Hasty Diary [December 1st - 3rd, 2025]

#20251217-604

Wednesday, December 17, 2025
December has finally begun!
There is not much left of 2025.

Monday, December 1, 2025: Bathing with my daughter for the first time in a while. (340 characters)

Husband is at work.

It has been quite a while since my daughter Noko started bathing by herself. Because her bathing time is as short as a quick dip, I wanted to check if she was washing her hair and body properly. I tried to join her the other day and was refused, but tonight she smiled broadly and cheered, "

I'm bathing with Mom!".

We took turns in the tub and washed our hair and bodies.
"Mom, Mom, let me wash your back."
When she was little, two swipes of a soapy body towel across my back meant "all done," but tonight she did it many times over.
Her singing at the top of her lungs in the bathroom remains unchanged.
Since I started living with my daughter, I realized that I am not good at being in a space where there is always sound.
I want to relax while bathing, but I can't.
This is the main reason why I stopped bathing with my daughter.

Well, once in a while is fine.
I think to myself, while being showered by my daughter's singing voice echoing through the bathroom, that I wouldn't mind doing this again.

Tuesday, December 2, 2025: "Hey, did you write it?" ~Confirming the name for the graduation certificate~ (361 characters)

Husband is at work.

My foster daughter Noko is in the 6th grade of elementary school.
She will graduate from elementary school next spring.
The confirmation documents for creating her graduation certificate and the graduation certificate conferment ledger have arrived from the school.

"Hey, did you write it? Did you write it?"
Even though the submission deadline is the day after tomorrow, my daughter was unusually pushy.
"Don't leave it until the last minute!"
Even though she is the one who always cuts it close to the deadline!

Regarding the name, it says to enter the name registered in the family register using the exact characters.
My daughter has two surnames.
They are her legal surname, which is her birth parents' surname, and her common-use surname, which is the surname of us, her foster parents.
During the individual parent-teacher conference in the summer, I received a reply from her homeroom teacher that they would prepare two graduation certificates, one with her legal surname and one with her common-use surname.
I wrote that note in the margin and put it in my daughter's school bag.
At a local foster parent gathering, I had heard that while it used to be possible to have two prepared, it had become difficult recently, so this was a surprise.
Well, we shall see what happens.

Wednesday, December 3, 2025: A long-distance phone call showdown! (521 characters)

Husband is at work.

My husband, who had a late shift last night, returned home after my daughter Noko and I had gone to bed.
Even though it was past midnight, he said he talked on the phone with his younger brother.
Since he had an early shift today, sleep was his top priority, but it seems he couldn't hang up because it was about their parents.
"The call lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes."
With a sleepy expression, my husband headed to work.

Just as I finished the morning chores, I got a call from my mother.
Since the procedures for my father, who passed away last autumn, were completed, I haven't been to my parents' house much.
The hour-and-a-half trip one way, three hours round trip, is hectic if I have to be back by the time my elementary school daughter gets home.
It's close, yet far.
I'm impressed that I used to go twice a week.
If I thought of it as work, it might be normal, but finishing household chores, keeping my mother company, and reading through and processing unfamiliar paperwork was quite hard.

Currently, my mother lives alone.
She talks on the phone with my sisters who live far away, has lunch with friends, and goes to lessons.
My mother is managing the days without my father somehow, but the loneliness must be hard to shake.

I put my smartphone on speakerphone and do chores that don't require much thought, like folding laundry, but it becomes exhausting when there are things I want to do right in front of me that I can't.
Today's call time was 1 hour and 40 minutes!
I smile bitterly at this long phone call, unable to laugh at my husband.