The House of Michaels

Just in time for strawberry

I’m done with this relationship. I don’t feel loved any more. I have been reduced to being a trophy husband. Anyway, all my email and calendar is moved to Exchange (never thought I would choose to move to any Microsoft product again, but Exchange 2010 works great with iOS devices). Web search has been moved to bing. I’m done and never looking back.

This is our friend Lyra. She is so cute and adorable and we’re so jealous of her little chubby legs!

Somehow, I think Calliope is so cute all the time that I forget just how cute she is, and I forget to share certain things.  Often, it is through someone else’s eyes that these moments are brought to light.
Yesterday, we had over about sixteen people for tacos.  It was my way of welcoming Bekky to the west coast for a visit, gathering many of her friends and mine too in one place where we could visit and generally enjoy one another’s company.  She moved across country to live and help take care of her dear parents.  It was so nice to see some of our closest friends who I could never see enough of…
As we sat in the TV room with Ryan and Shannon watching Pan and Calliope play with each other, the toys and all us adults, Calliope’s eye caught one of her favorite books.  She did what she always does (I have no idea how long this has been going on honestly) grabbed the book, handed it to me and turned around.  Then she started backing up to me so she could sit in my lap and have me read it.  As she did this, quite gracefully I might add, she started chanting “beep, beep, beep”!  So cute.  At some point after Michael and I discovered what she was doing by backing up, we had started making that noise as if she were a service truck backing up and warning the surrounding environment of its intentions.  Of course, now she does this all the time and especially when we pick up a pair of her shoes.  She is ready to go!  And she backs up into us with the tiniest of steps until one of her feet hits us and then she plops down to have us put her shoes on.  Her aim isn’t always the best, and she misses her mark often, but she is all the more cute for it.
When Shannon saw what she was doing, the look on her face was priceless and I wish I had somehow snapped a picture of it so I can save it for all time.  But alas, the cameras were nowhere near us, nor did I think of it at the time.  I was so enthralled in her response, I couldn’t be bothered.  Thank you Shannon for your perspective.  It reminded me of just how cute my little girl is…  Of course, don’t get this wrong.  I love and appreciate Calliope more than words can say every day.
A long time ago, a very good friend of mine by the name of Jessica Gath, used to hang out with me and have tea all the time.  Proper tea even, as I lived with a couple of guys from New Zealand and England, the true purveyors of fine tea.  I digress, but the point is that I often joked with Jessica that she was the “definition of cute” because of her infectious smile and an intense curiosity about life in general.  And to some degree the fact that she is a tiny bit on the small side probably had something to do with it as well.  In any case, I am sorry to inform you Jessica, that now that you are married, and all grown up, I now must reassign this moniker to Calliope.  She is hands down the definition of cute.

I love my Tuesday night pool league. I have no idea what I will do when we move to Berkeley.

I don’t know when it actually happened, but I’m still in shock.  Calliope is now a little girl.  She isn’t a baby any longer.  Maybe some have noticed previously, but for me, it happened yesterday, at least my perception thereof.  She hardly toddles any more, she walks from this part of the room to that.  She interacts with such increased knowledge and understanding that its palpable in the room.  Her presence is almighty. I am completely moved.  In no way can I truly convey that which I am feeling.  She has made many such leaps in development over the last 16 months, but this one is significant to me.  She actually singled me out as Daddy followed promptly by calling Michael Dad with such clarity that I was a bit spooked.  She is repeating words and sounds, to the best of her ability, on a regular basis.  So much so that I am paranoid about what comes from mine own mouth.  The hugs she gives are meaningful and so very lovely.  I melt.  It can’t just be coincidence that last week was our last week with Sarah, the babysitter we had for a while now, and that I am spending 90% of my time with her, and her with me.  Its truly a blessing, one that I didn’t even know to ask for… And suddenly, the word family has such strong meaning to me that I am close to tears.  Michael and Calliope are my family.

About two or three weeks ago, I was in the bathroom using the facilities.  I’ll try not to go too much further into detail, but basically I was sitting on the toilet.  And for some reason I can’t exactly fathom, I decided to close the door.  I never close the door.  Michael never closes the door.  Only when we have guests.  Maybe I just needed a minute or two away… Michael was on the sofa in the TV room and Calliope was running around somewhere.  Next thing I know, the door handle was twisting and the door popped open, but not very far.  I immediately yelled at Michael not to open the door to which he responded “I didn’t do it.  I thought you did.”  And we both realized that Calliope had done it.  Michael knew she was there playing with the knob, as did I now that I think about it.  But neither of us thought it possible that Calliope had done it.  She had never even tried as far as we knew.  So I pulled the door open a little more and there was Calliope smiling brilliantly, very proud of herself and excited to see she had started a game of peek a boo.  For the next ten minutes, Michael and I walked around dumbfounded excitedly discussing the situation.
That door has a glass knob on it.  Not a lever like our back doors.
Two nights ago, Michael came home and because of the construction next door, decided to go out the back and talk to one of the contractors about something.  I was in the front of the house doing something, who knows what.  I heard it as it happened.  The door cracked open and then a stumble.  Unlike the french doors that require a little more force, the side door to the stairs is much easier to open.  Calliope had grabbed the handle and pulled down, fell against the door and out of the house!  She was definitely not hurt, maybe a little shocked.  As were we!  The consequences of her going out the back or front doors are small in comparison to the back side door.  She easily could find herself in a very dangerous situation while construction is going on.  Once they are done, there will be a house next to us again, but right now the railing is minimal at best.  Just goes to show that these type of dangers can really sneak up on you.  We feel extremely lucky.  We are very aware of her surroundings and pay attention to all the hazards that could arise, but this one really came up out of nowhere.  Now we are on full alert that that door needs to be locked at all times.  This is hard though because there is no way to secure it if you just left the house through it.   Its just a handle.  But now we know, so lesson learned.

Hilarious but true.  I was lying on the floor face up yesterday in the TV room trying to get a little rest and relax while Calliope played around me doing whatever she was doing.  This transition from two naps to one naps is leaving both of us tired I suppose. So while I was lying there, she somehow found me interesting among all the toys she has to play with and thought it might be fun to climb on top of me.  I just went with it thinking if I lied still long enough, she would lose interest and I could continue to lie there and rest.  I wasn’t trying to sleep or even nap… just a little rest.  And the only way I can do that is if I’m on the floor with her because then she feels like I’m involved in her playful activities.  Little did I know how involved I was about to be.  She put one foot over my chest and I thought she was going to straddle me, which she did.  But somewhere along the way, she scooted backwards and all I could feel was the softness of her britches and the crinkly diaper under them.  Yikes, she was sitting on my face!  And then she was bouncing up and down giggling because it must have been funny… and of course, the next thing I know, I’m laughing so hard I can’t breathe.  Of course, the diaper butt in my face wasn’t helping.  It was hilarious and too funny not to share.  Please, by all means, have a laugh on me… its my pleasure.

Yesterday, I picked Calliope up from Camille’s house where she goes every Wednesday to hang out with her bud all day.  When we got home, she kept doing this weird stomp thing.  She even tried to stomp my flip flopped toes!  And I was quite befuddled.  It was obviously something she picked up over at Camille’s.  Then today it rained cats and dogs as we made our way to the follow up dentist appointment.  On the way home, I had her walk the full block of Walter back to the house and she came across several puddles where she proceeded to stomp in them gleefully. This was obviously what she had learned yesterday.   So she now has a better appreciation of puddles and what they are good for …  Although its not completely clear, because she still stomps in other places that have no puddles, but she is definitely making progress…  Is it hilarious that I find this distinction important?  hmmmm