Trimmings: Nursery

Couch and pillows, Macdonell Ave., Toronto, 2003

I DON'T HAVE TO GUESS WHAT - OR WHERE - THIS IS. Probably taken sometime in the summer of 2003, after we'd vacated what had been our bedroom in the apartment on Macdonell and set up a nursery for Agnes. We moved down to what had been the living room for three years, which wasn't ideal, but we hadn't planned on becoming parents when we first moved into the place - or at least I hadn't.

This is the old couch from my loft, bought out of a warehouse storage space from an antiques dealer from whom I was buying an old RCA Victor TV. (Don't ask why.) On the couch: An assortment of my wife's pillows, part of Aggie's bouncy chair, a puppy-shaped pillow that I think we'd bought on a whim, and Comfort Bear, the pink-and-blue stuffed bear with whom my daughter still shares her bed. And what looks like a crumpled Kleenex. There would be a lot of those.

The baby who occupied this room turned twelve yesterday. Time passes quickly.