On December 3rd we had a little birthday party to celebrate Aaron’s third birthday, a day after his birthday to make sure our au pair could join us, and so not to have it on the same day MJ returned from an international work trip. I decided to decorate on Friday night so he’d get […]
Archive for the ‘family’ Category
A week of chores
December 18th, 2023 by pleia2
I don’t know how other people with full time jobs and young kids do it. Is it normal to take a week off from work just to catch up on chores and tasks around the house? This will be a bit of an unusual post by getting into boring details of tasks everyone has to […]
Thanksgiving with the family in Philadelphia
November 29th, 2023 by pleia2
We spent the week before Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving week itself at our townhouse in Philadelphia. Since this is just another home spot for us, we were both working most of the time, and the usual laundry, dishes, and house stuff. A few days into our trip, the dishwasher stopped working, but thankfully it had just […]
Harvests and Halloween
November 19th, 2023 by pleia2
Halloween is a pretty big deal at our house. Autumn is my favorite season, and our modern, spooky, secular Halloween is one that I’ve increasingly embraced as the years have gone on. We put hang lights and decorate, there are all kinds of little lights and spiders and eye balls that end up floating around […]
COVID-19 came home again, but not for long!
October 26th, 2023 by pleia2
When I returned from my trip to Las Vegas, I tested negative for COVID-19 and happily re-joined my family. The next morning I had a cough, headache, and the general fatigue that were all too familiar. A second line on a COVID-19 test confirmed my fears, I had it. At that point I had already […]
Labor Day weekend delicacies
September 29th, 2023 by pleia2
Over Labor Day weekend half the household was sick, and the rest appeared to be heading in the same direction. In a sense, I’m glad we didn’t make plans for the long weekend, since we wouldn’t have been able to keep them. So instead of going anywhere, we stayed close to home and did some […]
Summer fun and chores, chocolate, cars, and fish
September 8th, 2023 by pleia2
The first Tuesday in August is National Night Out. I seem to recall it was held at the BART station last year, and we stumbled upon it accidentally while passing by the setup earlier in the day. Now that I’m more hooked into the local parent groups, I’m starting to discover these activities quite a […]
Critters, typewriters, and cable cars
August 29th, 2023 by pleia2
Our summer adventures have continued with a lot of trips to the zoo. We got an Oakland Zoo membership a couple months ago, and I quickly learned that our boys love going to the zoo, and since it’s less than 20 minutes away, it makes for a nice late afternoon getaway if I leave work […]
TK and childcare
August 26th, 2023 by pleia2
Back in May we welcomed our third au pair. I noted at the time, “it’s a tremendous relief to have an end to childcare troubles in sight.” Well, it’s true that there were none in sight, but it sadly didn’t mean that they didn’t arise. The arrangement with that au pair lasted just a couple […]
Beaches and boats in San Francisco
July 30th, 2023 by pleia2
We haven’t brought the kids to San Francisco very many times. The pandemic put a damper on a lot of city outings, and then we were just juggling a lot and bringing a couple little kids to the city was a bigger challenge than we were prepared for. Things have calmed down a bit now, […]