My mum always loved this time of year. Because she did, so do I. I have these memories of misty woodland walks through drifts of ruby and amber leaves, jumping into piles of them, kicking them up as if back to their branches, and picnics eaten ravenously in […]
I’m in the middle of a very normal, adult phone conversation with Dominic, the kind that usually involves trying to scrounge up a plan for dinner, when I gasp. Lorelei is busily munching and slathering on my fingers (again, the usual), but something is unmistakably different. I can […]
My Lorelei, at last you grew out of the first outfit you ever wore. In a matter of days (it fit you perfectly last week!) you’re big enough to embody the whole two-month change from crumpled, quiet newborn to grinning, gurgling little person. This short life in which […]
When your babe sleeps like an angel on the moons of Iego (I think), the world’s all smiles. But as soon as they become a grumbling rancor, don’t you find that, suddenly, everyone knows best? I hit that mothering milestone the other day – mum-shaming. In the post […]
Lorelei is smiling now, and since she’s started there’s been (almost) no stopping her. There seems to be no end of reasons for her to get that twinkle in her eye; a song or simple face-pulling game, getting her nappy changed, or seeing our bleary faces in […]
Going to my first local play group with Lorelei, I was nervous but braver than I would have expected. I was even a bit excited, as I always am at the thought of showing off my daughter to anyone new. So I stepped out into glorious sunshine and […]
To me, the grotesque Thala-sirens who gave Luke his daily green milk had a bizarre beauty when I first saw The Last Jedi on the big screen. Still pregnant with my daughter, I was aware that I would take on the same thankless task they carried out with […]
Since Dominic’s paternity leave ended and I’ve been home alone with Lorelei, I’ve had varying levels of luck getting used to the new routine (or lack thereof). My days were once devoted to my writing, but now they’re sporadic, lethargic, time-stretched and more beautiful than I could imagine. […]
It becomes a different world when I’m the only one awake with Lorelei at some silly hour of the morning. When I’m trying not to fall asleep as I feed her, every thought and feeling is more intense and difficult to avoid. It’s the effect of the witching […]
Even before I was a Star Wars fan I believed in something like the Force. An energy that surrounds and penetrates, binding everything and everyone in one flow of existence. But since I gave birth, it’s provided me with a language for describing the indescribable; how I could […]
