Sweetest thing

I'm learning that being a mother is so many things. Days spent with an infant bring ups and downs, doubts and confirmations, challenges and triumphs, soaring pride and deflating anxiety. Oh! It's such a mixed bag. Sometimes minute by minute. It's exhausting and also, great.

There's this thing that sometimes happens though and it's just the whole wide world; all the difficult minutes dissolve. I'll be doing something - laundry, computer, makeup - and he's quietly sitting or lying, my son over there (but not too far away), then I look over and he's intently watching me and smiling this smile that communicates total adoration and trust. It's the reason and the validation and it's pure love.

Good day in Girdwood

Golly, it's great to get outside in Girdwood on a gorgeous day with my friends, my baby and my man. A snowy little hike followed by a delicious big dinner - baby's restaurant debut. He was the perfect little diner.

Goodbye Sweet Max

My sweet, quirky, annoying, loyal, vocal, weird, loving, lovable, constant cat companion who was going to live forever, proved me wrong today. After 16 years he's become a big part of me. I'll miss him much.

From finding him at 1 week old eating refried beans on a cement stoop, to moving houses with me nine times, this Anchorage home was his ninth life - and it was a good one. They all were.

I've always said there's no other cat like him, and there never will be. He was ready to go now, looking out for me I think all these years, and now he had to be on his way. It's time to rest.

I love you, Max. RIP, baby.