Nora just turned 5 yesterday. How is that even possible?
One thing I’m constantly grateful for is the community that Jyotsna and I have cultivated. That’s primarily family – both my parents and my brother’s family, her parents and her’s brothers’ families, as well as cousins that we consider like siblings. But that also means those friends we have that my kids call Aunt and Uncle. They see them often enough to have their own relationships with them, and they are naturally invited to family functions. Our families know who they are and how important they are to us. How many 5 year olds have 30 people at their birthday party – none of them her age friends?
It does take a village.
Nora is such a delight. In some ways shes our easiest kid. She also loves attention – it really drives everything she does. She’s full of personality, thats for sure.
Trying to figure out a proper balance of what to do with the kids and their after school activities. Right now all three of them take piano lessons on Fridays. Ideally they’d all do karate, but the karate times have changed. I think we’ll still try to keep them in karate, with the caveat that we might not do every week as twice a week. I think the cost works out okay even if we dont do every class.
We need to find a babysitter that can watch the kids on Saturday nights and date nights. We already have plans on 9/22 (Russell Peters in DC) and 10/13 (taking V&J out for dinner in DC). J&J cant watch the kids on 9/22 for sure, need to check for 10/13. We havent found anybody consistent – we had one girl, but she went to college, and the other girl we’ve used hasnt been available much. Need to add to our stable of babysitters, Jyotsna and I like to go out on more dates.
Heading to Seattle/Pacific Northwest for the last week of September. Should be fun, even if I’m sure I’ll miss the kiddos. Jytosna is going to Asheville in October, we’ll head up to Philly in November, I’ll go to WV for my mens group in Novemeber too. Thanksgiving and Xmas will be at home, New Years in Florida. Maybe Texas in February, trying to organize a trip with a couple of friends in March, and then we’ll go to Iceland and France in April for spring break.