/făm'ə-lē, făm'lē/
n., pl. -lies.
Brief History of Our Family
Brief History
Our son Benjamin is 10 years old, loves soccer, sports, and
Legos, and is an avid reader. Several
times we have found him after taking a shower, wrapped in a towel,
crouched down, heavily engrossed in reading a book. Our daughter Gilly is 4 years old. She is a
clever little stinker, and is just learning how to read. This past August we
had another baby, a little girl we named Maris. She is an angel and just
loves to be held while she watches all the commotion going on around her.
How we met
Liana and I were a blind date, set up by a mutual friend who
thought we would appreciate each other's high-quality sense of humor.
Heh, they were right. We both have quirky humor and regularly embarrass
our kids with it.
Most of our early dates were to used-book stores and bike riding along the hundreds of miles of Cincinnati bike trails. We also went to dozens of classical and jazz music concerts, plays and theater events, and various ballet presentations. Despite our mutual interest in other music genres, we have never been to a rock concert together. Our son Ben was born just a couple years after we were married so perhaps that's also a reason. We have strongly tended to stay and play at home in the evenings ever since we have had children.
Cincinnati: The early years
We lived in an absolutely horrid Fairfield, Ohio apartment
complex for a bit less than two years and then moved closer to downtown
Cincinnati in a rented Lockland, Ohio house. That was a lot of fun and
we had some great neighbors. As Ben grew older we really enjoyed the
great family activities that Cincinnati has to offer such as the
Children's Museum, Alt Park, and Parky's Farm. We all enjoyed the many
children's events at the downtown library. Cincinnati is a great town to
raise kids. After that we moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan so that I could
pursue a PhD in engineering.
Ann arbor: the present
We have lived in Ann Arbor in the married student housing complex
on the University of Michigan North campus since the summer of 1999.
Both of our youngest children were born at the University of Michigan
Hospital.
This is a very eclectic environment, Ben has had friends from over a dozen different countries, including Japan, China, Germany, Korea, India, Mexico, Spain, Chile, Iceland, France, Brazil, Singapore, and several others. The architecture of the family housing apartments is very dull but the layout of the whole complex is very inspired. Since the residents are all older students who tend to have younger children, the layout was designed to present a kid-friendly environment. All of the apartments face inwards to a huge interlinked series of courtyards, play areas, and sand boxes. The sand boxes are perhaps the nicest touch, they range up to 60-70 across and 20-30 feet wide and can attract dozens of kids during warm weather days.
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fam·i·ly
A fundamental social group in society typically
consisting of one or two parents and their children.
Two or more people who share goals and values, have long-term commitments to one another, and reside usually in the same dwelling place.
- All the members of a household under one roof.
- A group of persons sharing common ancestry. See Usage Note at collective noun.
- Lineage, especially distinguished lineage.
- A locally independent organized crime unit, as of the Cosa Nostra.
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- A group of like things; a class.
- A group of individuals derived from a common stock: the family of human beings.
- Biology. A taxonomic category of related organisms ranking below an order and above a genus. A family usually consists of several genera.
- Linguistics. A group of languages descended from the same parent language, such as the Indo-European language family.
- Mathematics. A set of functions or surfaces that can be generated by varying the parameters of a general equation.
- Chemistry. A group of elements with similar chemical properties.
- Chemistry. A vertical column in the periodic table of elements.
- Of or having to do with a family: family problems.
- Being suitable for a family: family movies.
[Middle English familie, from Latin familia, household, servants of a household, from famulus, servant.]
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