meet theresa!

Our Au Pair is here!

We had a wonderful weekend showing her around San Francisco as well as getting her up to speed on Samantha.

Since Theresa had spent the week at Au Pair Academy (not getting very much sleep as she learned baby CPR and other essential childcare tools), top priority was letting her get some rest and get over her jet lag.

We also had to hit up a San Francisco must-see:

The Golden Gate Bridge!

In addition, we gave her a lay of the land in Golden Gate Park - the gorgeous spread of greenery literally across the street from our place:

She'll be spending many-a-day walking and lounging and playing and picnic-ing with our little one there.

Most important was letting her get lots of time with Samantha so she felt comfortable doing full days with her this week.  But it didn't take long: Samantha immediately fell in love - taking a bottle from her with ease, falling asleep in her arms, and laughing at her hysterically (even in the evenings when she tends to not be her best self :).   

grocery shopping!

We're so excited to have such a wonderful new member to our family!

xoxo

KK

jackson fillmore

In life pre-baby, dinners out were a pretty regular occurrence.  One of our fav neighborhood spots was the lovely Jackson Fillmore - a no-frills Italian joint two blocks from our old abode.  We'd go there for a romantic dinner out, a casual Sunday evening supper, or even solo to sit at the bar if the other was traveling for work.  The crew there greeted us by name, knew our orders by heart, and always let us sample whatever wines they had open (and sometimes some they didn't).

But now we have this lady in the picture:

And dinners out don't happen quite as often.  That being said, we've tried to venture out whenever we can.

Not too long ago, we decided to head back to our old stomping ground to Jackson Fillmore. 

Unlike before when we gladly took a 9pm reservation or waited at the bar for a half hour while sipping the start of a bottle of wine, we opted for the early bird special: arriving promptly at 5:30pm.  I know, I know: we are so cool.

We were surprised by how many kids were there as well.  The table next to us featured a 1.5 year-old and a 3-year-old that happily banged their forks and knives while they waited for their bruschetta.

Oh how I had missed that on-the-house bruschetta.

We enjoyed our delicious meals (with wine on the house as a congrats on the new addition!) and were all done by 7pm sharp leaving us plenty of time to get some frozen yogurt for dessert.

While we may not be enjoying the splendors of Jackson Fillmore quite as much as we used, the reason is certainly worth the adjustment in plans.

xoxo

KK

another family addition...

So I mentioned before that we had some other big plans in the works: we decided to get an Au Pair!  And she arrives today!

Why an Au Pair you ask?

We decided long before Samantha came along that we wanted to try and raise our children bilingually.  In addition to wanting our babies to be able to speak fluently in their father's mother tongue, we thought it would be a shame to not take advantage of those sponge-like baby brains and their ability to absorb a second language uber-easily.  And while you wouldn't think this age is super important (they don't even talk!), it turns out to be one of the most crucial points for language development there is.

While we always imagined having an Au Pair later on (like when we had a bigger house!), finding a German-speaking childcare option in San Francisco proved to be impossible.  There are no German daycares, the German-speaking Nanny options were few and far between, and of those we did find, they just didn't feel right.

So we decided to move our Au Pair plans up a tad bit earlier.  We buckled down and interviewed (over skype!) close to 10 different young women.  We fell in love with our match and cannot wait to meet her.  

So as if having a baby weren't enough of a life change, we have another member of our family joining us as well!

(In our two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment mind you - more details on how we're making this work to come. :)

xoxo

KK

back at work

Today is my first day back at work.

I'm excited to get back into the swing of things, but I'm sad.  Real sad.  This little munchkin is one lovely babe to spend time with.

We've had a busy past few weeks - there has been so much excitement that I haven't had a moment to tune you in. 

The highlights include...

Having Stefan's lovely mother stay with us to explore SF, help out, and hang with Samantha:

Taking Samantha on her first flight:

Dressing her up for Halloween:

Celebrating my fabulous sister's incredible nuptials:

And spending some time in Milwaukee with my parents:

It's been a pretty incredible finale to this pretty incredible maternity leave.  More details to come I hope although I'm in uncharted territory here with the whole working with a baby thing.  I make no promises.

xoxo

KK