Seeking advice for moving to California, USA with two babies

[koalabear]

hi - we are moving to California, USA on friday

i have two children - DD 5 months and DS 24 months

if anyone is living, or has lived, in or around San Francisco, are you able to give me some tips

i know that it will be important to meet other mums and children earlier on (for both myself and my children's sake), so was wondering:

1. how to find decent play groups, nursuries, mothers groups
2. are there any cultural no-no's when it comes to the above
3. what would a typical 2 year old birthday party consist of (DS is 2 yrs old 2 weeks after arrival)
4. any other tips .....

We will be living in Woodside

TIA

bump

Best of luck with the move. I'm not from California but from Colorado - now living in the UK. I would imagine that you could find info on playgroups from the local library or city council. If they have any storytimes at the library just go to those and start introducing yourself to other mums.

Not sure of any cultural no-no's. Other tips, I would just get yourself out there and don't be afraid to ask others for help.

Good luck!

I did a social recce when we went to Atlanta in November 2004 when mine were 28 and 9 months.

I was shameless about joining chatrooms and asking for 'friends'. A few people got in touch offering to meet up but they were quite far away and nothing come of that.

My best lead in was going to library sessions and chatting to mothers there. I got inivited to coffee at someone's house and I asked them about toddler groups. They were amazed to hear of such a thing and I couldn't really get a grip of what they did during the week with their children. One of them had given up work to look after her child as he had developed meningitis at nursery. I don't know why the other mother didn't work. They were really nice women but few and far between. It seemed that most women worked and their children were in daycare.

Sorry, not a great picture. Obviously it depends on where you are. In Georgia, the church appeared to play a big part in people's social lives and that wouldn't be available to us. Also, living in short term rental accommodation meant that we didn't have a neighbourhood.

thanks Gem and Housfrau

sorry, we are staying at my MIL until we fly out, so i am on a dodgy dial up connection which is painful, so access is rather sporatic

yes, we are moving because of DH job - company haven't really helped other than giving a sum of money to (partly) reimburse expenses - there is no way it would reimburse all of the costs, but i guess that's just the way it is

i think the library is a great suggestion - i never would have thought of that, but will track the local one down

at present, i think we might have to pay other 2 years olds to come to DS birthday

hausfrau - how are you feeling now about your move? we should stay in touch and compare notes when we get there .... if nothing else, at least we'll have online support