A
    Amy

    Amy

  • The Pre-K dilemma: Finding the best place for the 5-year old preschooler

    Many parents struggle with the choice of where their kids should spend their official "Pre-k year," that formative time before they enter the official school system, where they will hopefully undergo the "kindergarten readiness" training. Since my daughter was born in the fall, in California she fal

  • A few ways Parisian moms have it over American moms

    I was just in Paris for a week without my 4-year-old daughter to enjoy a visit with my younger sister. She's been living there for over a year and is on her way to becoming a true expat, and I'm really thrilled for her to have the experience. Though I was there without my kid, I was fascinated by so

  • What's your favorite seasonal/holiday food item?

    I always get a little boost when I see the seasonal holiday grocery items start to appear on the shelves--eggnog in the festive holiday cartons (and even soy nog, a lowfat vegan option), displays of canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce, and the glistening piles of winter fruits and nuts in the produce

  • User post: Why this mom is skipping Thanksgiving this year

    I've always loved Thanksgiving and was really looking forward to it this year especially, since we moved my ailing father to the Bay Area over the summer. I figured by the time fall came around, we'd all be settled in and ready to enjoy a family gathering, and that my daughter, who is turning 4 this

  • User post: Baking with my daughter, a messy new family tradition

    Yesterday, my daughter and I baked pumpkin bread and muffins together for the first time. It's something I try to make every year because it reminds me of my childhood and my wonderful mom, who died in 2004, and loved to make the house smell like fall on cool days with a big batch of the stuff. I ha

  • User post: Celebrating an imperfect Halloween

    This week promises to get a little crazy for many of us moms. Halloween is upon us, and I realize that I haven't done (yet again) many of the things I'd planned to do to celebrate the holiday--take my daughter to a pumpkin patch, make vintage-inspired decorations (or at least go to Michael's to get

  • Finally, an inviting entryway--how a furniture purchase changed my apartment (and my life)

    I'm sort of joking about the life-change, but not really. Since my family moved into our Victorian San Francisco flat three years ago, I've been on a quest to make it feel like a home--a warm, cozy, serene, organized home that my husband and daughter and I can really make a life in. It's a big, draf

  • Her Fearful Symmetry, a great fall read

    With the nip of fall in the air and Halloween right around the corner, it's a perfect time to cuddle up with Her Fearful Symmetry, a deliciously morbid ghost story by Audrey Niffennegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife. Recently out in paperback, it's the perfect book for a Sunday afternoon by t

  • Savoring Fall—No Matter Where You Live

    Fall is in the air, kids are back in school, and most of us have said goodbye to summer. It's a bittersweet time of year, but one I've always loved. Growing up in Texas, I did not experience seasons in the same way much of the country does-it was often in the 80s well into November-but whatever litt

  • How to hold on to that vacation feeling

    I know that summer is now officially over, but I'd like to bask in the glow-if only for a few more days-of the wonderful, healing beach vacation my family experienced this past week. It's been a difficult summer for all sorts of reasons, and we hadn't had a proper vacation in a year, and we were in

  • The joys of the repeat vacation

    This post is about the joys of the repeat vacation, the comforts of returning year after year to the same place, and the anticipation that goes along with. It's the kind of vacation many of us took as kids, whether it was to a family cottage (for those lucky enough), or in my case, a Howard Johnson'