用一个词来概括这段时间的生活——真快！上班忙，不知不觉地就到了中午了，又不知不觉地天就黑了；下班以后也不知道都干什么了，反正眨眨眼的工夫就晚上十点多了；到了周末就更像赶三关一样，带着润润一个活动接着一个活动的，连喊累的工夫都没有，周末两天就没影儿了。跟老公说：“这还是有两个挺得力的阿姨在帮忙干活呢，要是完全自力更生，咱俩还不得一天二十四小时轮轴转！”

波士顿今年的秋天无比温暖，眼看就到感恩节了，居然气温还在五六十度徘徊。印象中，这可是我在美东度过的第一个没有雪的感恩节，只是这暖洋洋的气候让我一点都没有过节的感觉——也难怪，往年这个时候不是在张罗感恩节的聚会，就是订好了酒店准备和老公润润出行了。今年以小心蕙为中心，除了黑色星期五要去大大地血拼之外，全家一致改做“宅男宅女”。

四岁十个月，润润经历了他人生中第一次“闭卷考试”——中文学校的期中考——考试的结果相当令人满意。考试前的两个星期，润润中文课的老师挺严肃地跟我说：“哎呀，你们的孩子年纪太小了，他在一年级恐怕跟不上的，我这个班是要求学生们能默写的，可他好像还不太会写字嘛。”老师问我：“我们

I received a merit increase while I was on maternity leave in September (how nice!). My program manager told me that the increase would be retroactive to mid-July this year. However, I started taking short-term disability (STD) on July 30th, therefore, not only my salary needs to be retroactive, but my STD as well. Furthermore, because I've only completed one year of full service, under company's benefit guideline, I am only eligible to receive one week of 100% pay as STD, and the remaining are paid at 2/3 of my weekly salary. But wait, July 30 is a Thursday, therefore, the calculation of my regular salary vs. STD is not simply a multiplication of my weekly pay, but requires pro rata…...

Now you can see how big headache I've brought to our payroll group. And let's see how long it's going to take them to get it right :-)

It's already ten days since I went back to work. Hard to believe 13 weeks of my maternity leave flied by just like that. Life becomes hectic once again, with timetables that can easily get delayed and plans that can never be completely followed. 

The first two weeks of my new rotation is quite slow, and a little boring at times. The worse part is that people in this group work really long hours, although I've managed to stay in the office for at least 9 hours a day, I am still the last-in-first-out person, which makes me start missing my prior group, at least I had a pretty balanced life style and the project itself was quite interesting.

I resumed my exercise routine, finally, after almost four years. And I am so happy to find out that I can still finish 1.8 miles within 20 minutes. Last time, it took me four months to lose all the weight I gained during pregnancy. And I

Claire is dressed up as a little bunny for her first halloween. Her chubby face looks even chubbier with the big fluffy hat  Without going out for trick-or-treating, our little bunny still enjoyed herself all night long.

润润两岁的那会儿是个很有“志向”的孩子。那时候问他长大了想干什么，人家总是不假思索地答道：“I want to be the President of the United States（我要当美国的总统）”。

后来慢慢地大了，知道的行业越来越多了，小家伙的志向反而没有当年那么“宏伟”了，尤其是在他的幼儿园老师带他参观了位于 Back Bay 的消防队员纪念碑之后，小润润就铁了心地要做一名消防员（Fire Fighter）。在他心目中，消防员不仅是勇敢的代言词，更意味着舍身忘死、救人于危难中的气魄。那时的他经常会说：“我长大了要上哈佛大学，然后就去做消防队员！”为此，我们经常“鼓励”润润，长大了一定要做建设哈佛大学消防专业的第一人。

老爸这次来美国，给润润买了一套有关兵器的百科全书，小家伙看了以后，那叫一个爱不释手。每天放学回家第一件事就是抱着他的兵器书让爸爸和阿公给他讲。光讲还不够，还一定要把每种兵器的特点、性能为个“门儿清”，还要按照兵器的厉害程度为人家排队，睡觉前还不忘把兵器书压在枕下，生怕第二天早上找它不到。

早上在老妈的建议下给俺家丫头剃了头，转眼间，刚刚有点小女孩儿样的“小奶酪”就变成了肥头肥脑“小和尚”，还是一个相当清秀的“小和尚”

昨天网球课上老师奖给润润一个 Cooling Headband。小家伙回来以后就迫不及待地让我帮他带上，然后像模像样地给我演示他在网球课上学到的上手发球，正、反手接球。看他那样子，是不是有点拽？

军棋是小时候我很喜欢的。上次回国逛街，正好看到有卖的，想都没想就买了一套。回到家发现老公也是一个从小下军棋的主儿（估计大多数男孩子都是，少见的只是我这样爱好军棋的小女子），于是每逢周末，交战一番自是少不了的。平时跟老公对弈五子棋或者象棋，两个人经常平分秋色，有的时候我还略占上风，唯独军旗，总是老公的手下败将。我这个人有个毛病，越败越爱下；老公呢，只爱下他能赢的棋。于是，久而久之，下军棋就成了我们家的默认娱乐，而“大头”也慢慢地被我们熏陶成了一个不折不扣的军棋爱好者。

这次阿公来美国，稍有功夫，润润就会拉着阿公跟他下军棋。军棋对阿公来说自然是熟悉得不能再熟悉了，于是茶余饭后，经常能看到润润和阿公在军棋桌前或沉思（润润），计算（润润）或者开怀（润润和阿公）的身影。