Kid & Coe: Our New York apartment rental

We had the best experience staying in an apartment on our last visit to New York City: We rented a place through the new vacation site, Kid & Coe—which lists beautiful, family-friendly properties around the world—and it made all the difference in our feeling like we still have plenty of family trips to the city in our (near) future.

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Happy six years, Hither & Thither!

It’s been a fantastic year. I can’t believe this past Sunday marked six years of blogging on Hither & Thither. It continues to inspire me—owing so much to the feedback and comraderie I get from readers, but also thanks to the joy of having an outlet to practice skills like writing and photography and to the joy of documenting and sharing personal milestones. I would have never expected this to become the rewarding work that it has, when Aron and I first started building the space together on that cold January day. (He wrote the first post! With no photos!)

I really enjoyed looking back over highlights last year, at five years, and hoped you might again, too. (Warning: it’s a long one!) …

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Valentines for kids

I couldn’t resist picking up these cute Pirate Valentines

for Hudson. It hadn’t even occurred to me to get him valentines until I saw them, but why not? He does go to school after all, and I love the idea of him getting to give little 3×3 cards and temporary tattoos to his friends. Aron teased me of course—the price-per-card breakdown is maybe a little high for a 2-year-old (excuse me, 2-1/2-year old), but these were just too cute and they come with a teacher card, so that’s worth at least a couple of dollars. (Right?)

I can barely remember those elementary-school days when exchanging valentines was a big deal. I have foggy memories of going through those multi-pack boxes and carefully deciding who would get the image I thought was the best; and of sitting up at our kitchen table and glueing construction-paper hearts to doilies that came inevitably stuck together.

And then, in high school, people could send each other things like candy-grams and a few lucky girls would get flowers delivered to their desks. (Never me, though I had a few nice boyfriends in high school so I’m not really complaining.)

Do you remember anything about exchanging valentines as a small child? Are your kids looking toward the occasion? (Hudson certainly has no clue, so these are definitely more for me than for him—though he’ll love having something to bring and share at school.) I’m hoping—for her sake, not mine—that our daughter’s birthday does not fall on Valentine’s day.

Have a fun (long) weekend!

P.S. Some gifts that go beyond the candy-gram and flowers, from last year.