@sabayaki and I had to say goodbye to yet another buddy today. Ika wasn’t in our lives nearly as long as we would have wanted but she became a bridge to our past and present selves; from Kodah to Arvo. I can only hope she’s sniffing the air and pulling on her leash in that Great Roger Williams Park in the sky.
May Day and a half year alive! @sabayaki and I planted this Japanese White Pine for Arvo, continuing in the Manchester family tradition of planting conifer partners for newborns. Slide 2 to is me with mine.
Arvo Erie Manchester entered the world on 11/1, help welcome him into it with us. 🌎
Although you can’t see him in this photo, he’s surely in it. This is one of my favorite pics from labor, snapped by @chimpendale it’s about 16 hours and half way into the laboring process. I’m keeping my other favorites private and off of this platform. Birth isn’t what I expected it to be and it seems like maybe it never is. It was active, it was trying, it was emotional, it was beautiful. Kate, unsurprisingly, was a force. I feel lucky to have been a witness and partner to it. Everything’s different now. Looks different, sounds different, love is different. I don’t really have the words for it yet but a week in and this human feels like he’s been here with us all along.
Gutted that @sabayaki and I had to say goodbye to another best friend today. Kodah’s own body has been fighting itself his entire life. We got a couple extra years with him due to the generousity of our community and we couldn’t be more grateful for that time. I don’t believe in much, but I’d like to believe maybe he’s somewhere where Saba’s bugging him and he’s found an orange frisbee to chew on for a good, long while.
