by Cat on September 6, 2007
Susana,
Yesterday you were four weeks old. On Saturday, we can officially start counting your age in months (1) instead of weeks or days. It’s amazing how much you have grown and changed even in such a short time.

Sometimes it seems like you were just born yesterday—and I still think of myself as having “just had a baby.” At other times, those early days of adjustment (you getting used to us and the world—and us getting used to you and to being parents) and all the sleepless days and nights seem hazy, like something we dreamed. Most days, it seems that you–and the cuddly, bright-eyed, curious baby you have become—have always been a part of our lives.

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by Cat on August 22, 2007
This week we’ll have to start the process to get Susana’s U.S. passport, her Social Security number, and register her birth as a U.S. citizen born abroad. One of the passport requirements is a 2×2 photo, against a white background, with the baby’s eyes open and no parents’ hands in the frame.
Our solution? The changing table photo studio. Here she is getting ready for her closeup.
by Cat on August 14, 2007
I’ll be taking an extended break from blogging to enjoy the arrival of our daughter.
Susana JillBorn: August 8, 20073:43 a.m.Samsung Medical CenterShe wasn’t expected until early September, but somehow decided that seeing Seoul in August was a good idea.Just after she was born, one of the nurses told me: “Your daughter was looking at the sky.”At the time, I thought it was such a beautiful and mystical thing to say (if a bit strange). She then clarified that Susana was born sunny-side up with her face toward the ceiling, which made the birth more difficult.I think I prefer the first interpretation. I hope that she will always be looking at the sky.I’ll be back soon with updates.
Since I won’t be going on any long hikes or running marathons anytime soon, I’ve been getting a lot of reading done. I just added my thoughts on the two most recent books—Helie Lee’s Still Life with Rice and Many Lives Intertwined by Hyun Sook Han—to my “reading up” page.
Though they are both really different books (one is a novel, the other a memoir), they are similar in that they both offer a glimpse into the lives of Korean women at very different points in the country’s history, offering voices and perspective that I don’t think are heard very often.
And what has really stayed with me are both women’s stories of life here during the Korean War and its immediate aftermath.
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