Note: Winter birthdays are great, but they lack the ability to hang out by the lake, swim, BBQ and pick blackberries. So this next summer I want to experiment with doing a joint "half" birthday with Gaël so we can experience whatever that goodness is like.

Gaël is 7. This year we had a tiny party at a trampoline park. Wrapped it with Domino's pizza, nerf guns and a sleepover. Planning birthdays is always a challenge for me, but I try to overwhelm my lack of ability to plan with good intention. 

Here is my favorite photo from the trampoline park:

Some things about Gaël:

He loves loves LOVES his hair. Not only are haircuts forbidden he largely lets no one touch it and believes that any way he styles it is perfect.



His love of reading has become a pleasant surprise. He made the breakthrough earlier this year and reads as much as he can (even street signs to me). I recently helped him get his own library card and taught him how to put books on hold at the public library. 

(You can see my influence in his taste in literature)



He loves American Ninja warrior and really wants to try out gymnastics (I am hoping I can find a gym in Seattle).

 

Parenting remains the best and hardest thing that has ever happened to me. He still wakes up at 5AM, he talks a lot and probably negotiates more than anyone I know. But, it all goes away when I see him happy or sad, show love or excitement. I'm not the best at this, but I try really hard. It puts a lot of things in better perspective for me. Thanks for letting me share some of these photos with you and thank you for the kind words for his birthday :).

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A bullet list of what's up with me:

* Missing: a healthy routine involving exercise. I need to find a community/gym that I can immerse myself in - this is likely the most important form of self-care for me - will likely fall in March todo list. I'd really like the next newsletter to have a positive update on this front.
* Watched movies:
  * Ocean's 12 - A "perfect" movie. The music, the scenery, the outfits, the comedy, the cool. Have a sandwich Brad Pitt.
  * Clean - I love the genre of "Over 50 year old sad man is actually grieving assassin that young arrogant mafia member shouldn't have reawakened", give me all the John Wick/Nobody/Taken movies. 
* Want to watch:
  * Lost in Translation - Feels appropriate in pandemic locked down Seattle
* Reading: Audrey Hepburn: Enchanted - slowly
* Working: excited to start a new gig in a couple of weeks
* Thinking about: a trip home to Oregon, what sunshine feels like, how to furnish my apartment, relationships as a garden, vegan cinnamon rolls
* Important: I hope that this e-mail finds you more than well wherever you are, that you can look around you, see joy and love in abundance. Always happy to give time along with words.

Cowabunga dude,

DJ

Year of the cousin update: is there a family reunion on the books for this summer? There should be, it's been long enough, if we need to think about social distancing we should do it at the swimming holes in Cascadia State park