Our first stop was finally visiting the Please Touch Museum. It’s a Philly classic in terms of children’s museums. We also discovered when making the plan to head down that it’s now located in Fairmount Park, having moved in 2008 from the location on 21st Street near the Franklin Institute, where I remember it being. The building it’s housed in now is Memorial Hall, the last major building left from the 1876 Centennial Exposition. The move seems to be a good one for museum goers, since there’s tons of free parking, and it was also great for us because it was right near Girard Ave and we also wanted to see the vintage trolleys that had recently returned to service.

Aaron had an absolute blast at the museum. At three years old, basically everything was perfect for him, and I’m sure he could have spent days there if we let him. Adam was a bit more reserved, but once he became comfortable he was able to enjoy some of the exhibits.

As expected, the transit-related exhibits were the most popular for both of them.

Aaron also enjoyed the play kitchen where he could “cook” things retrieved from the little grocery store in the area next to the cooking area. And after lunch Aaron got to enjoy a water area that I basically had to pry him away from once we were ready to move on.

The carousel at the museum was also a delight, Aaron and I rode on it a few times so he could switch animals.

We wrapped up at the museum in the late afternoon, and then drove a bit closer to Girard Ave so we could conclude our day by taking a ride on the Rt 15 trolley. Just like San Francisco, Philadelphia runs a vintage streetcar line, but this one had been shut down since 2020 and underwent a series of refurbishments and repairs. They just returned in June of this year! I’ve visited it before, years ago, but the boys never had the opportunity to ride on it and we wanted to remedy that.

Aaron adorably brought his trolley plushie along for the ride.

I think they enjoyed it, but they also had their eyes on buses and kept asking to take one of them too. So we took the trolley to the Broad Street stop, and took a look at the transit app to see our bus options. We lucked out, and a bus was subbing on the same line and would take us right back to where we parked! So we took Rt 15 back, this time on a bus.

The bus ride concluded our visit to the city, and both boys fell asleep in the car as we drove back home, so we clearly tired them out. A quick stop for dinner on the way home wrapped the day. It’ll probably be our last time down to Philadelphia proper this visit, so I’m glad we were able to experience a full, fun day.

I’ll start off by saying we were a little disappointed by a couple things: The Giant Heart that you walk through was closed for a massive renovation of the body exhibit and the Electricity exhibit was closed for the body renovation too… because the electricity exhibit is being retired in favor of an expanded body exhibit. We’ve done the heart and we’ll be back in the future, but the retirement of the electricity section of the museum is particularly gutting. I’ve been fascinated with electrical science and engineering as long as I can remember, and exhibits like the one at TFI were inspirational as a youth. It’s really sad to see it go away, especially at The [Benjamin] Franklin Institute, named after a founding father who is possibly most famous for his experiments with electricity. Ultimately, I hope the next generation of electrical engineers finds another way to gain inspiration, and this isn’t some sort of trend among science museums. The train exhibit was also closed, but we knew about that going in, it’s coming back in November.

But on to our visit! We may have gotten in for free, but then we did the paid add-on to see the Art of the Brick exhibit. It was worth it. Various pieces of Lego art were displayed around the gallery, including recreations of classical art, people and animals and dinosaurs, and a couple Philadelphia-specific builds, including The Liberty Bell and the statue of Benjamin Franklin that’s in the lobby of the institute itself.

The conclusion had a large area where the boys could free play with Lego.

The boys loved the displays, but also had a blast building Lego cars that they could then race down a little ramp they had set up. The exit was through the gift shop, where a final Lego set followed us home.

We grabbed some lunch at the on-site cafe before making our way around the rest of the museum. We went to a live show about combustion, which I was really proud of the boys for being so engaged with. We also went to our first planetarium show. We’d held off going because we hadn’t really brought the boys into dark places where they had to be quiet, and I knew it would be a challenge for both of them. It was. Aaron and I almost had to leave because as much as he loves space, he also loves talking and asking questions, and really struggled with staying quiet when he wanted to ask 100 questions about stars. Still, he managed to quiet down and we made it through. We’ll do more in the future!

Walking to the planetarium

The hands-on nature of the museum was a hit with the boys just like last time, and of course MJ and I enjoyed it too, I’m really glad we went.

The planetarium was also a nice segue into using our telescope on Sunday. The boys always want to use MJ’s old telescope, but it’s been really hot all summer, and with the sun setting so late, we haven’t wanted to keep them up late enough to really appreciate it. But one night the moon was looking particularly lovely and it wasn’t so hot, so I was able to get it set up for a peek. Adam was finally able to see the moon through it, and so did my phone! It needs to be cleaned, and astrophotography with a 30+ year old telescope and a smart phone is not optimal, but I was still impressed with how it came out.

On Saturday we did a make-up swim lesson in the morning and then went to a BBQ at a relative’s house in the late afternoon. It was family we hadn’t yet seen on this visit, so it was nice to finally get the opportunity. They have kids too, so there were lots of interesting new things to play with while the adults enjoyed catching up. At the end Aaron even got to play on their trampoline.

Sunday we went to Sesame Place with Irina and Sammy. It’s only 15 minutes from our place here, so it’s been on our radar for a long time, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s next to a mall and I always thought it was an inexpensive Philadelphia-local little park. Turns out, it’s bigger and more impressive than I expected, but also quite expensive. It was bought by Sea World a few years back, and I’ve heard the prices have gone up as a result, and a lot of changes (good and bad) were made.

The first thing we noticed is that they were short-staffed, which is ridiculous on a Sunday in the middle of summer with what they charge for admission. We got on “Big Bird’s Bus Tour” after stashing our stuff in an expensive locker. From there we tried a water ride but failed because that turned out to have an hour+ wait because they only had a single life guard managing the bottom of the ride so only one slide was open. Several other water slides were closed entirely. The “Little Bird’s Bay” splash area was open, so we had fun getting soaked there and cooling off a bit before going to lunch.

Getting lunch was a disaster. It took a half hour for Adam and I to get a couple mini pizzas we ordered from the wildly chaotic lunch shop we went to, and then the bagged apple slices we got with his meal were super gross and slimy and I had to exchange them for something else. By the time we rejoined MJ, Aaron, Irina, and Sammy, they had finished half their meal and had a story of their own to tell about their poor experience. Even worse, they don’t allow outside food, so your only option is to leave the park and drive somewhere, or eat at these mediocre, expensive, on-site eateries. Boo. Irina then had to leave for Sammy’s nap, having only enjoyed a couple rides, though they did get to go on the carousel on the way out.

After lunch MJ, Adam, Aaron, and I ventured on. We decided to skip the huge Count’s Court water area in favor of some dry rides, figuring we’d come back toward the end for that. We did three rides over in Elmo’s World, I took the boys on “Peek-a-Bug,” all four of us did “Flyin’ Fish” and Aaron and I enjoyed going on “Blast Off” which is ride that goes up and drops you, but he LOVED it! Then everything was shut down. Storm clouds were rolling in and a thunderstorm threat made operations unsafe.

At this point, Adam was mad at me for skipping Count’s Court, since he really, really wanted to do more water stuff. As hundreds of people left the park, we had to think about what to do. It wasn’t raining yet, and chance of precipitation was 50-70%, so chances are it would rain and the rides wouldn’t resume. We decided to stay for the 3PM parade. The parade is definitely a highlight of the experience there! The kids seemed to enjoy it, and so did I.

After the parade we made one final lap, but with everything still closed we decided to leave. The gift shop is a real treat, I might even go back because it’s outside the park and open to the public. We got to the car with perfect timing as the rain suddenly began, and it was quite the storm, the entire drive home it was pouring.

In spite of the disappointments, I think we all managed to have fun and we learned a lot for the next time we visit. A friend of mine (who was actually there on Sunday and we missed because I didn’t see his text!) swears by getting a cabana as a home base for the day, and the season passes that include quicker access to rides. We’ll think about that next year. The water stuff is tricky unless we both go in with the kids, especially at Count’s Court because the boys are still a bit little to be without a parent right next to them in 3 ft water, and they flee in different directions when they get excited about water. Next summer should be better for that, and we’ll just both plan on going on the water stuff. For lunch we may even consider going off-site, since it likely would take just as long as trying to get it on-site and we’d get better food.

This meant I had some time to catch up on some reading and writing, even using my typewriters a bit! I was able to take long showers, leisurely get ready for my day, and enjoy hot coffee, all of which tends to take a backseat most days as I’m rushing around with work and kid stuff. I was on primary duty for all errands and picking up food, since MJ was still recovering from COVID, so it wasn’t all carefree time, but those were made easier by not having to rush around to squeeze them in before/after work. I also cleared out some of the garage of stuff we wanted to donate, going back all the way to 2016, including an ancient laser printer after learning that Staples does electronic recycling.

Taking this time for myself and projects was incredibly valuable. I’m reminded yet again that when I slow down and take a little time for myself, I become a much better partner, mother, friend, everything. I’m more patient and thoughtful and everything becomes easier, even the really hard stuff.

But all that was just half my day! The rest of my day was spent enjoying quality time with the boys.

On Monday morning we went to a local playground, and then to a nearby library that we’d never been to after we saw their sign advertising story time at 10:30AM. There, Gaby took Aaron to the story time with all the other kids while Adam and I explored the library, played a game, and found a couple video games to check out.

Tuesday we went over to the nearby Churchville Nature Center where we got a membership. I’d been trying to find something for us to do that was the right mix of local (not just generic kid stuff), not too far away, and that the boys would love. A nature center checked all the boxes, and this was a great one. We began indoors at several exhibits they have in their main building, including several live snakes and tortoises, along with a bunch of stuffed animals that were local and from across North America.

From there we went outside, where it was hot (it’s been hot all summer) but nice and shaded in their nature path.

Finally the gem of our visit: the butterflies! This is the one paid area of the center, and it was totally worth it. They help the butterflies through their breeding cycle by protecting them from the elements and keeping their chrysalises safe in enclosed little tents until they emerge.

On Wednesday we made our way out to our local library for play and story time, and then an outdoor chalk and bubbles event. Aaron enjoyed the story time with the other kids while Gaby and Adam explored the rest of the library. Once it was time to go outdoors, Aaron was the grand master artist just like he is in our driveway at home as he drew all over the entrance sidewalk to the library.

Most kids went Adam’s route and played with bubbles, which was a lot of fun, even in the hot weather.

On Thursday I got a sunburn. It wasn’t intentional, I just wasn’t diligent about reapplying sunscreen while playing in a pool for four hours. Said pool was at our friend’s place in New Jersey, and I’d been trying to get over to see them all summer, but they also have two little kids and getting good schedule alignment was difficult. We finally made it though! It was wonderful to catch up with my friends, but the boys also loved the pool. They’ve been doing swimming lessons this summer, but they hadn’t really had free-play time in a pool. As expected, they loved it, and my friends were prepared for having a couple new-to-swimming kiddos in the pool by blocking off the deep end.

I’m still tremendously disappointed that we couldn’t visit our family in Florida this summer, but this week with the boys has been one for the record books. Taking it slow, enjoying local adventures and time with friends. Growing up is not all about the big adventures, and neither is life. I only wish we could do more of this.

There was no way we could go.

I was gutted.

I haven’t seen several of the relatives we were planning on visiting in years, and most of them have never met Adam and Aaron. We spent weeks planning out who to see and when, where to stay, and making the puzzle pieces come together for a whirlwind week of visits and chill fun. Even the thought of trying to shift those plans, much of which had been made with a holiday weekend in mind, was overwhelming, especially on top of being sick. We canceled all our plans and sent apologies.

By Tuesday afternoon Aaron had a cough too, and Adam quickly followed suit. MJ somehow got a couple days of grace period, but by Thursday he was down too. This is our third time with COVID, and it is notable that this is the first time the kids actually got sick from it. By Friday our house was a cacophony of sniffles, coughs, and short tempers. Thankfully, it moved through our house swiftly and we’re all OK. No one had fevers for more than a day and aside from a lingering cough, the boys were better within a couple days. On Sunday morning I tested negative and was ready to rejoin society. MJ is the last one on the mend, but thankfully we already had taken the time off from work, so he’s had the opportunity to rest.

I feel bad about how the weekend went though. Since the boys recovered quickly they were clearly bored. What should have been the first real vacation we’ve taken as a family turned into being stuck home with a pair of tired, grumpy parents.

Still, I was feeling well enough on Thursday evening to take out the sparklers we bought earlier in the week and play outside in the heat with the boys to celebrate the 4th of July. Little sparklers are the only fire-thing my family ever did for the holiday, we were never the firecracker (or more) crowd, and so it was nice to share this with the boys. They were both a bit scared (it’s fire!) but Aaron eventually was brave enough to hold one, and Adam started coming up with ideas for setting up patterns in the grass where we could place them, but he kept his distance. As the sun began to set, we also started seeing fireflies on the tree line. We don’t have the opportunity to see fireflies much in California, so it was a magical moment for them, not having realized that the fireflies they’d seen in books and on TV were real things.

Friday I was well enough to take them outside and play in the water sprinklers on our lawn outside. I’m not sure I’ve mentioned how hot and dry this summer has been. The temperature has been soaring into the high 90s almost every day, making our outdoor excursions quite short. Still, the boys enjoyed the sprinkler fun and, for once, respected my request to not get me totally soaked. They did seem to understand “Mom doesn’t feel well, please don’t get me wet.”

Saturday night I was improved enough to grab a mask when we heard the ice cream truck and ruin dinner by getting the boys an ice cream in the early evening, hah! They actually did eat dinner though, and it was worth it anyway for the joy that a melting ice cream brought them on an otherwise disappointing weekend.

The big takeaway from this latest infection for me is the shift in how people feel about COVID infections. In spite of continued reports of the risks of Long COVID and vulnerable populations, it’s basically being treated like any other common infection now. I had people surprised that we had canceled our trip. One mentioned they just treat it like the flu. Apparently they’d get on a plane for a beach vacation with the flu? I knew that culturally we are a bit intense when it comes to working through being sick, but I wish we had come out of the other side of this pandemic more cautious and thoughtful. That was incredibly naive. We came out the same, with another disease to add to the pile of things we spread everywhere. I guess the only thing I’m grateful for is that in most places wearing a mask in public has become normalized. I now wear them when I just have a cold but have to go out somewhere. Colds aren’t fun either, I don’t want to share that!

On the family side, I always knew that living in California our opportunities to visit family would be more limited, but I certainly didn’t anticipate a global pandemic at such a critical time in the life of our family. Our line had always been, “yeah, we live far away, but we love traveling and we can afford to visit!” Suddenly the monetary cost is only one piece of the puzzle. As a result, having this vacation home in Philadelphia has turned out to be more important than we ever expected, the ability to have regular visits with MJ’s side of the family and develop a closeness with cousins is so important to us, and not something we could have done with week long visits from a hotel. As for visiting my family, that will always be more difficult, but we do hope to at least re-schedule this visit in a few months, or early next year at the latest.

Probably the only on-going challenge with this visit has been staying on top of chores and organization of stuff. Since this is a vacation home, we don’t have a lot spaces for storage, with the assumption that we wouldn’t be keeping much stuff here. Kids changed all that in ways we didn’t expect, and we actually have to stash quite a bit of stuff between visits, and it all ends up being rather chaotic. The other day Adam and I went over to Target and picked up a little square book case to store our growing collection of books, and have a place to keep our library books. They helped me assemble it!

The library books were checked out on Adam’s shiny new library card. We didn’t get him one last year when I got mine because he wasn’t mature enough, but this year he was really excited about getting a card, so MJ and Matti took the boys and our au pair out to the library one day while I was working to get him a card of his own. He came home with a huge pile of books, and a big smile on his face. It’s nice to see the boys have so far inherited my love of books. Now we just need to read them all before it’s time to return them this week.

We also decided this summer was the right time to start swimming lessons. We’d been meaning to do it in California, but a lot of classes I’d heard of are either expensive or have waiting lists, and we just hadn’t made it a priority. When MJ’s step-sister Irina told us about having enrolled her 3 year old in British Swim School classes at a local gym, I looked into it. It turned out to be not too expensive for the two of them and a good instructor to student ratio, the timing was right, and it gave us something to do over the summer once a week. They’ve had two classes so far and have acclimated to the water better than I expected, no one has cried yet! It also turns out there’s a franchise location near our home in California, so while they can’t directly transfer progress, the can put together a little report at the conclusion of our visit so the transition can be easier.

On June 22nd we had more summer time fun by going to a Phillies game. The boys had never been to Citizen’s Bank park, and we have growing confidence that they can tolerate an event in a loud stadium. It worked out well, aside from going on one of the hottest days of the year. The temperature peaked around 97 degrees during the game, and the only thing that saved us was that we secured seats in the shade. We went with Matti and her husband and brother, along with Irina and little Sammy, which gave us some great company for the game. The boys definitely enjoyed having other people there, but most of all I think they liked the ice cream, even though it melted at record pace in the hot weather. The boys were also quite melty by the end of the game, so it was a good thing it was a quick game, and the Phillies won!

That same weekend we also took the opportunity to start the process of getting a couple heirloom chairs re-upholstered. We went to a local place and spent a little time going through fabric books, which we brought home for the weekend to check them out in different lighting. The chairs probably won’t be done on this trip, since the fabric needs to come in and then the work to actually get them completed, but it was nice to get them in the queue for next time, so they’ll be ready when we return.

The next week began with Adam coming down with an unexpected cough and fever for several days, keeping us quite close to home during the work week. I took Aaron out to the library one morning, and picked up a science experiment book to keep Adam entertained while home-ridden. It worked! When he was feeling well enough to be peeled off the couch, he always had another experiment to do. The library is also doing a “Summer Quest” program, which lets kids earn badges for tasks completed, like building things and doing experiments! Adam has one badge under his belt so far, which I hope we can pick up this week.

We’ve also been making progress on our Lego building, with the train completed and a new fire station set we picked up from Kohl’s with a gift card the boys received for Hanukkah last year.

Thankfully no one else got sick, and by Friday his fever had broken and we were free to visit people over the weekend again. Still, we stayed close to home for the weekend, visiting family and doing some errands. It’s tempting to have a big adventure every weekend because it’s summertime and we’re near family, but we also decided to fly to Florida this Friday, so it was really helpful to have a quiet weekend where I could catch up with cleaning and chores before our little tropical adventure.

We’ll be visiting family while in Florida, including MJ’s cousin and one of the youngest members of our family, and seeing my grandfather and several aunts, uncles and cousins of mine. The logistics of the trip will be a bit complicated, but aside from day to day “see $person on $day” we decided not to pack our schedules. We will have a lot of flexibility each day, so we can afford to enjoy some pools and take our time, and I’m hoping that will keep the stress levels manageable as we switch hotels and do a bit more driving than we’re used to.

But this year we are spending the summer in Philadelphia, what about the New Jersey shore?

I didn’t grow up in Philadelphia, so while I’ve visited Atlantic City boardwalk once or twice, I’d never actually spent the night or done a real beach visit there. We also had an additional challenge: the boys had never stayed in a hotel while they were mobile (Adam stayed in one a handful when he was a baby). Our kids are a little chaotic, and we had a whole list of concerns. Will they stay in the room? Will they push all the buttons on the phone? Will they flood the bathroom in the middle of the night in an attempt to create a pool? We wanted to do a trial run in a hotel that’s not too far from home before doing a bigger trip. At about 90 minutes from home, a trip to Atlantic City ticked all the boxes.

We made the drive out on Friday afternoon, hitting expected traffic along with others from the region going to the shore for the weekend, but overall it wasn’t too bad. We got ourselves loosely settled into our hotel rooms at Caesar’s, enjoyed the statues decorating Caesar’s, and then went out to the boardwalk.

It was the first time the boys had been on a boardwalk, so that was pretty fun. We also picked out a restaurant that had the required cheeseburgers for them, and managed to arrive right before a downpour.

The duration of our meal almost perfectly synced up with the storm, and by the time we were ready to leave and visit the pier where the rides are, they all had opened back up. It was pretty late though, so we stuck to just doing the giant ferris wheel. And jumping in a bunch of puddles.

Saturday was beach day! The morning was spent at the beach, and we took a break for lunch and some enjoying of fudge and saltwater taffy.

Later in the afternoon Adam decided he was done with the beach, so while MJ took Aaron back to the beach, Adam and I explored the hotel, rode on elevators and escalators, threw coins in fountains, and then took a tram down the boardwalk to do a little tourist shopping. Perfect.

Dinner was at the nearby Rainforest Cafe, which would have been better if either of the boys ate. Hah! It was an unusual weekend for them though, so I’m not surprised their appetites were off.

Sunday we checked out of our hotel and then got to enjoying Father’s Day by going somewhere MJ remembered from childhood: Lucy the Elephant right next to the beach in Margate, NJ. Lucy is a building, complete with a roof deck, that’s shaped like a big elephant, and originally built in 1881. To someone who hadn’t grown up there, Lucy is quite the unusual sight, but I love kitschy things, so honestly it was right my my alley. We got tickets for the tour so we could go up inside, and it was a lot of fun, even if the boys each had their moments of being a little scared by heights and steep staircases.

We had lunch next door to Lucy and then made our 90 minute journey home.

As for the experiment? We didn’t have any catastrophic failures logistically, though it was a bit tiring for me because I was sharing a bed with little Aaron and he’s a bit of a wild sleeper. I imagine staying in a hotel is never easy with young kids, so I think we are where we need to be. We will do another trip soon!

I know it’s going to fly by. Indeed, a week has already gone. But it was a bit of a settling in week, and our au pair took the traveling opportunity to take a vacation and MJ spent the week in NYC for work, so I was here solo with the boys. I took Monday off from work to get the house step up, grab groceries, complete a bunch of tasks, and get our babysitter for the week settled in. We secured our babysitter through a service and it worked out really well, but even with the help it was a challenging week. Plus, I simply missed MJ and was grateful when he got back on Friday night.

All things considered, the boys did really well, but they were suddenly shifted into a very different place and schedule, so we had some tough moments and sleep wasn’t quite where it needed to be. On Monday I made up little cards with activities on them so the boys knew what options they had, from Play-Doh to playing outside in the sprinkler, and we really lucked out with hot, dry weather making all the options available to them. Still, they were stuck close to home. To help with this, one evening after work I took them out to Target (which they enjoy!), and another evening was spent the library and playground. The library was fun for me too, I decided not to bring physical books with me on this visit even though I have a couple in progress, and instead just requested the books for pickup at my local library here. It worked beautifully!

Since we put the boys together in a room recently, I also had to set that up. We arranged delivery of Aaron’s bed, but it didn’t arrive until Tuesday so I brought up the crib mattress to their room and Aaron slept on the floor for a couple nights. Not optimal, but we all survived and I was able to assemble his new bed on Tuesday evening and get the room all set up. The only remaining problem is how bright it is in the morning even with blackout curtains. The curtains simply don’t provide enough coverage, and they’re waking up much too early. We’ve ordered some more comprehensive window coverings and will install those soon.

There were also some bugs. A hole in our sliding screen door out to the deck let in wasps that made a small nest between the screen door and the glass door. This is not a new problem, so we had some wasp spray already and I soaked the nest and was rid of it by Wednesday. There were also tiny ants near that door, and when we picked up the ant traps at Target it was immediately clear that we aren’t the only ones with that problem, they were nearly out of stock! Yuck. It’ll take some time to finish eradicating the ants, but we’re making progress.

With our new found love of Lego, I had promised Adam we could get a battery-operated Lego train set once we got to Philly. He’s been watching videos on YouTube about this train and some others, so was pretty excited, and on Saturday we got to work on it, and swiftly got the engine done so we could actually run it on the track, hooray! We still have the other two passenger cars to build.

The rest of Saturday was spent close to home as MJ did a bunch of house tasks and then we spent the late afternoon and evening visiting with family. For dinner, we went out with MJ’s step sister and her son, and Aaron had some delightful cousin time. Afterwards, we went out for ice cream, which the boys managed to cover themselves in. Oof. It’s a good thing we still pack a change of clothes when we go out to eat.

Sunday we met up with them again to go downtown! The boys finally got to go on a SEPTA Regional Rail train, which they’ve been asking to do forever.

From Suburban station, we walked over to the Academy of Natural Sciences to see dinosaurs!

Last time we went was back in December and I think Aaron was a little surprised and scared at just how big dinosaurs were. Now a full 5 months later, he seems to have made peace with it and had a wonderful time. He also really loved being there with his cousin, who he’d insist would join him at various animal displays.

After the museum, the boys were delighted to take bus (SEPTA slinky bus!) over to Reading Terminal Market, which the boys had never been to and I hadn’t been to for years. I forgot how overwhelming it is there, but we managed to find food that we were all happy with and even found a table where all 6 of us fit. At the end we picked up some treats! We caught a 2PM train back home.

This week our au pair is back with us and we’re settling in to what we developed as our regular summertime routine. I’m working loosely 9AM-5PM east coast time and building out all our activities around that. Over the weekend we booked a weekend at the New Jersey shore, and bought tickets to a Phillies game that we’ll be attending with some family and friends later this month. Investing in a vacation home here was always a bit of a gamble, but I’m grateful we’re able to finally spend a bunch of time here, using it precisely for what we always intended. It should be a great summer.

The reason this is notable, aside from a very sweet gesture from my husband, is that while we were browsing, Adam showed an interest in build a Lego set with me for the first time. I have at least half dozen Lego sets in my closet that haven’t gotten to assemble because I don’t have a lot of time to myself for hobbies now, and I’ve basically been waiting patiently for our kids to be old enough to do them with me. The time has come! But I didn’t want to get too excited, he’s only 5 and his attention span is all over the map. We started with a tiny R2-D2 that I had in my closet, and then worked on the little freebie Lego they were giving away for May the 4th. Hooray!

It took us almost 3 weeks over evenings and weekends when Adam and I were in the mood, and Aaron was satisfied free-forming it with Duplo next to us, but we set up a big table downstairs with some little plastic bins for sorting tiny Lego bricks. It was a lot of fun. There’s a lot more Lego building in our future!

Unfortunately this was a little too exciting for me. I should be satisfied making my way through the backlog in my closet, but two new Lego kits have entered my collection since early May because I’m so excited that we can build them together now.

Speaking of hobbies that we can do together now, the boys have been fascinated with typewriters since I began bringing them home. Several weekends ago, we stumbled upon a local 1963 Montgomery Ward Signature 500 and we decided to come home with it for $30. It’s an incredibly basic typewriter, and it’s missing the cover for the ribbon, but it had the case and was otherwise in usable condition and we wouldn’t be heartbroken if it didn’t survive abuse from kids. We ordered a new ribbon and Adam has been having fun with “his” typewriter. I even added it to the typewriter database, though I did pause before adding it to my profile (maybe Adam wants his own? Maybe some day). Upon adding it, I was amused to discover that the only other one of this model in the database also has the latch broken on the case just like mine (it’s functional, just ugly).

For the weekend that included Mother’s Day we had a couple whole family adventures. First, we decided to make the drive up to Brentwood, California where there are a bunch of cherry tree orchards. We did it last year too and it was a lot of fun, but this time we agreed not to come home with over 4 pounds of cherries. Going early was key, since it ended up being a hot day, and so we had a delightful morning in the orchards. Then settled in for lunch at a place we discovered downtown last year.

Adam insisted we all wear red, because cherries are red

On Mother’s Day itself we did something I’ve been wanting to do for years: Taking Amtrak up to Sacramento to visit the California State Railroad Museum. Plus, in spite of being something I’ve wanted to do long before having kids, it’s something that the kids would enjoy too! We caught a train up around 9AM and enjoyed 3.5 hours there in Old Sacramento, enjoying a quick lunch before exploring the train museum and stopping for some doughnuts. I would have liked a longer trip, but honestly the train schedules and kid schedules simply didn’t align. Plus, it was hot. It was absolutely worth doing, but given the cost and timing, I think the next time we make the trek to Old Sacramento we’ll just plan on picking a low traffic weekend and driving.

Compared to all this excitement, the following weekend was a bit chill. On Saturday we took two cars over to Ikea for a very exciting milestone: Aaron’s first big kid bed!

Our plan had always been for the boys to share a room once Aaron turned one, but a variety of factors made that impossible. Back on May 21st of 2023 when Aaron was almost two and a half, we made a solid attempt at the boys sharing a room, but it went dreadfully, I posted the following to Facebook on June 21st:

“After almost a month of hell, we gave up kiddo room-sharing for now.

Little Aaron wouldn’t stop ruining Adam’s sleep life; they go to bed too late (and required an hour+ of supervision from us), would wake up in the middle of the night, and get up too early. No one was getting enough sleep. I think Adam is just too sensitive right now and Aaron is still too immature to understand the impact he’s having by pushing boundaries all night. We’ll try again in a few months when Aaron is a little older.

Keeping Aaron in my home office was out of the question now that he is able to leave his crib, so instead he’s taken over MJ’s home office downstairs. It’s not optimal, nothing is, but since MJ’s office was never fully set up the change wasn’t a huge deal logistically, and he’s a lot safer there.

I’d celebrate having my office fully back, but I’m too tired. Here’s hoping at least few days of restful sleep are in my near future, I desperately need it.”

It took a more than a few months to try again, but in case you can’t tell from that post, I was not in great shape after that first attempt. It was necessary though, Aaron was old enough to leave his crib phase and we didn’t have a solution for Aaron in a bed except for in Adam’s room. So at the end of April we began attempt number two. It succeeded! As well as it could succeed anyway, no one likes sharing a room, and every time Aaron is extra noisy at bedtime Adam likes to remind us that he doesn’t want to share a room. Sorry kiddo.

Aaron started out in a converted crib but at three and a half now, he was getting to big for it. Instead, we used “we’ll get you a big boy bed!” as a reward for good behavior in Adam’s room. We also picked up new sheets for both boys, since we figured a reward was also in order for Adam.

Having them share a room has been quite a relief. With Aaron downstairs our ability to use the living room after 8PM was incredibly limited, and I’m glad MJ will finally be able to settle into his home office. Plus, at the townhouse in Philadelphia Aaron had been sleeping downstairs in a rough-in bathroom, not great for him but also putting a damper on how we could use the house after bedtime. This is the best solution.

The next two weeks were spent squeezing as much California fun out of weekends as possible. We made the decision to spend eight weeks, nearly the whole summer break from school, at the townhouse in Philadelphia. The pandemic put a huge dent in our ability to enjoy it for nearly three years, and we have catching up with so many loved ones to do. Not being stuck on a tight schedule over holidays will be nice. But first, I wanted to enjoy California a bit more!

The first adventure was a Lake Chabot boat tour. I bought tickets online ahead of time and took the boys out one Saturday morning for a far-too-chilly tour around the lake in a peaceful little boat. Aside from the cold, the boys and I had a lot of fun.

On Sunday we had a couple errands to do in San Francisco and treated the boys to a visit to the Children’s Creativity Museum. It was a cute museum, and I was always curious about it because we lived nearby when we lived in the city, but we probably won’t go again. It quickly became apparent that it’s a very city-kid focused place, with a bunch of toys and activities that a small home in the city won’t be able to have, but many of which we have in our huge playroom and yard in the suburbs that we put together during a pandemic when we couldn’t leave the house. Still, Aaron was delighted to play with blocks and BRIO trains for an hour, and Adam had fun with various other things, like a topography-enabled sand table. We concluded our visit to the city by going on the carousel, and then over to Fogo de Chao for lunch (kids eat free!).

We concluded our day by stopping by Panorama Park on Yerba Buena island on our drive home. It’s a tiny and rather industrial feeling park (a lot of concrete!) but the views are spectacular, which is the point.

MJ and I were able to go back to the city at the end of the month to do a rare date night and see a show!

On Friday, May 31st Adam completed TK! With the school year wrapped up, we turned out attention to our trip to Philadelphia and flew out on Sunday, June 2nd, after spending Friday evening at a local “summer nights” event within walking distance of home, and then spending Saturday visiting a very crowded Cherry Festival in nearby San Leandro.

Looking forward to the summer. I’m taking a little vacation time while we’re there, but will be working for most of it. I’m still a little apprehensive about how we’ll keep the boys entertained without school or a walkable downtown, so I’m already working on my queue of activities and what we should buy for our visit.

The first was to a baseball game! The A’s are moving away from Oakland next year, which is heartbreaking. I wanted to get a few final games in before they move, but it was logistically difficult. So one day I took the afternoon off from work and hopped on BART to see a game. It was great!

I ate chicken nachos out of a helmet.

And had a delicious churro sundae.

And watched the A’s lose, but that’s OK. It was a delightful afternoon away.

As a solo activity it was OK, I think I prefer going with someone because there’s so much down time in sports and it’s really a more social activity. I think going to movies, museums, or other active exhibits or parks may be more my speed moving forward.

And I know I said solo time should be time that’s not work, but on a whim I went up to RSA 2024 recently with an Expo hall pass. I met with some folks and got some great work done, I’m glad that I went.

Then I got to the solo not work part! I took a lovely walk down Market street to check out the new fancy food hall attached to the new Ikea. It was really nice. I decided to check out Curry Up Now, an Indian street food spot that served up a delicious Saag Paneer And Chicken Tikka Masala burrito, along with a mango lassi. I really miss living in San Francisco, so even if it was a work visit, just getting back in my favorite place was refreshing. On my way back to BART I was also happy to discover that the entrance from BART to the mall has re-opened!

We’ll see where my solo plans take me moving forward. I really can’t let this time get de-prioritized again, my family deserves a happy and energetic mom, and I deserve a happy and energetic me.

I only had the pleasure of meeting Sherry once or twice and the boys never have, but a loss like this has ripple effects, and there was a heaviness to my journey. I felt bad that I couldn’t be physically present as MJ worked with her friends and their family to make arrangements.

Based on a variety of factors, her funeral ended up being after my trip and we decided that only MJ would go. He flew out on Thursday, just hours before I returned, so I didn’t get to see him, and we had a babysitter drop by in the early evening to fill in until my return. He came home Sunday night with stories about his aunt as he visited her home, the town she loved so much, and a bookshop she used to run. May her memory be a blessing.

Aunt Sher (right) at our wedding in 2013 and her mother, Ruth

With MJ away, I had the boys on my own for the weekend. On Saturday we took BART out to Dublin to visit a new playground that they absolutely loved, even if they didn’t love the half mile walk from BART to get there. Sunday was extremely warm, so we went on a water quest! The water hoses we had were cracked and basically unusable, so the boys and I went to our local hardware store in order to replace two of them, plus one of the stands they were on. When we got home we set them up and hooked up a new rainbow water toy in the yard and the boys had tons of fun running through it and turning it into a car wash for their Cozy Coupe.

In some ways it was a lot of fun to have the boys to myself, but it was also pretty tiring and I was eager to have MJ back. Plus, on Monday we had a Seder to prepare for!

Thankfully, MJ took off from work on Monday so he could recover from the trip and head up to San Francisco to pick up our Passover meal. When I was done with work at 4PM I got to work setting everything up. The boys are still quite picky about food, but Adam loves matzoh so it’s a fun time of year for him. The Seder was incredibly chaotic and I timed the food wrong again, but I think that’s part of the charm of family holiday dinners.

This year we also were able to hide the Afikoman and let the kids find it, which became a bit of a prolonged activity as the kids wanted to hide all kinds of things throughout the 8 days of Passover, hah!

I also succeeded at making matzoh brei, and the boys actually ate it, which was a nice surprise. Adam took to calling it “hot matzoh” and that’s probably the name in our house now.

The week of Passover also happened to be when some colleagues were in town, and we took the opportunity to go out for a group activity. Since our team is geographically distributed, it’s a rare occurrence for so many of us to be in one place, and there was one colleague in the group that I hadn’t met at all before! We met at a Bocce place in Livermore, and had a lovely lunch (even if my options were limited, Passover!) and then all attempted to figure out how to play Bocce, which was a lot of fun.

The end of April also meant MJ and I had our 11th wedding anniversary. Given everything that had been going on in the previous weeks (see above), we almost missed it, and had no opportunity to plan anything on the day itself. Instead, we booked at Thursday evening reservation just around the block at Tancho, featuring a Chef’s Counter Omakase experience. It was spectacular, and surprising for our little town! And while it was an expensive meal, they weren’t overly pretentious and the experience was a beautiful way to celebrate our anniversary.

Plus, by doing some thing early and local, it got us home in time to help their babysitter put the kids to bed. This was particularly important because we had just recently started our second attempt to put the boys in the same room. Honestly the change in room situation almost made us skip observing our anniversary at all, but we didn’t want to keep delaying taking time as a couple. It’s so important for us to stay connected, especially during the difficult and busy times.