For Thanksgiving in 2020, we did our first California Thanksgiving in several years, and prior to that we did the child-free thing of just going out to fancy restaurants on Thanksgiving. But when we got the townhouse back east, we started to celebrate in Philadelphia with our extended family. The pandemic made for quite the […]
Archive for the ‘kids’ Category
Trains, baby sleep, the zoo, and holiday planning
November 24th, 2021 by pleia2
Several weeks back, Adam and I had a train day. We put on our matching train t-shirts and had a nice stroll around the local BART station. Up and down stairs, and lots of checking out the local buses. From there, we went home and unpacked our Union Pacific O-scale train set. We normally wouldn’t […]
Halloween 2021
November 7th, 2021 by pleia2
Halloween is certainly different when you have kids in your life. And different again during a pandemic! First, there’s decorations. I am not a crafty person and decorating for holidays was never really my thing. But I now have a toddler who loves making art, and holidays are the perfect inspiration. Plus, when I was […]
Autumn harvest, a hammock, and a radio
October 27th, 2021 by pleia2
Last weekend we had one of the biggest rain storms I’ve ever seen here in northern California. Admittedly, the bar is pretty low. Even on “rainy” days the rain tends to be little more than a drizzle, and sporadic at that. This storm brought winds and about three inches of rain, which meant we spent […]
My 40th Birthday
October 10th, 2021 by pleia2
I turned 40 last month. I’ve never been super bothered by getting older, and have found that in general, I’ve enjoyed life more as time has gone on. Still, it is a mid-life milestone, and I had few things pegged to it. I wanted to be done having children by the time I was 40 […]
Seasonal smoke, high holidays, and getting back outside
September 18th, 2021 by pleia2
We were having a delightful summer. Back yard tidied up enough to play outside. Regular cadence of farmer’s market on Saturday morning and playground on Sunday morning. Every weekend we’d also look up local garage/yard sales to walk to. Then the smoke started to roll in on August 18th. Our cars and outdoor furnishings quickly […]
Our back yard and baseball
August 13th, 2021 by pleia2
After a very chill July, things picked up a bit in August. On August 3rd I was walking home from the eye doctor, a visit made required by Adam breaking my glasses, on my walk home I passed a small “National Night Out” festival being set up in the BART parking lot! As soon as […]
Chill July
July 31st, 2021 by pleia2
July was a pretty chill month. The wildfires haven’t started impacting us yet, work has been pretty typical, and we’ve spent our weekends developing a nice routine of going to the farmer’s market on Saturday and the park on Sunday. I’ve been baby-wearing Aaron while at the park so I can keep up with Adam, […]
Another pandemic 4th of July weekend
July 9th, 2021 by pleia2
We traditionally spent the 4th of July visiting our friends and family in Philadelphia. It was a convenient point in the summer to visit, and we enjoyed spending the BBQ and fireworks holiday in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Of course, the pandemic paused that tradition last year, and this year […]
Food, art, furniture, and outdoor markets
June 25th, 2021 by pleia2
It’s inevitable that I’m tired when I write these blog posts lately. I’m usually carving out a few moments before bed or after I wrap up work for the day. Working full time, then taking the kids, and making sure our household stays on track is exhausting. I know it’ll get easier after this first […]