What do you do on a very rainy Saturday in Portland? Why head to Powells of course – where, inevitably, you end up buying a bunch of new kids books (all on sale) and spend a lot of time following your baby around so you can replace books as he pulls them off the shelves.

I remember browsing the children’s section at Powells when I was pregnant with Thomas. I stocked up on Aussie children’s books like this one and this one in the hope that I would share at least a small part of my culture with my American children.

Fast forward nearly four years and I find myself listening to another Aussie mother talking to her two pre-teenage children while they respond with thick American accents and I realize that this is my future. But then I get home and Thomas says “bath” with a soft “a” like a true Aussie. It’s just one word but it gives me a smidgen of hope.