I took these photos a few weeks after finding out I was pregnant, and just a few short days after Ron was discharged from the hospital for the 3rd time in a year. We rented a room out in the countryside and sat on the edge of a hill overlooking the river.
Thoughts swirling. Life. Health. The unknown.
Over a year later and the thoughts are similar, but life is different. Linc’s approaching his first birthday and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic about it all.
From my last trip home to Hawai’i in 2014.
I’ve never shared these photos before - they’ve been sitting in a folder on my hard drive for 4+ years collecting dust.
Occasionally, I look at them and think about that trip and how hard and unexpected it was for all of us. We didn’t expect to lose my grandma so soon, but it happened and we all came together that June to celebrate her life. She was a strong, beautiful woman who had such a deep and giving soul. It was a gift to have her in my life for as long as I did.
We’re going back in December for Christmas and I’m excited to be home after almost 5 years! I’m sure so much has changed since then. People are different. I’m different. We have a baby! I can’t wait to introduce Linc to the island and culture. Maybe even to some local kine grinds :).
Paris in the summer a few years back. This trip was a memorable one. I walked for miles, climbed the Arc De Triomph, sat in a cafe and had coffee and frites, went to Palais De Tokyo and seen an exhibit I couldn’t wait to see - and I did it all on my own! There is something special about roaming the streets of Paris alone. You notice the little details a little more than you would if you were with another person.
Ron met up with me on the same trip and we drank wine, people watched and took photo booth strip photos together. We watched a pride parade and sat along the Seine with the sun blazing down on us. We sat in our favourite park, ate at our favourite Japanese restaurant, went to the natural history museum, listened to a band play, took photos under a sparkling Eiffel Tower.
Can’t wait to go back one day.
We drove out to the countryside over the weekend. It’s a short drive now that we live south of the river. I found myself thinking about how much I love being this close to nature. I always talk about how much I miss being near the city centre, but being minutes away from places that look like this is equally as great.
We found this place by luck. Driving through random streets and taking a few wrong turns. There were old stone cottages lining the roads with the smell of firewood creeping through our closed windows.
I tried to imagine what it would be like to sit around a fireplace with a book, watching the leaves fall right outside the window. Like a scene straight out of a fairytale.
Linc enjoyed walking with us under the tall colourful trees. He doesn’t seem to mind the cold as much, but I bundled him up anyway. We took photos together, remembering last year when we did the same only with my massive belly.
Linc turns one in just two weeks and I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that my little guy has been around for just under a year. You hear about how fast it goes. Everyone talks about it. It’s cliche, yes, but it’s true. It goes by too quickly. Life just speeds by and you sit wondering where the time went.
What a year. What a year.
A little late, but here’s week 4 of October.
- Linc got a new walker. We pushed him around the house on it and he loved it!
- Hung out at the mall again. Bought some new pots and pans and finally ordered a new car seat from John Lewis. We went with the Joie 360 spin.
- Carved pumpkins for Halloween. It’s been years since I last carved any. I think the last time was when I was a little girl. Ron carved the big one and I carved the two small ones. It’s harder than I remember - my arms ached when we finished.
- Linc has been getting into everything lately! He’s getting so quick at crawling and loves going out even in the cold. All of the leaves in our neighbourhood are bright red and orange and yellow. We walk through and I point up and show him my favourite trees. He seems so intrigued and curious - he’s such a sweet little guy.
The only 3 photos I took when we were in Mallorca this past July. Wish I took more, but it was such a crazy first trip with the baby.
We went up to see the Aletsch Glacier during spring, but when we got there we found ourselves stuck in a snow storm and you couldn’t see a thing.
“Beta” (or “Deeta”) was the first real word Linc ever said.
He loves Beta.
I have a feeling these two will become close friends one day.
Summer at the Heath.
Autumn is most definitely here. The trees are all turning and the parks are littered with burnt orange and bright banana yellow leaves.
- We walked the river in Richmond. I attached the winter foot muff to Linc’s pushchair. It’s like a mobile bed - I want an adult-sized one for myself to be pushed around in.
- Holland Park was crawling with people. I hear it’s half-term. We walked through the Dutch and Japanese gardens and admired the red maple trees and watched people sit in the sun reading their books. A man walked a peacock around, talking to strangers about its eating habits and attitude toward other birds and people. “Don’t feed this one” he said. “This one’s a baby.” I watched as 10 people crowded around the peacock with their mobile phones and felt as though I was thrown into some kind of alternate reality. This is life in 2018.
- Linc is standing on his own now. Only for a few short seconds, but he is standing without assistance. He makes 11 months today (October 22). He’s sleeping better on most nights. Falls asleep at around 8-9pm and sleeps through to around 6-7am. A few times he’s woken up crying in the middle of the night and we have to pat his back until he falls asleep again. Sometimes it takes an hour to get him back down, but he eventually falls asleep, thankfully. Whew. Just to think we have to do this all over again once we return from our Hawai’i trip in January.
[insert skull emoji here]
- After an embarrassingly long time, I finally finished reading The Goldfinch. I feel as though a new chapter’s begun in my own life after putting it down.
So much has changed since I started the book.