Menu Close

Category: Family Archive

Babysitters

Each of our babysitters has her own technique for keeping the baby sister content. One lulls her with YouTube videos and then lets her sleep. The other carries the little person around in the kangaroo contraption.    

Charting the road

A few determined individuals who have been following this blog since its humble beginnings would recognize this diagram.     This is a very precise diagram, by the way, since for all senses and purposes we live in the same area that we left for London. If you imagine yourself…

Quasi-paternity

My employer has this incredible 12-week paternity leave benefit. Yes, you read it right, paternity with a “p”. As in, the father of a newborn child can get 12 weeks off work with full pay. I know plenty of people who take advantage of that. In fact, I know one…

Numbered

There is something decidedly strange in getting excited about receiving the social security card. But when it comes to a newborn, and the card signifies the very first official document that the little person has, it definitely passes for another milestone.

DIY with a little online help

A little house problem: The dryer suddenly starts leaving clothes damp after a full cycle. What do I know about dryers? Nothing. I’m only aware of the fact that this is a ten year old unit, that we did not want to extend “service plan” for it last year, and…

Baby milestones

Umbilical cord fell off. First trip in the royal carriage around the neighborhood. Other than that, standard fare: eating, pooping, not letting parents sleep at night.    

Parenthood

Admit it, all of my one-post-a-week schedule aside, you keep coming back to this blog because you expect pearls of wisdom from me that you cannot get anywhere else. I’ll give you one: This whole thing called parenthood is awfully hard. There she is, just a few days old, lying…

Introducing Emily

My meat-space friends have been aware of the fact that Natasha and I embarked on a serious new project roughly nine months ago. Now it’s time to announce the results. Emily Sofia Burlak was born in the early morning hours of this fine Wednesday. She weighed in at 7 lbs…

Tomato

This is the tomato that we have grown in our own back garden. I personally had nothing to do with it, which may explain why Kimmy thought that it was the tastiest tomato she ever had.     Photography by Kimmy.

Coulda, shoulda…

More than a week between posts is quickly becoming the norm, rather than exception, for me. During this last week, I could have written about a number of subjects. I could continue to opine on the World Cup – disallowed goals, inanity of soccer being the only sport where the…

Random notes from O’Hare

Either I am exceedingly lucky or I don’t understand at all complaints of other people about O’Hare airport. I flew there and back quite frequently in my pre-England years, and just made a second trip this year, and I don’t seem to ever get stuck going through O’Hare. Going in…

Watching the World Cup

I finished Kimmy’s birthday movie with over a week to spare. Go me! It turned out pretty good, if I say so myself, but I’ll be sure to post here the raving reviews I’m certain to receive after its premiere this coming weekend. Of course, I spent so much time…

Lola and the Frog

Children of the age of technology acquire the weirdest mannerisms. Becky, for instance, has gotten into a habit of saying “LOL” when she is amused, rather than, you know, bursting out laughing. I’m starting to call her Lola. My other daughter, meanwhile, resides in pool heaven. She always has been…

Singing in the woods, again

I enjoy our by now traditional semi-annual КСП outings. I happen to have a good time while I am there. Then I get back home, recognize the fact that I slept for probably 6-7 hours cumulatively over the course of the weekend, and fight fatigue for the next couple of…

Busy

I’d like to think that I am long past having to come up with excuses for the absence of any blogging activity. I simply ignore the blog these days when I’m too busy. And I am very busy. Employment-related busy-ness aside, we are currently entertaining house-guests who’ve never been to…

My weekend

Kept assembling the various piece of furniture that the wife had bought. Wrote checks for ungodly sums of money to various home service providers. Discovered a couple of inevitable future expenses related to the house equipment and services. Cleaned the pool, worked on the backyard, drove back and forth for…