The House of Michaels

Here we are in SF and the only gay dads group I can find isn’t even locally based, or all that active for that matter.  I think they “meetup” once every six months….

Later today, I received the beckon to follow once again down the hall.  If you missed the description, please read today’s earlier entry.  This time she didn’t have a binky in her mouth, but she had one of her two keen shoes in her hand.  I assumed she wanted her shoes on, and I was right.  In her bedroom, she promptly sat down and kept putting the shoe on top of her foot as if to sign language “Daddy, you know I can’t do it.  You do it!” and so I did.  Then we spent the next fifteen minutes looking for the other one, which is as good as any other time consuming chore, so why not.  We found it and I put it on her other foot and asked her, “What now?”.  To which she replied by going back down the hall and I followed.  But she didn’t turn into her room and went straight to the front door, grabbed the knob and started twisting and turning and pulling as if she knew what she was doing.  I couldn’t help myself and giggled out loud.  She is just full of it today.  It was raining all afternoon and I think on most days I would have encouraged some other activity, but I was just so impressed by her will today that I just went with it, got her little hooded jacket on and opened the door for her.  For the first time ever, she decided that the stairs were not so scary after all and just started marching forward.  It was all I could do to catch her arm before she fell face first and good thing too… it was dirty and wet out!  We made it past the stairs and she proceeded to lead me all the way down the block (towards Duboce) and then decided she was going to crawl down the one step of the curb into the street and then I just about lost it.  Where is she going?  Why so determined?  What is going on here?  She is just a baby.  She can’t be doing all this!  After grinning uncontrollably for several seconds, I grabbed her hand and we trapsed across the street, slippery train tracks, construction and all.  Once we got across, she headed straight for the middle of the park through the grass (the wet grass) and didn’t show signs of slowing.  I’ve never taken her into the grass at the park.  When we go, we tend to go to the children’s little play area.  And even if we did decide to play in the grass, I would go to the area where dogs frequented a lot less to reduce chances of her playing in poo…  Ok, that was it.  I was done.  It was cute and I am happy I went along for as long as I did, but it was raining and now she was playing in knee deep grass (for her anyway) so I swooped her up and we headed home.  She wasn’t thrilled, but I did a little dance in the rain on the sidewalk where some water had puddled and that abated her anger quite nicely.  It even occurred to me that she should splash in the puddles and I started jumping up and down like a five year old making splashes go as far as I could.  She was happy to watch, entranced even.  But when I put her in the middle of the puddle and tried to get her to jump around, she refused.  I suppose it was more amusing to watch me do it than to do it herself.  Oh well, I guess she can’t amaze me every minute of the day.  Maybe her quota was up for the day.  Who knows?!   All I know is that apparently, puddles aren’t interesting yet…

I am not complaining.  However, it seems odd to me that Calliope is still having two, two hour naps every day at 16 months.  No, I haven’t looked online to verify.  Mostly just that everyone who asks (and sleep is one of those things people constantly ask about when you have a young one) is shocked when I tell them.  In any case, Michael and I had a little discussion last night that we were going to start working on pushing her first nap back so we can start getting ready for the transition to one nap.  Apparently, it is going to happen any second.  So this morning started off slow and she didn’t get up til about 7:40 which is about 40 minutes late for her usual schedule.  I thought this was great.  It will help in putting her down later for her first nap.  I could easily wait until 10 instead of the usual 9AM.  But this was not in the cards according to Calliope.  I was sitting on the sofa in the TV room sending a client email plus a couple of personal ones and here Calliope comes from her bedroom and out of the hallway with a binky in her mouth.  She doesn’t use a binky except to sleep.  She either found it in her bed/crib and it was close enough to the edge for her to grab it, or it was on the edge of her dresser drawer just within reach.  I’m not sure which.  And of course, she was mighty proud.  Smiling from ear to ear despite the binky in her mouth.  After it was clear I was paying attention, she promptly started doing all the things that indicate for me to follow her which includes little barks, a slight bend at the waist in order to lean forward and emphasize the importance of her little barking and then walking down the hall, coming back to make sure I was coming and then heading back down the hall.  Its quite adorable and quite understandable that I got off my derriere to follow.  As Michael is fond of saying, she has us well trained.  Halfway down the hall, she must have got tired of me lollygagging and took matters into her own hands, quite literally, and grabbed my finger and proceeded to haul me into her bedroom straight to her crib where she grabbed at it and shook it.  It was pretty clear that it was time for a nap, and it was only 9:30.  What can I say, the girl likes her schedule.
 
 

What an awesome weekend.  Calliope and I headed to Marin on Thursday to do a bit of dog and housesitting over at Ryan and Shannon’s abode, which we all lovingly call the Hacienda.  It was very quiet and peaceful and the dogs were super happy to have a toddler around since Pan was with Ryan and Shannon in DC.  Michael joined us on Friday night and we made chicken curry over rice… yum!  Then Saturday we went to Point Reyes and had a very nice lunch followed by a nice midday nap.   I napped with Olive on the bed which was just wonderful.  Olive being the smaller of the two dogs.  At first, Calliope was petrified of the dogs, especially when they barked, but after some carefully forced time with the dogs, she now laughs when they bark and are roughhousing with one another.  So cute.
We woke up Sunday which was Michael’s birthday, packed up and headed back home to lovely SF.  Time away is always awesome as we get to spend quality time together uninterrupted by our usual chores and “things to do” around the house.  But it is also nice to come home.  Rachel and Matt met us at our house for a little food for Calliope and Piper who played very well together and generally had a good time.  Then we headed out to the Castro Street Fair, which was so much fun.  The band at the main stage was actually quite good and we just stood around the stroller, danced, ate and drank fair wares.  Then we had a very early dinner at Catch, just like last year and had a blast feeding the little ones and catching up in general.
It was a beautiful day, but marked by a certain sadness as our friends have decided to move to Colorado, something they have been hemming and hawing about over the last ten years.  We are so happy for them, but will sorely miss them too.  We just need to make sure we see them plenty before they take off.
Happy Birthday Baby!  I had a great time and hope you did too…
 

Yes, after many years, I too sit down and watch Top Gear with Michael.  Its hilarious, irreverent and fun.

After about nine years, we have finally painted over the vegetables that some gay man thought should line the walls where they meet the ceiling in the kitchen.  The only reason I have ever given any credit to this display of creativity gone awry is because he actually used real vegetables, dipped them in paint and smushed them against the wall.  He tried.  He failed, but at least he tried.  If you didn’t know there were actual vegetables used, you’d think it was the glue left over after someone took down some bad vegetable motif wallpaper strip.
In addition, the decks have all been painted, the front of the house is repainted with subtler, more modern colors and we have a fully refurbished front stoop and all new stairs leading to said stoop.
And now we are going to move out.  Great.
 
 

Just a note to say that Calliope ate a full helping of my home made spanish rice this morning.  I made it about four days ago and it doesn’t taste much like spanish rice, but it is actually quite good.  I’ve been trying to give her some everyday since.  She loved it when I had just finished it and it was still hot off the stove.  And then finally this morning!  It makes my day to make something for her and have her like it 🙂

We went to BJ’s Brewery in Colma for lunch today as a way to spend time together in our new car! We ordered Calliope her own meal for the first time ever. She had grilled cheese and steamed vegetables. Of course she ate several large bites of the grilled cheese, none of the vegetables and mostly French fries from my plate!

Today, Michael and I went to the P.O. Plus in the Castro and had them notarize our certificate of Domestic Partnership. It was the most unceremonious process in the whole world, but at least we were acknowledged as the 1,691st couple to do so at that location. We are doing it for tax purposes and insurance purposes, but admittedly we both were feeling a bit romantic all day… One day we will get married and have a larger celebration sharing our love with all our friends and family.