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Week of August 29
Charlie is officially a toddler now. He took his first unassisted steps Sunday, August 28, and by Thursday he was wandering all around the house on his own. It is so fun to see how proud he is when he figures out a new skill. He also has crawling up the stairs and climbing furniture […]
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Weeks of August 15 and 22
I skipped a week because I was traveling for work. I was in San Francisco for a team meetup. We spent some time working at Automattic’s SF office, explored the city, ate some great food, visited bookstores, and hit a few tiki bars. Some highlights: Catching up with old friends in Walnut Creek Tea leaf […]
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Week of August 8
Charlie’s new skills, cooler weather, cooking outside, planting for autumn, aging kindly, reading suggestions, digital garden updates, and project ideas.
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Weeks of July 25 & August 1
I didn’t write a post last week, so I’m doing a double post this week. I had a 26 week streak, but I knew I’d miss one eventually. Trying out the newish Table of Contents block in this post! Charlie Charlie turned one this past week. It is incredible to think about how much he […]
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Building a swing set with A-frame brackets
We just built my son a swing set using Eastern Jungle Gym’s A-frame brackets. When I started out, I couldn’t find a guide that laid out everything I needed to buy, how to put it together, and what kind of footprint the finished product would have. So I decided to put one together. Finished Dimensions […]
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Week of July 18
We went to a cookout at our friends’ place on Friday and figured that Charlie would get sleepy around 8pm and we would head home then. 8pm came and went, and Charlie was still the life of the party, playing with three dogs and crawling around to everyone there, so we decided to see how […]
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Week of July 11
Charlie has been very active this week, crawling and exploring as much as he can. He is fast! So curious, too. One of our goals is to keep fostering that natural curiosity as much as we can. I brush his hair every morning before daycare and he started grabbing the brush and trying to brush […]
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Week of July 4
A week of trying to get back to normal after Charlie and I were sick last week. Lots of playing catch up, but I’m glad to report that Charlie went back to daycare and Amanda and I got back on normal work schedules. A couple things I’ve been trying to get back to doing each […]
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Week of June 27
Charlie’s illness ended up getting worse early this week, despite looking like it was clearing up over last weekend, so it was another week of keeping a sick baby home from daycare while we tried to work. The doctor said that the poor guy had a double ear infection. Then I caught whatever caused his […]
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Week of June 20
Two anniversaries this week: Amanda and I have been married for 9 years and this blog is 14 years old. Both anniversaries are actually on the same day! I’m incredibly thankful to have Amanda as my partner in life, though all of its ups and downs. I’m also Charlie started daycare this week and made […]
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Week of June 13
It was a long, tiring week. Despite that, I’m feeling really thankful and lucky this week. Both Amanda and I have good jobs. We have a sweet, curious little boy. It is my first Father’s Day as a father. Spending the day going for a long family walk, holding Charlie while he naps, and hanging […]
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Week of June 6
As I write this on Sunday morning, Charlie is napping on me. I’m sitting in that one Ikea chair everyone seems to have, Charlie’s head is on my shoulder, he is wrapped up in a blanket, and my laptop is perched on a pillow on my lap. Some sweet Charlie vignettes from this week: Having […]
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Week of May 30
Transitions are hard. I went back to work this week after four months of parental leave. The hardest parts were Charlie crying when I had to hand him over to the nanny and go to work and watching him play through my office door but needing to work instead of hanging out with him. I […]
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Week of May 23
This was my last full week on paternity leave. I return to work next week. I snuggled Charlie as much as I could, including holding him for more naps instead of putting him in his crib like usual. It was a bit of a stressful week for all of us in the Grimmett house, and […]
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Week of May 16
Every week I think I did nothing, then surprise myself with how much I did once I finish this post. Spent lots of time outside this week. It seems like we had about a week of Spring, then jumped directly to Summer. It was in the mid 90s (Fahrenheit) all weekend, which is just too […]
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Week of May 9
Charlie is learning how to walk by slowly holding on to and pushing a small stool and stepping along with it. He is making great progress! He’s been trying so hard and we are very proud of him. Charlie seems to like chicken shawarma and pickled turnips. That’s my boy. The thing that has the […]
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Week of May 2
This week went by quickly. Lots of rain and time indoors. I didn’t do much during the week except take care of Charlie, cook, do dishes, and read. I did make up for that a bit this weekend by mowing, weedeating, and sawing and splitting some wood with my friend Jon that my neighbor let […]
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Week of April 25
Tough week. All three of us had colds the beginning half of the week (the first for Amanda and me since before COVID), then Charlie started teething again the latter half of the week. Seasonal allergies hit me this week, too. Nevertheless, some highlights: Caught up with Jeremy Felt, which is always nice. I now […]
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Why blog?
My friend Garrett Robinson asked me on Twitter, “What do you see as the advantages of blogging?”. Naturally I had to reply with a blog post. I see two main advantages of blogging, both with secondary advantages: Having your own place on the web to keep a log of your thoughts, musings, opinions, trials, and […]
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Week of April 18
New sprouts in the garden: Radishes, borage, calendula, bee balm, and more poppies. In the yard, wild violets are popping up and the forsythia and rhododendron look great. Black-eyed Susan volunteers came up all along the fence, self-seeded from the neighbor’s flowerbed on the other side. I’m going to leave them and weed around them. […]