Another anniversary

It's been nearly one year since I began this blog.

When Maïa was about a year old, I had created a website; I had learned html code, a good friend of mine offered to host my site for free, and I thought it would be fun for others keep up with our family via the web. I had had the habit of sending out mass emails every few months to update everyone on our lives, and I found that a bit invasive (though I like receiving such emails from others). I figured it would be more fun if there was a place everyone could go to voluntarily. But soon, it fell out of use for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it takes time to write up all that code! And I was pregnant and not feeling so energetic...

When we left our hometown of Ottawa, almost 15 months ago now, I felt disconnected from everyone. I imagined that our friends and family there would want to know what our girls were doing and how they were growing. A website was too much effort, but a blog would be easy, accessible, and free.

Originally, the blog was to be a parking lot for anecdotes about my girls — a kind of arms-length approach to reporting news on our family. The first entry was even in the third person. I felt uncomfortable, like I was writing about the stray cats I see wandering around our neighbourhood. I feel a little more connected to my children than that. So I found my first-person voice.

And quickly, the blog evolved into a kind of sounding board for my experiences as a mother, my life of parenting two little girls. The foreign-ness of it. The deep intimacy of it. The blog has become more about me and less about them. And, I hope, it resonates with other parents out there. Like Susan who wrote that her little Samantha does similar things, and hey, how do you deal with that? And I hope that it helps my friends out there who are still free (uh, I mean childless!) to understand me better or even to get a glimpse into that weird club of Parents. And I hope that in the process I can amuse a few or cause some to reflect on their own experiences as children of parents...

Whether you've been with me since day one or are joining me today, thanks for stopping in.

Cristina