Latest Posts

Everest at 11 Months

Everest is 11 months old and learned to back off the bed and couch safely, and started taking small steps. On June 29, she took more than a handful of steps, and she will be a full-on walker any day now. She loves splashing in the pool and in the backyard. She celebrated her first […]

Everest at 10 Months

At the blink of an eye, another month has slipped by us! Everest’s 10th month of being alive coincided with Mother’s Day this year, and we had a nice late afternoon picnic at the San Elijo Town Square. Everest is continuing to get into cabinets, pulling things off shelves, and putting random things into her […]

Everest at 9 Months

Everest had her first staycation in downtown Carlsbad. This was her first time staying in a hotel. She enjoyed playing at the beach (eating sand), and going to happy hour, where she had braised beef, a brie pastry, and other goodies. She also celebrated her first Easter, and participated in an egg hunt, even though […]

Everest at 8 Months

Everest spent the first few days of her 8th month of life recovering from COVID, but was a champ about it. This month, she discovered one of her favorite things to do is to pull things off the shelf. She also enjoyed some tortoise visitors we had at our house. Another fun thing she has […]

Everest at 7 Months

This month, 妹妹 improved her fine motor skills, and started eating chicken and picking up bread by herself. So far so good – she still loves to eat. Right before Everest turned 7 months (early February), we visited Arizona to visit 舅舅and舅媽, to have a belated lunar new year celebration. In Arizona, we went for […]

Everest at 6 Months

Everest has continued to be a pretty chill and easy baby. Her sister makes her laugh (but also occasionally cry), and she continues to enjoy eating a variety of foods. She is starting to smile and laugh a lot more, though she still primarily prefers her very serious look. Her first tooth is starting to […]

Everest at 5 months

Everest recently turned 5 months! She’s still pretty new to this world, and continues to be a mellow, easy baby. She does not cry much, and when she does, we usually know why, and can calm her down pretty quickly. She babbles a lot and likes to blow raspberries. She likes to say, “Ohhhh,” “Ehvuhh […]

Everest at 4 Months

Everest turned 4 months recently. She celebrated her first Halloween, and went trick-or-treating with Sister and buddies Connor and Ellie. She also enjoyed friends visiting from Indiana this month. Auntie Belen and Uncle Tony made her laugh many times, and she had a lot of fun at home with extra attention from loved ones. It’s […]

Everest at 3 Months

Everest is a tall girl, measuring in the 90th percentile. She is scowly and does not smile much. She wears a slightly disturbed or exasperated look on her face often, particularly when Sister crowds her space with excessive hugs and kisses. Her head smells like pineapples. She is a pretty easygoing baby, but does not […]

Everest at 2 Months

We have now kept Everest alive for a whole 2 months. (*Pats self on back*) She is a fairly quiet and easy baby. She recently started sleeping in 9 hour stretches just in time for mom to return to work (we’ll see if she keeps it up). She often wears an inquisitive look, or a […]

Everest at 1 Month

Everest has been with us a whole month now. Everyone is adjusting. I’m adjusting to maternity leave (half over now), Vale is adjusting to being a big sister (very well, I might add), Kyle is adjusting to being a Dad to two, and Everest is adjusting to…. life. Existence. Not being a fetus. Acquiring human […]

Nightmare

bitter time runs frantic always chanting about summer lust and sordid sausages drunk as a mad goddess on honey the delirious black shadow screams a symphony crushes the raw mist soaring in the lake and dreams the sun away

Kiss

sweet peach music sings a light whisper in a garden of spring roses spraying languid honey dreams over lazy forest rocks my arm in yours bare feet and the misty sea the summer wind and the moon the shadow and tiny petals soar and shine

Cloud

the enormous black apparatus lies still sleeping with a thousand bitter shadows never recalling the delirious rust sky and lazy purple wind pounding, singing, whispering a quick storm beneath

Cat Ghost

she woke me up one gray morning back from the dead seeking answers from me why two years before my death did you create upheaval invite noise and chaos test the limits of my anxiety

Rage

There’s no other word for it. But the coffee was better and more substantial today, probably because I used hotter water. I read Camus’s The Stranger, and was angry, though it engaged me more than John Updike’s Run Rabbit, which I started last night, and didn’t particularly feel like continuing. I did yoga, and was angry. I […]

Day 1 of Quarantine

Started the day at 5:30 a.m. with French Press coffee. Brought my own coffee grounds and French Press because I can’t leave to get coffee at 7-11 or Family Mart. I know my own dependency so came prepared. Haven’t made French Press coffee since Ana showed me in 2009, when I visited her in Greensboro. […]

Scenes from Quarantine: Furniture

We moved back to our old house after shelter-in-place was instituted, and found furnishing a bit of a challenge, with so many stores shut down. However, being stuck at home and having a little extra time isn’t always a bad thing. Working from home definitely has its perks: no commute, and lunch hour can be […]

Cousin

sometimes when I put on a little too much makeup drink a little too much and smile in a certain way in the fuzzier hours of night I see her face in mine at first a shock but then I welcome it because I find it’s the closest thing to bringing her back to life from […]

Black Fiona

sometimes in the afternoon sun I catch my black cat out of the corner of my eye in the magical recesses of periphery and I see instead my dead black cat gone for over a year slinking toward me her claws tapping the cold kitchen tile fat slow and so endearingly ordinary looking for solace […]

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” -- Oscar Wilde

五花馬,千金裘, 呼兒將出換美酒, 與爾同銷萬古愁。