here so that she will like NY.