August was a crazy month for us between closing and moving into a new home, weekend trips, and work, but here are some videos of the girls from the month.
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HoshūkŠReunion at Lake Accotink Park
We spent a Sunday afternoon at Lake Accotink Park with my girlfriends that I used to attend Japanese Saturday school with, and all of our kids! We’ve known each other since we were first grade and attended nine years of HoshÅ«kÅ together, and now we’re all moms with children. It was great catching up, although it was a little difficult at times with five little ones running around!
Mirei playing in the backyard later that afternoon…
Here are some unrelated but cute videos we took of Mirei recently, too!
Mirei waving from the window when I came back from work
Mirei giggling hysterically over grapes. I love how she finds humor on the simplest of things sometimes. 🙂
California 2015: Children’s Fairyland
On our last full day in the Bay Area, we got to take the girls to Children’s Fairyland in Oakland! I had heard about Fairyland while we lived in the area and that it was a really great place to take kids, but we had moved away before Mio reached the age where she could really enjoy a mini-amusement park like that. It was the first time going to Fairyland for all of us (even Dan!), so it was a new experience for all of us, and we fell in love with the quaint and charming mini-amusement park from the 1950’s, with its whimsical storybook sets, gentle rides, and friendly animals.
Mirei crawling through a tunnel:
Clothesline and windmill:
Mio looking into the Japanese tea garden:
Looks like Miss Mirei is going to be a little bookworm, too!
Fairyland was truly magical, and the girls had such a fun-filled day there! Our trip to California had been fairly grownup-centric with all the people and sights we wanted to see and places we wanted to eat, so I’m glad that we could set aside a day to dedicate to doing something that was all about our girls enjoying themselves. It’s too bad we no longer live in the area anymore, as Fairyland is definitely the type of place we would love to take the girls often!
California 2015: Albany
While we were in the Bay Area, we wanted to make sure that we stopped by our old neighborhood in El Cerrito/Albany area. It was our first home as a family, where we brought Mio home from the hospital and where she spent her first year and a half. There are so many fond memories we have there, and we really missed it!
Our good friends Sonya and Sofia were still in the area, but packing up their house for their move to Portland. I’m so glad we could meet up with them and see them in Albany, before they moved! It was so sweet to see how both Sofia and Mio have grown so much, and reunite in the place they had so many playdates together as babies!
Shyly exchanging gifts:
The girls playing in the backyard:
Hugging each other goodbye:
After our playdate, we drove over to nearby Memorial Park, where I used to take Mio often when we lived in El Cerrito. It’s still one of my favorite parks, and it was kind of surreal to see Mio running around on the larger playground, which I had to constantly steer her away from when she used to run into it as a toddler for fear that one of the older kids would crash into her. Now she’s one of the big kids! Mirei is around the age that Mio was when I would bring her to Memorial Park, too, so watching her there conjured up some sweet nostalgia for me.
It was such a beautiful afternoon, and we’re so glad we could spend it with our close friends and at one of favorite parks! There are just so many places in the Bay Area that we always wish we could stop by, and there’s never enough time…
Last Week as a SAHM
Today I wrap up my last week as a stay-at-home mom. I feel fortunate to have been one, and I will always look back on and cherish these three years that I was able to spend at home with my young daughters. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to freelance, which granted me the flexibility to create and adjust my own hours so that I could spend more time with them. I will remember with fondness the slow-paced days we spent together. Cuddling and sleeping in. Long afternoons spent at the parks. The moments on the swing set when I would watch them swoop back and forth and realize that someday these afternoons will have seemed to have flown past in a blink of an eye… and I would pause mid-push to savor the experience while it lasted.
This past week, I’ve felt a sense of mourning and have cried many tears as I bring this chapter of my life to a close. It feels like I’m saying goodbye to my girls, even though I’ll still see them every day, but just for much less hours. But I made the decision to go back into the workforce full-time for my career, sanity, and better financial security as a family. I’m not really well-suited to be a stay-at-home-parent, and while I probably realized that a long time ago, it took me a few years to be able to admit it and be at peace with it. I so wanted to be the super SAHM that could fill their kids’ days with fun activities, playdates, learning and lessons, and be able to relish and love every second of it. I certainly made the effort, and there were plenty of times that I loved being able to spend so much time with them and watch them grow. But there have always been worries and doubts plaguing the back of my head, as well as a longing to have more time to focus and dedicate to myself and career. Perhaps someday, I will be able to find a better balance so that I can still enjoy more time with our daughters as they grow, but for now I will hope they get a lot of social interaction at their daycare and make more of an effort to be present, patient, and appreciative of the time I spend with them on the evenings and on weekends. They grow up so fast and time passes by so quickly, whether I am at home with them or working, so I just have to do my best to cherish every minute.
I’ll close this week with some photos and videos I took of the girls when I took them to the park this week…
On the swingset at Borge Street Park:
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Mulch-loving Mirei!
Mirei climbing the playground:
I’m experiencing the gamut of mixed emotions right now, but I’m excited to start my new job on Monday and am hoping for a smooth transition for all of us.