Gave up the restaurant life to have a kid. I was blessed with this insane Dragon Baby and there was no going back to what I once was. I rearranged my life to spend my days alongside her. Changed career paths and explored other passions. Now I spend my days chasing an opinionated three year old around town and failing miserably at gardening. I am now a Certified Babywearing Consultant and spend my days helping other parents to build confidence in their parenting instincts. I am trained in Breastfeeding support, as nursing has become a value I really hope to share with other caregivers. I live my politics. I think it’s a luxury not to. I write about my experiences… because I have to. It is the one way I have always been able to contribute artistically.

Activism was at some point a huge part of my life, and it seems to find its way into everything I do. Dragon Baby and I are active in our local La Leche League group and I am an Advanced Educator with Babywearing International. I think a lot of people would look at my parenting style and consider me an “attachment parenting” advocate, but truth be told… I don’t like to identify with this label because of all the stigma attached to it. I prefer to think of myself as a practical parent. My daughter is my best friend. I take her everywhere, not because I think she will be emotionally damaged if I leave her behind… but because I want to share my life with her. I wear her because it makes sense to – and because she likes it. She was walking before she was even a year old, but she still likes to go “up” sometimes. I own a stroller… and have been known to use it . Yes, we cloth diapered; but we also have some Pampers sitting around. We co-sleep, and full term breastfeed (whatever that means). Don’t ask me when we are going to wean. Hopefully sometime before college? I don’t know. Ask the Dragon Baby.

Food is a huge part of our lives. When my partner and I met, we were both working as chef’s in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto. Him Sushi, me Soup. Our love for each other revolved around food for a long time until Dragon Baby came along. I don’t work in the industry anymore, but he still makes Sushi. I spent 10 years as a vegetarian – a year of which I was vegan. Now I consider myself “recovering” but I backslide from time to time. I like my meat Grass fed and hormone free. I like my veggies organic and not better traveled than me. In our cross-cultural, multi-generational household – we enjoy a lot of ethnic foods. As much as I like to say we eat healthy, I don’t know that I can consider the Hong Kong high-fry, meat centric cuisine our in-laws eat daily necessarily “healthy”. Food is such a huge part of the culture of both sides of our family, so although I do my best to keep us eating right… things sometimes get a little bit crazy around here. That’s cool. We roll with it. “That which doesn’t kill us…” right?

Some people who know me well would call me a hippie. Those who don’t, would never believe them. If hippie’s liked Marc Jacobs as much as I do… there might be a place for me among them. Until that happens, I’ll keep pressing on, Dragon Baby in tow, looking for the rest of my mommy tribe.

Hanging out in Brooklyn