We returned from London in time to celebrate Jaden's 8th birthday at home. He had insisted on this, had threatened not to go with us if we didn't agree to be here, and we were. But it's been over 20 years since I was in Europe, and I didn't think about jet lag. We arrived back [...]
We spent a week at a camp for GLBT families July 29 to August 6. Yes, 8 days of camp. Here are some notes and photos. Saturday Arrived with ash falling from the sky and the sun red from smoke. Hot as hades. They said a fire burning South of Quincy wasn’t moving this way; [...]
The speeding up of life has been well documented, but it continues to take me by surprise. Each annual event that comes along, Jay says "I can't believe it's time for that already, it seems like it was just a few months ago." Somewhere in a pile on my desk is the Haggadah Jay's dad created [...]
I was somewhat alarmed about wrangling my kids through the wedding of my dear friends Kenny and Paul. Not that I wasn't thrilled about the event. And not that we weren't ready. We had the dress up outfits ready. They love their uncles and were excited to go. But they're also in a feisty anti-authority [...]
I'm not sure anything could have prepared me for being aboard the Disney Wonder, the 2,500 passenger cruise ship that swallowed us up and took us away last week. Certainly not the industrial Galveston, TX port, where except for a few Mickey-themed banners we might have been going into a warehouse to inspect the seafood catch [...]
I laughed out loud to read my friend Whitney's caption under a delightful movie of her child sledding in snow. "This video is misleading," she wrote, "Today has not been all fun and games." While she's always enjoyable to read (and her blog 510 Families is an East Bay must for parents), my delight was also because I'd [...]
[Thanks to Nicolas Smith for the great pics, more at the bottom.] I was carrying the Halloween box up from the garage, and Jay seemed dazed. "It seems more like last month when we had this stuff out, not last year." The years cycle more and more quickly for me, like riding in that horrible/delightful gravity-defying cylinder where I was both [...]
We had a lovely Thanksgiving visit with Grandpa Ted and Grandma Mary, packed with adventure. We joined 40,000 in a downpour for the Austin "Turkey Trott," the one mile kid version, raising funds for local housing and food services. The kids dug for genuine Texas dinosaur bone casts buried beneath a giant sand pit at the Nature [...]
We were almost ready for trick-or-treating, but I could tell Shayla wanted to ask something. Her hesitation made it seem unlikely I'd be able to say yes. (No, we can't take the pet rat with us. No, you can't unstuff the couch cushons and use the fabric for your outfit. No, no, no....) I was startled [...]
One: Getting Here It’s hard to remember, with the weeks of excitement and anticipation leading up to family camp, that what I should be reminding the kids, at least the older ones, is that the first day of camp can be tough. Not for Jaden. Our 4-year-old is at home everywhere we’ve ever taken him. [...]
The best part about reading fiction, maybe any book, is the way a wonderful writer stays in your head. For a few days after finishing a book, it feels like I have some special goggles on, still half in the world of the novel. This weekend it was Miranda July's The First Bad Man, and let me [...]
After the New Year, I get an itch to take down the decorations and get everything "put back." Part practical, part compulsive. Use that vacation time productively! Don't have pine needles and sorting out light strings and boxing up hanging over my head. But I'm always sorry. There's nothing sadder than the cold January week when [...]
My babies are growing up sooooo quickly. I took Jaden in for his haircut and AJ said "he's shooting up so fast, next to go are those chipmunk cheeks. Broke my heart when my baby lost his." Four-and-a-half and the baby face goes? Please say it isn't true. Shayla is on the last kid's shoe size, and [...]
I've always felt at home in the water, refreshed, reconnected to something at my core. In Maggie Shipstead's Seating Arrangements, there's this great passage: Whatever the root of Biddy's affinity for water, as long as Winn had known her, she had been able to submerge herself and come out, if not entirely healed, at least [...]
It's been a year since we got married, and following a tradition I've heard about but never known anyone to actually do, we defrosted the top layer of our wedding cake and had it for dessert after dinner. It was delicious. Jaden loves cake, and somehow he talked me into putting Hershey's syrup on it, so he [...]