Spitting Image

Maiya, 3 months


Jenni, 3 months (taken 40 years minus 1 day before Maiya's birth)


Tony, approximately 3-6 months is our guess

The picture of Maiya with the giraffe is my current favorite photo (top image). I think because she is just so darn cute when her head is up and she's all looking around. People keep telling me that Maiya looks like me. I thought I saw a resemblance, but actually, I think she looks like my brother Darin did when he was a baby. But when I saw this photo of myself at 3 months (middle image), the same age Maiya is in the photo with the giraffe, I was amazed! She really does look like me. As she gets older, I think she starts to look a little more like Tony (bottom image), especially in the eyes. What do you think?

P.S. To Bubbe Fran: Do you recall how old Tony was in his baby picture?
P.P.S. Maiya now has her own webpage which includes her photo album, Maiya's Home.

Totally shocked!

I demand a recount... If I wasn't going to get Anwar, I really wanted the rocker dude. And while I rarely saw the show, I've been following what's been happening each week and really thought it was Bo's show to win. Me and Maiya fell asleep on the couch watching it tonight and woke up for the last 5 minutes. I can't believe the result. Boring. Safe.

The Kitchen is Open

I think I set a record. I cooked two nights in a row. Last night, I made capellini with homemade basil pesto in the blender from a cookbook that I bought in the mid-80s and don't remember ever using. It was the first time I ever made pesto and I have to say, it was delicious!!

Pesto sauce:
2 cups sliced basil leaves
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup romano cheese
3 TBS pine nuts
1 tsp fresh parsley
1 clove garlic sliced in half
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 cup olive oil

Blend all the above in the blender and drizzle in the olive oil. Used hashi (chopsticks) to get the stuff off the sides and bottom.

Tonight was Taco Bar night. I made tacos old-style like my mom used to make when we were growing up with some adjustments to 2005 in parenthesis. My mom was over today watching Maiya while I went to the spa. I did the fake meat and grated the cheese, while mom chopped onions, tomatoes and lettuce.

Make-Your-Own-Tacos 2005:
Ground beef with McCormick's Taco Seasoning Packet (Veggie Soy-fake meat and low sodium taco seasoning)
Grated cheese (organic sharp cheddar)
Chopped tomatoes (vine-ripened from the Farmer's Market)
Sliced iceberg lettuce (old-style)
Diced Onion (Farmer's Market organic)
Guacamole (Mom said she never used guacamole in tacos. It came in a bag from Trader Joe's cause I couldn't find any ripe avocados at the Farmer's Market)
Black Olives (Kalamata from Farmer's Market)
Sour Cream
Corn and Flour tortillas (back in the day mom used to fry the corn tortillas in oil and stuff it with the meat. I just put them on the burner)

We're going to try to plan the week's dinners in advance. I'm thinking it will help us shop better and more frequently when we know what we're going to be eating, and it will avoid the what-are-we-having-tonight-for-dinner dilemma. I'll keep you posted.

Tricks are for Kids

Maiya's learning new tricks every day.

Lately, Maiya likes to kick off. On your lap, wherever she can be propped up with her legs dancing around on a solid surface. She likes to be upright and she likes to be entertained. Put her down and you will hear from her immediately.

She has also learned (or maybe it's just innate) how to drool over every thing and every one. When she's "flying" on our legs or knees, she can drool in your face or in your mouth if you're not careful.

Yesterday morning, she was on the bed, face up, kind of propped up on a pillow. I was next to her and was reading a book. I saw her lift her head off the pillow, while lifting her legs about 5 inches off the bed. The girl is a yoga baby. A few seconds later, I looked at her, and she had flipped around, moved her body 90 degrees to the right and was face down on the bed. Ackk! But no worries, although she was face down, I watched her lift her head up and push up with her arms and look around. So cute!

Maiya's new sounds this week are "en-gah," and "heh-heh-haaaaa!" Just now, she sighed and said, "egggh, ahhh." Also new this week are smacking her lips together and making sucking noises. With or without her hand in her mouth. With or without my arm in sucking range.

So goes life at the Kuida-Osumi household. Besides that, what else matters? You don't want to hear about my eye infection or my wrist pain, right? Or about the 6 loads of laundry since Thursday. Stay tuned for more about Maiya next time!!

P.S. Actually, on a more serious note, I can think of something else that matters. How about signing the NO STARBUCKS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO JAPANTOWN petition? A Starbucks in the SF Japantown will compete with long-standing neighborhood businesses that sell coffee such as Benkyodo (100 years), May's Coffee Shop (33 years old), and Café Hana (17 years). According to the Starbucks website there are already 55 Starbucks within a two-mile radius of the proposed site in one of the three remaining Japantowns left in the entire United States.

Jenni's Movie Reviews

Somehow I've been watching more DVDs lately. Because of the whole Netflix and internet downloading of movies off the internet, business at our local mom and pop video store has declined. As a result, you can now get 2 movies for the price of 1. For the new releases, it's $1.50 per movie for new releases, including tax. Can't beat that. Here are some of the movies we've seen in the last few weeks. And I will go with my same star rating from January where 1* is worst, and 4**** is best.

Wicker Park **** - This one I loved. It was confusing, but it was the kind of edge of your seat, what the heck is going on, i'm totally into it. If you watch the special features, you learn that the director wanted it to be confusing. You have to really focus to get the story. Really good movie!! It was the first movie I've seen with Josh Hartnett, and I have to say, I really liked him.

A Day Without a Mexican ** - It was ok. I was hoping to like it more. Really good message politically, but kind of slow. Pace was a bit off. I liked that 2 people I know were in the movie. Shishir is a Great Leap artist, and the other is the husband/actor of my friend Cynthia, who is the Executive Director of The HeArt Project, who runs a great arts education nonprofit for continuation school teens.

Napoleon Dynamite * - Really coudn't get into it. Tony loved it, laughing throughout. But I just didn't get it, the geek factor was high. I was more interested in my dumb People magazine and folding laundry.

Shall We Dance?*** - I knew it would be corny, but I cried! Since the 70s, Richard Gere has always had it going on. J-Lo is hot. I always like her in movies so much more than I do when she's being herself. All of the dancing is real. Impressive. I know I loved the Japanese version, and I know people say this wasn't as good, but I liked it.

Supersize Me**** - Loved it. Great documentary. Funny. I loved watching the diary moments from the guy who ate a high fat diet of McDonalds for 30 days, and almost caused irreversable liver damage to himself. Got a little slow in some places when it wasn't about him. But the stuff about the corporatization of school lunches, the high-stakes testing which causes schools to abandon PE, and the amount of advertising dollars that goes into the fast-food industry was awesome.

I Heart Huckabees* - What. The. Heck? I so did not get this one. Tuned out. Left the room. And I love Dustin Hoffman but pul-eeze. I am not a Jude Law or Naomi Watts fan. At all.

Moonlight Mile*** - Another movie with Susan Sarandon as the wife. She's great in this movie, as is Dustin Hoffman. I enjoyed this movie about a guy whose fiancee is killed. He is living with secrets and with his future-in-laws-to-be-but-not-to-be.

Garden State*** - I liked this one a lot. As with most DVDs, I watced it twice to get the director's comments, which I love to do. It was sweet and I loved Natalie Portman's character. Very spunky and goofy. I like how it seemed slow, but then you get all sucked into it. Kind of like Moonlight Mile. ADDED LATER AFTER REALIZING I FORGOT IT!!

Collective Purpose

"If my mother were here tonight, she'd say, 'Antonio, don't declare victory, declare your purpose,'" Villaraigosa said to roars of approval from his supporters.

"So let's declare our purpose here and now," he said. "Our purpose is to bring this great city together. Our purpose is to draw fully and equally on the rich diversity of all of our communities and neighborhoods. Our purpose is to believe in our young people. Our purpose is to make a difference."

Social Butterflies

Me & My Gal

Gosh, whatever happened to the days of posting to the main website every 2-3 days? Been busy, I suppose. I've been meaning to put up April's Foto Firsts--but just haven't gotten around to them.

Maiya and I have been out and about, going walking just about every day in the neighborhood. Sometimes we go to lunch just the two of us, and run errands in the stroller, or in the Baby Bjorn carrier. Sometimes we have lunch with people like Auntie Keiko, Lisa with Kai & Miya, Laura with Amani, Gayle with Kaylee & Kieth. The other day, we walked over to Lianne's house about 6 blocks away. We've gone to 3 meetings at Great Leap in the last 3 weeks. We had dinner with Lily on Friday night at CPK, and I'm having dinner with Maria this week for her birthday. Me & Maiya went to two parties, one for Kieth & Kaylee's birthdays, and another for the Ayala's 40th wedding anniversary.

In the meantime, I did 9 loads of laundry in 9 days. I've been trying to do the dishes every day. Now that my hair is falling out in big clumps, I am sweeping our hardwood floors every day.

The good news for today, is that it looks like we have a new mayor in town. Yea for Villaraigosa!!

Aloha to Motherhood!

Mom & Dad with their 5 grandkids yesterday at Kieth and Kaylee's birthday party. From left to right is Kieth (4 yrs), Kaylee (1 yr), Maiya (3 mos), Kevin (4 mos) & Kyle (2 1/2 yrs)


Me & Maiya celebrating our first Mother's Day

Last year, I remember crying on Mother's Day because I didn't know if I would ever be a mother. I had had two miscarriages and had been trying to get pregnant for over two years. I was in the process of fertility treatments and was feeling very discouraged. Fast forward to Mother's Day 2005. My baby is exactly 3 months and 1 week old today. I am so completely happy to be Maiya's mama. It feels right and I am savoring and enjoying every precious moment.

Today, me, Tony & Maiya celebrated by going to the Hawaiian Mother's Day/Children's Day Arts & Crafts Festival in Little Tokyo, then went to The Talpa for mexican food afterwards (the restaurant we went to the night before I went into labor with Maiya). Aren't we cute in our matching red hibiscus aloha shirts that my cousin Jackie sent us from Hawai'i? Hey, I couldn't think of a better day for us to be "twins"!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas! And especially my best wishes and "baby dust" to all the women who are trying to conceive and want to be mamas. Aloha with Love!!!

May Day Seder

Beth & Valerie at Passover Seder - photo by 7 year old Erin


Jenni, Maiya & I with Elijah's Cup at Passover Seder - photo by Erin

Last Sunday, May 1st, was Maiya's first, oops, second Passover Seder. Her first Passover was at my godsister Beth's house in Torrance on April 23. We had a great time seeing my godmom, Valerie; Beth's husband Brian and their daughter Erin along with about 8 of their friends. There was matzoh ball soup, four types of kharoses and delicious chicken and brisket. Oh, and the chocolate covered macaroons were righteous. I'm glad we were invited because with Mom and Don now living in Idaho, we didn't have a place to go this year. This could have been a bummer now that we have Maiya. I want to make sure she gets culture and history from both sides of the family. Like New Year's Oshogatsu, we may need to start taking the responsibility to host Passover ourselves.


Me & Maiya (3 months old) at the Workmen's Circle for the May Day Seder

So back to May 1st--we went to the Workmen's Circle May Day Seder over on Robertson Blvd. It was the first time I'd been to a community seder. I've had my eye on the Workmen's Circle since I first heard of them because of their secular emphasis on Jewishness and social justice. In this year's Hagode, they describe the organization as: "a progressive Jewish cultural and social action organization, advancing democratic frontiers, strengthening civil rights, promoting universal health care, and opposing bigotry and tyranny, working to preserve the unique legacy and beauty of Jewish and Yiddish culture." I'm down for that.

Throughout the meal their very own Mit Gezang Yiddish Chorus and Voices of Conscience Social Action Chorus led us through a variety of English and Yiddish songs like one dedicated to the courageous resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. One very cool part was when they sang Earl Robinson's "May Day Song" and showed an old photo of Paul Robeson singing with the Earl Robinson Singers. One of the singers in the photo is now in the Workmen's Circle choir and it was touching to see him still doing his thing on stage. I guess the historical connection was also meaningful because Jenni and I thought about naming our child Robeson if we had a boy.

Approximately 80 people were there and all of us shared in the reading the Hagode. They said it was their largest turnout in a while. The food was tasty (the choice between brisket, chicken, salmon or veggie plates) and the more common list of 10 plagues that visited Egypt, was replaced with plagues on hunger, homelessness, hatred, ignorance, totalitarianism, greed, war, disease, poisoned air, water and earth, and the nuclear shadow over our lives. At the end we sang the Anthem of the Workmens' Circle and The Internationale with updated words by Billy Bragg and revised by Workmen's Circle Executive Directer, Eric Gordon. Great stuff.

For more info check out the Workmen's Circle website for interesting programing like upcoming Cuban films, art shows and a Jewish take on animal treatment and vegetarianism. http://www.circlesocal.org/300.html

Motherhood @ 40

People have been asking how I feel about being a mama. I've only been at it for 3 months & 3 days, but I have to say simply and clearly, I LOVE IT. I LOVE IT. I LOVE IT.

For much of my life, I really wasn't sure I wanted kids. I was dating my first boyfriend for close for 9 years--a guy I met in my first year of college. Long story short (and to be nice about it), we just weren't compatible. In my 20s, I was building a career in management/human resources for a 100-person law firm, and had some crazy visions of being a career woman and a single mom--I secretly thought about having a girl, and naming her Danielle Setsuko (after Danielle Steel--pre-activist days).

In my 30s, I became very active in the JA community, volunteering my time and money to many grassroots and activist organizations, sitting on several boards, editing books, doing programming for organizations, your all-around organizer and fundraiser. Along the way, Tony & I got married. At the same time, in my career, I was running a mid-sized nonprofit arts organization. I was keeping up 5 websites, a backyard organic garden, as well as spending a lot of time for some projects in
Detroit (living in CA). I started taking taiko lessons and joined Bombu Taiko. I was trying to keep up a daily (or every other day) yoga practice. I was trying to live an organic, healthy and balanced life, but I was running around chasing my tail.

Tony was just as busy, working as an artist and a teacher, and volunteering for additional organizations. So we really didn't have the time. I had inklings that my 30's were getting away from me, and that my clock was ticking, but I really wasn't convinced I wanted to have kids. Our life was very full!

But then, 4 years ago, my sister Gayle had a baby boy named Kieth. My nephew Kieth changed my mind completely. When I held him in my arms, when he first smiled at me (I remember the exact moment), I was in love, and baby fever hit me off guard, and with a passion. I was almost 37 and having made up my mind, I almost waited too long. It took a few months of discussions with Tony before we decided to go for it. After trying to conceive for a year, we sought medical intervention from the fertility dept at my HMO. I had two miscarriagess, several invasive procedures (tests to rule out infertility) and was in my 2nd round of clomid, hormone injections, and intrauterine inseminations when I finally got pregnant last year, and Maiya was born 3 months ago.


I think that despite my fears and misgivings, that I am glad that we waited until we were sure we wanted Maiya. Yes, it is a lot of work, and little sleep, but in many ways, it is easier than my crazy life was, because it is instinctive and natural, and I know what I need to do. I think that it has calmed me down and given me focus. Maiya needs me now, and it's important is that I be there for her when she needs me, and be conscious enough to give her space when she needs it in the future.

I Love Daddy

Let me tell you, Maiya loves her daddy. When he smiles at her, she giggles. When he says, "wha, wha, wha," like Chachi, or maybe it's "whoa, whoa, whoa," like Joey Lawrence, she goes wild, laughing crazily. Every day, she makes a new sound. Today, she squealed when I was about to feed her. In the photo above, it looks like Maiya can sit up on her own, but she was really propped up against the back of the couch like a little stuffed animal.

Tony really is an awesome daddy. He plays with her, changes her, talks and sings to her, holds and rocks her at night. Speaking of the night, Maiya is sleeping more, she has been sleeping 7-9 hours, which began this week. She doesn't go to sleep till 1:30 or 2:30 am, but still, she's slept in until 10am at least 3 times this week. Even though I'm still waking up cause I need to pump, it's making life easier these days. We're not trying to get her to "sleep through the night" as everyone asks us, because we're feeding on demand and going by her schedule, but it is nice that she's setting a generous schedule for mommy and daddy.

Anyways, Maiya loves her Daddy, and I love him too.

PS. Happy 42nd wedding anniversary to my mom & dad.

Blah, blah, blah

The picture above is from over a month ago, but I was going through organizing the hundreds of pictures we've taken, and thought it was so cute. Don't have much to say today. I feel kind of blah. I'm wondering if I should go back to my regular website and quit updating here on blogger. Anyone have a preference? My manual main website is more work, but I miss it! I also fear what would happen if I ever lost the blogger stuff and there's no backup.

The dishes are done. The house is fairly clean. I took a shower. Maiya is sleeping and has slept a lot today, so much so that I have barely changed or fed her today. I had planned to go to the Tuesday Farmer's Market and Trader Joe's about an hour ago, but I didn't want to wake her, which I often do. But then if I wait till she wakes up, then I need to feed and change her first, which means that by the time I get her bundled into the car seat, I will hit the traffic. Ahh, always trying to figure out the timing when taking Maiya to public places. Then figuring out if we're going to do stroller, car seat, Baby Bjorn, Maya Wrap, or go alone and leave Maiya with Tony, or take Tony with me. The last two require me waiting for Tony to get home from work.

I feel somewhat annoyed with myself that there's so many things lingering on my To Do List, but here I sit, reading blogs and wasting time. Which reminds me, I still want to write up Maiya's birth story and how she got her name. Blah, blah, blah.

This week with Maiya G.

Maiya with Mama

Today, Maiya is 2 1/2 months old. At her 2 month appointment last week, she was 12 lbs, 3 oz, and 24 1/4 inches long. We have settled into somewhat of a groove. She nurses about every 3 hours during the day, give or take an hour. This week, she has started sleeping a little bit longer, going from an average of 3 hours of sleep a night to maybe 5-7 hours. We think it's because we started swaddling her again at night. I'm still waking up every 3 hours, but last night, she slept from 3am till almost 9am, skipping the 6:30 feeding.

Some days, we are out and about, and other days, we stay home all day. When we're home, we do baths, have tummy time, and air time (no diaper).

--Monday night, Tony had a J-townvoice meeting, so Maiya & I went to have Thai food with Monica and the very adorable 2 1/2 year old Dyami.
--Tuesday night, we went to The Talpa for dinner, then went to visit Grandpa Larry and Uncle Bill.
--On Wednesday morning, we went to visit my cousins, Cherie & Roxane. Cherie is visiting with her husband Didier and two boys from France, so it was great to see them. Then, we went from there to Great Leap, where we visited phloe, Luke & Harry. Lily stopped by too.
--Yesterday, we stayed home all day, and I went grocery shopping after Tony came home from work, then we had a visit from Arvin last night.
--Today, after her bath and filing the tax extension, we're going to go run some errands.

When Maiya's awake, she's much more alert now. She "talks" with Max the Monkey, when you put him up on the mobile above her pack n' play. When you put her to the mirror, she will flirt with herself and laughs at herself. She smiles widely and will follow a picture of Bert & Ernie when you move it from side-to-side. Last night, Tony put "Lamb-y," a soft fuzzy white lamb rattle in her right hand, and she brought her left hand up to hold it in both hands. Tony said that she's a genius. I think he's right.

BIG LA

Los Angeles County:  10,179,716 (July 1, 2004 estimate)
City of Los Angeles:    3,912,200 (January 1, 2004 estimate)

Did You Know? If Los Angeles County were an independent nation, it would have the 14th largest economy in the world, larger than that of either Australia, Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, or Switzerland.

Source: California Dept. of Finance; Demographic Research Unit

Ma(i)ya Wrap

Maiya Hanging with Daddy, 2 months old

I am reading a great book about Attachment Parenting, a nurturing style that encourages parents to trust and follow their instincts for child-rearing based on the baby's needs that responds attentively to baby's cries, minimizes the parent-child separation, avoids "sleep training" (scheduled feedings), etc. We have found that it supports and validates a lot of the things we are doing to bond with Maiya such as breastfeeding on demand, co-sleeping, cloth diapering, no pacifiers, etc. They also encourage "wearing" your baby as much as possible in cloth carriers, and limiting use of plastic infant carrier buckets, strollers, swings and bouncers.

So, yesterday morning, Maiya was fussing and just inconsolable. So, I put her in the Baby Bjorn. No sooner had I strapped her in, she fell asleep. I "wore" her on my chest for 2 hours, going for a walk, working on the computer, folding laundry, while she slept happily snuggled close to me. In the evening, she was crying, actually I would say she was screaming. I told Tony about what I had done earlier in the day, and we decided to put her in the Maya Wrap Sling, or what we call the Ma(i)ya Wrap (haha). Tony put on the sling, we adjusted it for him, and put her in it (photo above), and went for a leisurely walk in the neighborhood. She stopped crying, fell asleep, and was calm the rest of the evening. It was a beautiful thing.

(Source: Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child by Katie Allison Granju)

Japanese American icon Fred Korematsu passes away

THE PASSING OF A CONSTITUTIONAL LAW LEGEND

Fred Korematsu, who President Bill Clinton described as helping to widen the circle of democracy by fighting for human rights, by righting social wrongs, and by empowering others to achieve, passed away on Wednesday afternoon (March 30th) at his daughter's home. He died of respiratory failure at the age of 86.

Born in Oakland, California on January 30, 1919 and an American citizen by birth, Korematsu was among 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In the ensuing months, the Army issued orders rounding up these Americans into 10 Internment camps, each surrounded by barbed wire and machine gun towers and located in desolate regions from California to Arkansas.

Korematsu defied the military orders, evaded authorities and was ultimately arrested and jailed in 1942. He appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that it was unconstitutional for the government to incarcerate Americans without charges, vidence or trial. He lost. In its 1944 landmark decision, the high court ruled against him, declaring that the Internment was not caused by racism, but rather, was justified by the Army's claims that Japanese Americans were radio-signaling enemy ships from shore, and were prone to disloyalty. The court called the Internment, a military necessity.

In a stinging dissent, Justice Jackson complained about the lack of any evidence to justify the Internment, writing ??the Court for all time has validated the principle of racial discrimination?and of transplanting American citizens. The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.? Constitutional law scholars have referred to the 1944 case as a civil liberties disaster.

Korematsu's case stood for almost 40 years until Professor Peter Irons with the help of Aiko Herzig Yoshinaga, researching government's archives, stumbled upon secret Justice Department documents. Among them were memos written in 1943 and 1944 by Edward Ennis, the Justice Department attorney responsible for supervising the drafting of the government?s brief. As Ennis began searching for evidence to support the Army's claim that the Internment was necessary and justified, he found precisely the opposite -- that J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI, the FCC, the Office of Naval Intelligence and other authoritative intelligence agencies categorically denied that Japanese Americans had committed any wrong. Other memoranda characterized the government?s claims that Japanese Americans were spying as ?intentional falsehoods.? These official reports were never presented to the Supreme Court, having been intentionally suppressed and, in one case, destroyed by setting the report afire.

It was on this basis -- governmental misconduct -- that a legal team of pro bono attorneys successfully reopened Korematsu?s case in 1983, resulting in the erasure of his criminal conviction for defying the Internment.

During the litigation, Justice Department lawyers offered a pardon to Korematsu if he would agree to drop his lawsuit. In rejecting the offer, Kathryn Korematsu, his wife of 58 years remarked Fred was not interested in a pardon from the government; instead, he always felt that it was the government who should seek a pardon from him and from Japanese Americans for the wrong that was committed.

In throwing out Korematsu's 40 year old criminal conviction, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the US District Court of the Northern District of California wrote:

Korematsu remains on the pages of our legal and political history. As a legal precedent it is now recognized as having limited application. As a historical precedent it stands as a constant caution that in times of war or declared military necessity our institutions must be vigilant in protecting our constitutional guarantees. It stands as a caution that in times of distress the shield of military necessity and national security must not be used to protect governmental actions from close scrutiny and accountability. It stands as a caution that in times of international hostility and antagonisms our institutions, legislative, executive and judicial, must be prepared to protect all citizens from the petty fears and prejudices that are so easily aroused.

In 1998, Korematsu received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. President Clinton's introduction of Korematsu reflects the significance of his achievements: In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls?Plessy, Brown, Parks?To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.

Korematsu has been the subject of numerous documentaries including the Emmy awarding film ?Of Civil Wrongs and Rights? co-produced by filmmaker Eric Fournier and Korematsu?s son, Ken Korematsu. His daughter Karen Korematsu-Haigh actively supported Korematsu's interest in civil rights, helping to found the Korematsu Civil Rights Fund sponsored by the Asian Law Caucus, the oldest Asian American public interest law firm in the nation. Karen remarked ?I know he was the country?s hero, but he was my personal hero.?

Other awards include honorary doctorates from the University of San Francisco, California State University Hayward, McGeorge School of Law, and the City University of New York Law School, and official recognition from the California State Senate.

Korematsu's other community activities include serving as past President of the San Leandro chapter of the Lion?s Club, and actively supporting the Boy Scouts of America. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Source: SUNNEWS wire

I Love to Read/March's First Fotos!

Just uploaded pictures of Maiya, the reader and March's "first fotos" of Maiya, her guests and travels to the www.kuidaosumi.com website.

On Being a SAHM

I think Maiya is going thru a growth spurt (7 weeks this week)... last night, she ate about every hour or so from 7pm till 3 am... and then she slept till 6:30 am. For the most part, I'm sleeping in increments of 10 minutes to 3 hours, but aside from being tired in the evenings, I'm functioning pretty well. Must be the fact that I'm getting so much love back from my little girl, who is much more alert these days, smiling a lot and even has a chuckle that is just so cute.

Yesterday, I left Maiya with Tony for 5 hours! That's the longest I've been away from her since she was born. I went to Great Leap to take the staff out to lunch at Zip Fusion Sushi (our favorite lunch place). it was wierd being back at the office after being gone the last 3 months. After lunch, I was about to start downloading all my personal files off the computer, but the CD burner wasn't working and there was over a gigabyte of stuff i had on the computer. So, I realized that i really don't need all that stuff i've been hoarding and i should go thru it b/4 just bringing all that clutter onto my home computer. That, and this mama's breasts were full and heavy and I needed to get home. In any case, Maiya took two bottles of thawed breastmilk and although she was a bit fussy, she took her first bottle since she was 8 days old.

It's so funny how last year this time (actually for the last 10+ years), I had commitments 2-4 nights a week, coming home from 8-11 pm on a regular basis, and often had weekend meetings, work/arts-related performances or community/political events to attend, and since January I have been home-home-home. I'm seriously enjoying being home. Am I now a housewife? A Stay-At-Home Mom? In many ways, even if motherhood is definitely lot of work, it's much easier than the lifestyle that has exhausted me for years. I still need to probably work on balance in my life, but I think that will even itself out as Maiya grows and develops.

Harvests Begin with the Seed (Tony's Blog #2)

Last month, Saturday, February 19, 2005, Jenni and I took Maiya to the annual Day of Remembrance (DOR) program in Little Tokyo. Organized by NCRR--Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, it commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066 by Franklin D. Rooservelt that forced 110,000 Japanese American into Concentration Camps during WWII. This year’s program was titled, When Loyalty is Questioned...from Tule Lake to Guantanamo.

When I told some of my high school students we were planning on going with Maiya, one said, “How come, she’s too young to remember.” She was right. At several weeks old, Maiya is too little. But like many religious and cultural traditions like Baptisms and first year birthday parties, taking Maiya was important because DOR represents the values we want Maiya to grow up with: honoring past struggles, using history to make connections to today, and standing up for justice. Along with connecting a new family tradition to NCRR’s DOR tradition, it was a treat to see Maiya surrounded by so many of her elders and their community spirit. She’ll have many role models to learn from.

So yes, Maiya won’t personally remember any of her first experiences she’s likely to take part in this year like “painting” the Little Tokyo mural, marching for peace against the the war in Iraq (and possibly Iran), walking the picket line for Assi Market workers in Koreatown, eating dinner at the Far East Café--or at least Paul’s Kitchen, and dancing the Tanko Bushi at summer Obon festivals. We also plan to visit Grace Lee Boggs (where she got her middle name) in Detroit and relatives in Washington and Idaho this summer. But Maiya will hear the stories, see the pictures and grow up knowing that her own life is intertwined with larger events and people. Along with taking care of her physical and psychological needs, Jenni and I also need to nurture her spiritually and build her community consciousness. She’ll grow knowing she has an important role to play in this world.

Gaining the heart and skills to build a new and more just society means experiencing community-building events in the same way bedtime stories, nursery rhymes, and alphabet play lay the foundation for a love of reading. It should be a process and a natural part of daily life. Jenni and I will have to think of ways to make these times interactive and age-appropriate. We hope it works out.

Link NCRR to http://www.ncrr-la.org/
Assi Market Workers--http://www.kiwa.org/e/homefr.htm

6 Weeks with Maiya G.

Maiya turned six weeks old this week. Hard to believe. She's such a dream. She's starting to be more alert during the day, looking around at things. We've been moving around quite a bit lately. We've been to two La Leche League meetings, gone for walks in the Baby Bjorn carrier or the stroller, running errands, going to doctors, and this morning we went to a Mommie & Me Yoga class. It was my first workout in many months, so I'm probably going to be sore tomorrow. What's cool is that you can bring your baby, nurse or hold her if necessary. She slept during the first half, and "watched" me during the second half. After we came back from yoga, it was bathtime. My brave, strong daughter likes the water and doesn't cry when taking a bath.

When she's fussy or gassy, I'm learning that she will calm down when we pick her up, and she will smile if I turn on India.Arie and start dancing with her and singing loudly. Sometimes. I'm also learning that a horrid day can be wiped out with a sideways glance up at me and a big smile.

Did you hear about the 1,000 protesters who picketed Arnold's $89,000 per couple fundraiser in Century City last night? He's got obviously very wealthy special interest individuals and businesses paying $89,000 for dinner with him, and he's complaining about "special interest" teachers, nurses and service union employees outside. Is that ironic or what?

Ok, well, enough for today. Time to feed the little munchkin. I'm putting my column which ran in yesterday's paper below.

Celebrating Life: Documenting Family & Community

Here's my most recent Rafu Shimpo column 3/16/05

I’ve been taking pictures like crazy! On February 1st, just six weeks ago, I gave birth to my first child, a beautiful baby girl, Maiya Grace Kuida-Osumi.

With my digital camera, I have taken close to 300 photos. I take pictures when Maiya sleeps, when she smiles, when she cries, when her daddy gives her a bath, after diaper changes, when we go for a walk, every time Maiya has a new visitor, and sometimes, just because she is just so darn cute.

I am also taking pictures with our 35 mm film camera, videotaping her, and doing my best to keep up our personal family website. In addition, I’m recording every feeding, every pee, every poop, with a brief journal entry of each day.

This is my life the last six weeks, but unfortunately, I have been to two funerals in the Japanese American community in the last few weeks. Both of which were very moving tributes that remind me of the importance of documenting family and community stories.

The first was a memorial service for Eddie Oshiro, who was tragically killed when a car hit him as he crossed the street in February. Eddie was 83 years old and a longtime resident of the San Pedro Firm Building, a low-income housing project operated by the Little Tokyo Service Center CDC (LTSC CDC).

Eddie took pictures every day. People who work, live or spend any amount of time in J-town undoubtedly have run into Eddie, and maybe had a snapshot taken by him. He took pictures of all kinds of people, and documented the changes taking place in Little Tokyo over the years.

At the funeral, Bill Watanabe from LTSC said that Eddie wasn’t just a picture taker, he was a picture giver. It’s true. Eddie would take your picture and then get a copy to you. A few months ago, we received a batch of photos taken by Eddie--some with my husband Tony as he led community tours for college students in Little Tokyo, and some of me, at Great Leap’s production of “To All Relations: Sacred Moon Songs” in the courtyard of East West Players last July.

I also learned that Eddie was a regular member at Centenary United Methodist Church and that he took pictures every week during the service. Reverend KarenFay Ramos-Young said that she has a shoebox filled with photos Eddie had taken of her children, documenting their growth from week-to-week over the last few years. Every person who spoke at Eddie’s service talked about how he had given them photos of themselves as well.

At the memorial service, Eddie spoke to us, through a video interview that had been shot by Sheri Kamimura for a project of LTSC, and produced by Tad Nakamura, a 2nd generation filmmaker. It was so great to see Eddie in action, taking photos and walking the streets of Little Tokyo, and passing out photos to his friends.

The other funeral I attended was for Gloria Uchida, who passed away after a 7-year battle with breast cancer. I first met Gloria about 10 or 11 years ago when I was volunteering for a community tree-planting day on Second Street in Little Tokyo. Gloria was the Little Tokyo Project Manager for the City’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and was so happy that young people were helping to beautify Little Tokyo. (In fact, if you want to see pictures of the tree-planting day, Eddie Oshiro took photos that are hanging on a poster board in the San Pedro Firm Building.)

I met Gloria again over the phone about 5 years ago through my work with Great Leap. She was interviewing me about a Great Leap project that I had applied for funding from Japanese American Community Services (JACS), an organization that has supported projects in Little Tokyo for decades. The project was to bring 1,000 kids to Little Tokyo to see one of Great Leap’s multicultural performances and visit the Japanese American National Museum. We spent several hours talking about the project, Great Leap, and Little Tokyo. She was so sharp, and I loved talking with her.

Then, I joined the Board of JACS a few years ago and met Gloria at one of the meetings. She was very sick, but she had been the heart and soul of JACS for decades and made an effort to meet with the new board members and pass on some of her knowledge of the organization’s 90+ year history (starting with the Shonien orphanage). I remember being immediately engaged in talking with her, and thinking how electric and vivid her eyes were as we spoke and how much she cared about the future of JACS.

At the funeral, I learned that through Gloria’s decades of work with the CRA, she had her hand in supporting countless buildings and projects in Little Tokyo. They showed a video montage of Gloria’s family photos, coincidentally also edited together by Tad, showing Gloria’s love for her family. It was very touching, and really reminded me how precious life is, and how important it is to spend quality time with family.

So I encourage Rafu readers to take pictures today or use any form of media that allows you to not only document life now--while the kids are still young and before a loved one passes away-- but to live life to its fullest. Both Eddie and Gloria were a part of J-town and they will definitely be missed and remembered.

Celebrating life, family and community. I gotta run. Baby Maiya is smiling and I just have to take a picture.

© 2005.

Save EV1! Stop GM from destroying cars

Have you heard about the Save EV1 campaign? I just saw a story on the local news this morning because one of the Baywatch babes was arrested yesterday in protest of the crushing of these electric vehicles. Apparently, GM made 1100 zero emission, zero pollution, petroleum-free electric cars in 1999, and is now destroying all remaining 77 of them. A group of environmental and clean-air activists are participating in a round the clock vigil outside the GM facility in Burbank to put the remaining EV1's back on the road, which GM is taking to Arizona to be crushed. Individuals have offered to purchase these remaining cars for $1.9 million, which were taken back after their leases ran out.

It doesn't make any sense to destroy these cars--especially when SUVs run amok in this state. Check out the campaign's website at www.saveev1.org. Then click to the section on how you can join me in helping support the vigil and save these cars from GM's senseless destruction. How un-green can you get. I mean really.

Take a Steroid, Kick a Woman

Here's an article from Counter Punch, a similar version is scheduled to run in the Nation. I highly recommend that you read this article.
 
Take a Steroid; Kick a Woman
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

Back in the early 1990s, the right-wing taste of the year was Newt Gingrich. He led the Republican sweep into Congress in the 1994 mid-term elections. His "Contract With America" loomed in every headline. Liberals wailed that Gingrichism was invincible.

The counterattack began right in Gingrich's front yard, in Georgia. The Atlanta Central Labor Council and Jobs with Justice staged a noisy sit-in in Gingrich's local Congressional office and seized the headlines with stinging descriptions of the Contract as a cruel assault on the poor and the working class. For months, groups of union workers dogged the Congressman at his every stop across the country. This noisy guerrilla warfare rallied the faint-hearted and threw Gingrich, then Speaker of the House, off balance. By 1995 a rattled Gingrich had lost his touch, faltering badly in the famous budget face-off with Clinton.

In the 2000 Democratic primary campaign the AIDS coalition ACT UP (involved in the earlier Gingrich protests) adopted the same tactic against Al Gore, showing up wherever he made public appearances and shouting out protests at the rotten AIDS policies he'd signed on to. There weren't always many protesters, but they were always there, and they had an effect. Gore changed his line, and so did the Clinton Administration.

Now it's Arnold Schwarzenegger's turn. California's nurses have got him rattled, and it's already costing him. A February 23 Field Poll showed his approval ratings declining ten points since last September, a significant drop. One might have thought that it's a no-brainer to realize that kicking Florence Nightingale's butt is not a sure-fire way to the public's heart. But the Governor is so used to browbeating the press that he thought he could do the same to the California Nurses' Association (CNA), one of the most militant unions in the country, with 60,000 members and representing registered nurses at 171 health facilities throughout the state. Schwarzenegger has been trying to roll back the union's gains on nurse/ patient ratios, safety standards and kindred issues.

Schwarzenegger's version of Howard Dean's scream came in December in Long Beach. As the nurses barracked him during a speech, he denounced them as one of the "special interests" and said, "I'm always kicking their butt." This witty response from the breast-grabber got plenty of play, and did the nurses nothing but good. At a January Capitol protest in Sacramento the nurses carried coffins and had a New Orleans jazz group play a death march. During the Super Bowl they flew a small plane over the steroid-swollen Governor's party at his Santa Monica home. When he was in Washington they took out a full-page ad in Roll Call flaying his record. During a Schwarzenegger speech in a Sacramento hotel, nurses held up a banner saying RNs Say Stop the Power Grab.

On February 15, when Schwarzenegger and his platoons of body guards and flunkies trooped into a screening of Be Cool, 300 nurses demonstrated. Kelly DiGiacomo, 46 years old and 5'2", a nurse at a Kaiser hospital near Sacramento, had a ticket. She ensconced herself in the fourth row, wearing her nurse's scrubs.

A bodyguard rushed up, and under the pretext of a possible meeting with the governor, led her to a room with a California Highway Patrol cop at the door and began to grill DiGiacomo. A few days later a CHP investigator called. DiGiacomo asked why she should be considered a threat. The investigator replied, "Well, you were wearing a nurse's uniform." "Oh, sure, the international terrorist uniform," DiGiacomo scoffed. Californians scoffed with her when they saw the news stories. At least Bush and Cheney can claim they're being targeted by hairy men from the dark side of Mecca. Here's Arnold hiding behind his goons from the woman who cares for you when you're in the hospital.

Schwarzenegger's strategy has been to project an image-calculatedly fascistic in style-of irresistible momentum, aiming to crush all opposition with threats to go directly to the people with rallies backed by the mountains of corporate cash he's been raising since he was elected.

It's no idle threat. Schwarzenegger has a swollen war chest, albeit one that's also starting to get him bad press. One of the reasons Gray Davis, his predecessor in Sacramento, got recalled was his 24/7 addiction to fundraising. If anything, Schwarzenegger is even more relentless, with a corporate cash IV permanently stuck in his arm. Last year he raised $28.8 million, and this year he plans to raise at least another $50 million to promote his agenda.


Schwarzenegger's agenda is crudely simple: Attack and if possible destroy social safety nets in health, pensions, insurance, workers' comp, job security, education, etc., with a green light for business to pillage, outsource jobs and not pay taxes.

He's already tripped. Near the end of February Schwarzenegger was reportedly abandoning his proposal to abolish the independent Board of Registered Nursing, along with eighty-eight other regulatory and policy boards. But he's still planning to roll California into DeLay-style redestricting and to ramp up the use of "emergency" diktats to undercut democratic opposition from the legislature. One such example is in the area of healthcare: an emergency order by the Governor in November to roll back patient safety standards in California hospitals, reversing the intent of a 1999 law. A CNA lawsuit challenging that order will be heard in Sacramento Superior Court in early March.

You might have thought Schwarzenegger would have some sympathy for nurses, who incur long-term back trauma from having to haul patients up in bed, a task equivalent, on average, to lifting about 1.8 tons a day. No. The Governor vetoed a bill requiring hospitals (heavy Schwarzenegger donors) to install safe-lift policies and equipment. And yes, he vetoed another bill to educate school coaches about the dangers of steroids and performance-enhancing diet supplements.

As I said, political momentum is the key to Schwarzenegger's game. But what happens when you trip over a 5'2" woman in nurse's scrubs? You lose momentum. What happens when you start screaming abuse at nurses and teachers? What happens when you make working women your enemies? The humbled president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers, might want to have a word with Governor Schwarzenegger on that one.

March 2, 2005 

Happy One Month

Happy One Month Birthday to baby Maiya! Hard to believe it's been 4 weeks since our little love bug was born! We're off to a New Mother Breastfeeding support group at The Pump Station today!

First Month Fotos!

Finally, finally I updated the kuidaosumi website. I still haven't written the birth story, or some of the entries I had planned to write, but I put up some of the cuter photos from the first month. We have over 200 photos on our digital camera, and here are a select few for now at http://www.kuidaosumi.com/Updates/jenjournal.html

I have to say, we are lucky parents so far. Except for a few rough nights, she sleeps a lot, and often sleeping from 4-6 hours at night. I have been able to take naps in the evening, and that helps with getting up at night, and then getting up in the morning. This morning I actually woke up at 5:30 am and had to wait half an hour for Maiya to wake up. We have a co-sleeper, but often she ends up sleeping with us.

We have had a lot of support. Friends have been visiting, Tony's mom was here the first few nights (and at the birth), and my mom has been coming over about 2 days a week, cooking for us, doing laundry, helping me run errands, and taking pictures of Maiya. We've ventured out a little more... we went to the park where Tony & I got married, and went to the doctor's office and the Japanese market by ourselves. Did I mention that she was 9 lbs, 13 oz. at her 3 week appointment? She's moving around much more, able to wiggle herself around in bed, and her alert moments are increasing. During her last two baths, she hasn't cried at all.

As for me, I've already lost 28 pounds, yet my wrists, hands and fingers are experiencing a lot of pain from overuse. I'm exhausted, but happy. I'm appreciating every moment because I know that the first month will never come again!

Baby Activist

First let me start by sharing a picture of this lovely gift for Maiya which arrived in the mail from Peg (pegpower.com), one of my first online friends, and someone whom I haven't met in person yet. I was so touched when I opened it, I had to share it. People who are not bloggers don't always understand how online friendships can be very meaningful. Peg and I have shared our lives, good and bad, over the past few years. I love her dedication to her daughters Ashlyn & Summer and her generous nature and love towards her family and friends. So Peg, thank you so much for your gift of friendship.

Baby Maiya has had a series of firsts this week. First trip in the Baby Bjorn, first stroller ride, first La Leche League meeting, first shopping trip to Target, first community event in Little Tokyo, all of which she slept soundly through. Yesterday, we went to the annual Day of Remembrance event called "A Question of Loyalty From Tule Lake to Guantanamo Bay," which commemorated the 63rd anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 which sent Japanese Americans to concentration camps during WW2. The program included speakers Salam Al-Marayati from the Muslim Public Affairs Council and Hamid Khan from South Asian Network.

As we arrived, it started to rain, so we had to maneuver the stroller thru the streets of J-town. We were over an hour late and had to sit upstairs in the overflow room and watch the program via big screen TV. Then, just as the program was ending, Maiya woke up and needed to be nursed. Afterwards, we went downstairs and introduced sleeping Maiya to her community of friends, aunties and uncles, who seemed to enjoy staring at her, just like her daddy and I do.

Patty, Steve and Kelsey brought Maiya a red t-shirt that says "ACTIVIST" across the front of it, which they bought in San Francisco at a museum with an exhibit of the same title. So at less than 3 weeks, that was Maiya's first introduction to the political and community life that her parents hope she absorbs and embraces as she grows up.

Maiya's Two Week Milestones

It's hard to believe that Baby Maiya is already 2 weeks old as of yesterday. I know people are waiting to hear the details about Maiya's birth story and Jenni's labor, but that will have to wait for now.

It's hard to believe that she's finally here and in our lives. Our lives will never be the same. You would be shocked to see me and Tony as parents. For two people who had collectively changed literally 3 diapers in the last 20 years, we are now old pros and can change a diaper, while singing, and in our sleep! We obviously have much to learn and Baby Maiya is teaching us what it's like to be parents.

She is an angel, so beautiful. When she's hungry, she's ferocious and girlfriend uses her powerful lungs to let us know what she wants. Right now, she's propped up on a blanket on the couch, sleeping in the crook of Tony's arm. Hard to say who will sleep longer--Daddy's girl loves to sleep!

2 Week Milestones:
* Maiya is starting to lift her head more.
* Maiya can manuever from burp position on my neck to the feeding position with 3 strong head bobs.
* Maiya can turn her head from side-to-side during tummy time.
* Maiya smiles often in her sleep.
* Maiya can focus on our voices and turn her head when we call to her
* Maiya can grab my glasses and fling them off my face (grabs necklace and hair as well)
* Maiya's umbilical cord fell off on day 12.
* Maiya used 73 cloth diapers in the first 6 days at home (73 diapers saved from landfill!)
* Jenni lost over 20 pounds in the first 2 weeks.
* At 15 days old, Maiya is 9 lbs, 2 oz and growing!

Maiya Grace & Ossie Davis

Our 13 day old daughter Maiya Grace was named after me and Tony's dear friend and mentor, Grace Lee Boggs, an 89 year old Detroit-based movement activist from the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership. Grace is author of the highly recommended book, "Living for Change." Maiya Grace is connected to the esteemed Ossie Davis, because one of Grace Lee Boggs' dearest friends was Ossie, who we met at briefly at Grace's 88th birthday party in Detroit (photo below). Here is an article that Grace wrote upon Ossie's passing.


OSSIE DAVIS
RENAISSANCE MAN OF THE PEOPLE
By Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen, Feb. 13-19, 2005

It is hard to accept that Ossie Davis has made his transition. He was scheduled to come to Detroit in May to receive an award from the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies and to be guest of honor at the premiere of Professional Revolutionary: The Life of Saul Wellman, a documentary about the legendary political activist and survivor of the Spanish Civil War, World War II and McCarthyism.

We were also going to celebrate my 90th birthday with a conversation at the Boggs Center.

I was so looking forward to that conversation.

Like millions of others, I honor Ossie Davis for his gifts and achievements: his majestic voice and imposing presence, his plays and performances, his (and Ruby∂s) blazing the trail for generations of black artists and actors, his (and Ruby∂s) courage and skill in integrating their citizenship/political/Movement lives with their
professional lives.

But I especially cherished Ossie as a black man who, like my late husband Jimmy Boggs, had been born and raised in the Jim Crow South in the early 20th Century, had been part of the Progressive movement after World War II, had refused to be intimidated by the McCarthyism and anti-Communism of the 950s, had marched with Martin and also described Malcolm as "our black shining Prince" in the 1960s, and was helping to build the new movement we now need as we enter the 21st century.

Despite the demands on him as an actor and speaker, Ossie always made time to do benefit performances for Detroit Summer and to sit down with young people who wanted to know how he and Ruby had been able to stay married for so long and/or how they had been able to make their livings as artists and actors without selling out.

Among the questions I wanted to explore with him:

* What have blacks and the country lost because of the integration that was achieved by the civil rights struggles? How does one deal with the new contradictions that arise from successful struggles?

* Why was it so important for blacks and the country that blacks refused to be intimidated by McCarthyism?

* What did he learn from growing up in the rural South that might help young blacks raised in urban ghettoes?

* Why did Jimmy think that "being locked in racism was the most devastating thing that had ever happened to us"?

At Jimmy's Memorial celebration in 1993 Ossie described how he had often been "born again" through encounters with Jimmy. This is how he summed up their last meeting.

Jimmy was ill and couldn∂t come to the program. But when I got to the house, he immediately embraced me with one hand and with the other gave me three pages on which. were the questions which had to be
resolved to make this an intelligent and decent society. So Jimmy gave me my assignment, and reading the questions and his thoughts and propositions about them, once again I was born again. Because I came across the concept that Racism as we had used it in our struggle was no longer valid. Racism was indeed a very small designation of what the problems were. What we needed to do was enlarge our frame of reference. Our struggle indeed could only be meaningful if it was a struggle in which everybody was fought for instead of fought over; nobody was any greater or any less than anyone else. The struggle in its purest sense had to be focused on elevating the lives of all the people.

NEWSFLASH: Tony Blogs for First Time!

I love to write, but I've never blogged. Not sure why. Jenni's voice has been the one to document her/our life over the last few years on-line. But with her nursing Maiya and me feeling like I don't want the moment to pass, here I am.

After Maiya's birth, I called my dad and said, "Hi Grandpa!" He shot back, "Hi Dad!" It caught me off guard. Teacher, muralist, hapa, lover of food and justice--those things I've heard and felt, but "Dad," that was a new one. 40 weeks of secondary role-pregnancy kind of got me thinking about it, but holding Maiya, tallking motherese, changing diapers, swaddling, washing pumps and bottles, and feeling proud, nervous and more has brought me into parenthood.

Let me first say, Jenni did some hard beautiful work for 24 hours (not counting 13 hours before when the water began leaking). Several years ago when she contemplated having children, she worried a lot about the pain. Well, for a person who says she has a low threshold of pain, she was super solid. Men, that's some work to be admired.

My mom, Nobuko and Laura and Mike were right there when it got nitty gritty and Jenni got guttural. Like dueling doulas, mom and Nobuko were dynamic. Singing, chanting massaging, comforting and guiding. At delivery, my mom and I supported Jenni's legs as she pushed. I saw Maiya make her way out and got to cut the cord.

Today is Maiya's 7 day birthday. But let me thank all those that have helped out over the last 41 weeks and even before. To all of Jenni's blogger friends who've been e-normously supportive. All the family and folks that organized and came to the baby showers and were so generous. Every cloth diaper comes from the community. Also thanks to family and friends that came over to help get the house ready with packing up, moving furniture, prepping and rolling paint, setting up baby furniture, cooking meals, bringing food and just being great family and friends with advice, encouragement and congradulations. Righteously collective and cooperative. Thank you thank you.

Gotta go. Maiya needs to be cuddled.

Tony--Jenni's husband

Welcome Baby Maiya!

We are so unbelievably happy to announce the long-awaited arrival of our new baby! I only have a minute to post, so here are the quick stats:

Maiya Grace Kuida-Osumi
Born Tuesday, February 1st.
8 lbs., 11 oz.
20 1/2" long.

My water broke on Monday morning at 4:10 am, and she was born the following night at 5:41 pm, so if you do the math it was a 37 1/2 hour process, that had many ups and downs, but the end result is just the most amazing thing, We are enamored with our new beautiful little girl, and are adjusting to parenthood, and already she is teaching us many new things about being parents. Stay tuned for the delivery story and updates on parenthood from me and Tony.

Come into the circle, circle of life
Welcome to the dream of a paradise
What was once a ruin can be reborn
Just like sun appearing after a storm

Sun above, earth below,
seeds of love, let the children grow,
I... Dream a Garden!