Big Boy Cup

This is how the lil monkey drinks milk "like a big boy". He gets a regular plastic cuppy - No Sippy Lid, and sits in the middle of the kitchen floor - its best if a mommy sits with him, and drinks as much as he can before he is simply overcome with the urge to dump the remaining contents of said cup (sans sippy lid) onto the floor. Thank goodness that we are paying for housecleaning now.

Feeling Like Spring

The days are warming up a little bit and we've pulled the second layer of fleece out of our winter jackets, plus as you can see no Gloves and no Hats at the playground this weekend. We did spend a lot of time with Lila trying to get the most of the sun out of the day.

Just cause he is so cute!!!

Bad Mothering, Food Choices Part II

Em was out of town at the big southern wedding fete. All I could muster was Capt##n Kr#nch and T*p R#men. But he sure does love sweets and noodles!!!!

Really, Really High

That's how he likes to swing it, my boy.

Visiting BUMC

Here is the lil monster as we are waiting for the bus after visiting "Mommy Working" on Friday. Since Em was going off to Holly & Doanie's big southern/vietnamese wedding extravaganza straight from work we decided to head out for a field trip to say goodbye. Of Course this was the day that decided to POUR rain - but we braved it and took the #1 bus down Mass. Ave, past the symphony hall that we see every day in our Elmo Peter & the Wolf DVD and all the way out to the end of the world. The monkey had great fun on the bus ride - He sat in his own seat by the window and watched for diggers, school buses and big trucks and commented on all of them LOUDLY when they appeared. At the hospital he was a little taken aback by all the scrub & white coat wearing co-workers who came by to say hi & give him some love. But he warmed up as soon as he was directed to his own little computer terminal. We had lunch in the cafeteria - which makes me wonder - why is it that hospitals have such Awful, Awful food. Anyways I took this snap as we waited for the #1 to wisk us back home again for hot cocoa and a nap.

Em watching the Baby

Nuff said.

Like Manna From Heaven....

Today the city replaced the fire hydrant across the street from our house. This meant that for the ENTIRE morning there was a crew working a big digger right outside our window. Someone could not have been happier.

Baby Cheese continued...

Of Course Lila misses her babydoll and needs to come downstairs to visit now and again and make sure that the lil monkey is doing everything okay. He looks kinda worried doesn't he ??

In the park with Baby Cheese

Lila gave the lil monkey one of her baby dolls a couple of weeks ago. Since then we have gotten to see what a good daddy-type he is. He is very attentive of his baby doll - making sure to change her diapers and give her lots of b*tt paste. And occasionaly insisting that we can not leave the house without her.

The difference a day makes...

Last night Em made dinner (Dgina came over) and we had - Fresh Salmon cooked with an herb butter a la Ch*z Pannise, Asparagus lightly salted and braised with olive oil, a nice orzo salad with fresh tomatoes and feta.

Tonight I'm cooking. A thing is in the oven thats made up of two cans of tuna, two cans of campb#ll cream of mushr**m soup, frozen peas and spaghetti noodles.

Wanna do the puzzle ?

The first time we had this conversation, (you know the time without the camera when you say to yourself OMG this is SO cute we have to get it on camera...) Em was asking him what he wanted to do today (wanna see Gorillas ??) and he said NO to everything - Until Em asked if he wanted to run out, get the times & do the crossword puzzle and then he said emphatically YES - we thought Grma Phancy would be SO proud.

In Motion - PhotoFriday

The Clean Team

The boys got together for some good old fashioned bathtime fun recently (this was before G. went on a water strike). It was so cute to watch them play together, but pretty soon they're going to actually outgrow the ability to play out these sort of "3 men in a tub" scenario's. Plus its just about impossible to keep the water in when they all start splashing.

Oops got this one wrong

My son can't be the only baby boy who likes eating the foam from the top of mama's latte - can he???

Bye ...

Your great-grandfather passed away in his sleep about 4:30am Saturday morning.

When he stopped liking slides

When we were in SF em tried sending him down this round slide - and then he didn't want to get on a slide again for WEEKS. You can see why by looking at the expression on his face. He is finally going down slides again, but I was worried for awhile that maybe we had ruined him for life.

The last few weeks have been pretty good out here. Em has had a couple of weekends off which means I've had some breaks too. We have been spending LOTS of time with the neighborhood kids - Lila, Jack & Gabe - lots of playing in the snow when its warm enough to spend some time outside - and playgroups at each others houses. We are tossing around the idea of making a babysitting or pre-school co-op to start next fall - which would be AWESOME. We'll see if we can work it out as a group.

I am looking forward to the warmer weather coming soon - I am starting to make lists of activities for me & the munchkin to enjoy - like getting down to Boston Common, and the big Public Library ... only 2 or 3 months to go till Spring gets here.

The One that wasn't - A Day to Remember

In honor of Leap Day some folks are blogging about the babies that didn't come -

My sign in for this blog is still the name that would've gone to the first-baby that wasn't. I think there is a part of me that misses meeting her more as time goes on. Back then everything was happening so fast that it was really very surreal. We got pregnant on the absolute first try - pretty amazing for an old guy like me & frozen swimmers and no meds or anything. So we were still just running along on the high of such an easy conception when we went in for our first (about 9 week) appointment at the OB's office.

I think Em was kinda aware that things could be less than great but I had no worries at all - I was so definitely pregnant - heavy & sore b@@bs, getting sick feelings, all the fun of early pg-ness. This is what I wrote close to the time about that day ...

...and we are all watching the little TV screen and I’m waiting to see something that’s supposed to look like a dancing gummy bear- but all I see is a lot of black – no gummy bear at all. And at this point E is really quiet, and the doctor is moving the probe around and its starting to sink in to me that something is probably pretty wrong here. The NP says something about it not looking right & being really sorry and I am just going ka-ching shut everything down. She wants us to go across the street and get another scan on the super machine to confirm that there’s nobody there – but it’s pretty clear that the pregnancy hasn’t progressed (for awhile). I think that e. was crying – I don’t really remember. I was paying attention to the NP’s manner more than the actual words that she said. She left us alone & I got dressed & e. was freaked, and they sent us across the street. The fancy ultrasound lady was great – she was business-like without any of the fake I’m sorry stuff. Her brusque manner made me feel safer than a soft sympathy manner would have. She confirmed that there isn’t a baby & there hasn’t been for awhile – probably since about the 6th week – I think that it never got a heart beat.We left there and went home & to bed. The doctor’s office called later & said that if I don’t miscarry in the next week I will need to schedule a D&C. I didn’t sign on for this.

So that was on June 22, 2005 - the Wed before Queer Pride Weekend. I spent most of PRIDE 05 telling every lesbian in San Francisco that I wasn't "with child" anymore & walking around the Dyke March - which is usually so fun & revigorating for my soul... knowing that I had a body that thought I was pregnant even though I wasn't & that my almost baby was dead but my body didn't know it yet somehow.

Before this I always thought of losing a pregnancy as something that started with cramping & bleeding & not looking at a tv screen - I didn't know that my body could stay pregnant even if the fetus wasn't still developing in there -- I felt betrayed by my body which is something I don't usually feel.

I didn't "mis-carry" on my own over the next days so I basically had to have a dead baby ab*rti*n which was pretty much one of the crappiest things I've had to do -- I will be forever thankfull to Jean & to Kathy B. and to my therapist who were all so sweet & did both big & little things to take care of me that day.

Photo Friday - Tranquility

This photo is from last October when we escaped with Deb & her family to Whidby Island for a weeks vacation. Sure we didn't use the rowboats on the frigid water in October - but it didn't matter - the point was we all got away - Away from the craziness of residency, away from the long days of being what feels like a single mom, away from a cranky mom, away from school, away from trying to figure everything out.

There is nothing that gets me calm as quickly as a hot tub, no internet access and a ocuple of hours in the kitchen with my wife.

-- A couple hours off-duty from childcare and a wonderful view doesn't hurt either.

Check out PhotoFridays.

Challah Part 2

This time the Challah rose!!!! Look how happy he is.

Give me an R - Give me an I ...

February Path Photo

You can see the Dec & Jan Photos from this spot on the Jan 7th Post - The difference for this month is much warmer days occasionally allowing us to go out in just a sweater - no hat, no gloves - WOW
(ps - today its pouring rain)

The Plague of 08

All of our little playmates are getting the FLU. Our little monkey was the first one sick - throwing up a couple of weekends ago when we were up visiting his Grandparents in the Shire. Em and I came back from the movies to find him sitting with Grandpa Phil eating copious amounts of chocolate ice cream - apparently he is very, very charming when he says "more icescream peez!!!" We were fine with this until about 2 hours later when all that chocolate ice cream ended up on me, and em and the sheets... then 2 more hours later there was more - and another set of sheets, and 2 hours later.... You get the idea. So by 7am on Sunday the lil guy was basically back to himself but I was WASTED and needed a weeks vacation to recover.

So later the next week our little friend Jack got something similar - but worse - He was sick for DAYS - and he lost like 10% of his body weight. Next down was Lila upstairs who was sick Friday night and then her daddy was sick last night. And we got a text message from Emily yesterday that Xan was puking.

The lil Monkey & I have now moved away from the Pukey flu type illness into a nice standard cold - we are both totally snotty and snoring like crazy at night - I think we almost kept Em awake with our din. Of course its also Vacation week so all our playgroups are closed - which will force us out into even larger public disease venues like the Science Museum... So we will see what comes next.

Shabbat Farah

This shabbat the lil' monkey & I did something that we hadn't tried before....

Yup we baked ourselves a Challah. He helped out with the kneading and did a great job with the egg wash. Sadly our yeast was from about 2004 so the bread was on the dense side - but all in all it was a good first effort.

The best part of all was him running up to emily when she got home & bringing her into the kitchen & pointing into the oven saying "challah" to show her what he'd done

新年快乐

HAPPY NEW YEAR
WELCOME TO THE YEAR OF THE RAT

R's Favorite Video

Watching Zoo Zoo

This is a short film of the lil monkey as he's watching the video show that Grandpa Phil made of our big trip to the Bronx Zoo -

Cleaning up Jack's House

The lil Monkey found the "vacumn cleaner" over at Jacks' house and spent half an hour of play time "cleaning" up the kitchen. Like I've said before - I don't really know where he is learning any of this cleaning behavior to mimic - its certainly not from either me or emily. Maybe memories of Mama Kathy B. maybe when he sees people cleaning house on tv... but I do sure hope it continues. Perhaps my little Taurus will clean us all up.

On another note - he is beginning to learn bits of the alphabet. He is recognizing and naming the letters "j" "s" and sometimes "u". He is also starting to count - he counts 2-3 but seems to have no use for the number one. He also asks for the ABC's to be sung by yelling bee-cee bee-cee also apparently having no use for the letter A.

At the Museum

The grandparents took me & the monkey to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC over the weekend. He was the perfect age for his first visit. Grandpa showed him all the great Dinosaur Bones - and then we checked out all the mammals - it was like having his book "Hug" come to life - here's the lions, and here's the lizards, and the giraffe and the ELEPHANTS & there's Bobo & Mommy.

As you can see is much smaller than an elephant!

After the musuem we had a nice lunch at a nearby Bistro.

Photos from our Trip

Here are a couple of photo albums ...

SF First Day 1-14-08

SF Trip - Ano Nuevo 1-15-08

Fab

This picture is proof that you can take the boy out of san francisco, but you can't take san francisco out of the boy.

We had a very good trip. We saw lots of friends, and family and got to visit many of SF's best playgrounds in between business and social engagements. One highlight of the trip (for the moms) was a walking tour of Ano Nuevo Elephant Seal preserve where we were joined by R's Grandpa Eldon, as well as the Wyman-Bennett clan (pictures to follow). A highlight for the boy was an afternoon spent at the discovery museum in Marin with Mel, Rachel-Laura & Jasper.

Getting Ready for Mel & Veejay ....

Enjoying SF with Mommy

....nuff said... Look at those happy faces.

Enjoying a day at the Embarcadero

R. loves the view of the bay bridge. Mommies loved the Cowgirl Creamery Cheeses but were less impressed with Slanted Door's to-go food.

Four Generations

Here we are for a minute visiting the little guys "great-great grandfather" after our outing to Ano Nuevo with Grandpa R. At the end of the trip the little monkey was looking at pictures of Grandpa R. and saying "Poppa" - I was so happy that he got to spend enough time that he was recognizing him and that we will get to see him again this spring when he comes out to Boston. On a sadder note I am pretty sure that my Grandfather didn't recognize me at all - although he did seem to get that the baby was his great-grandson.

What a difference a month makes

Note the little monkey on the path to the park in November - wearing sweatpants and a jean jacket, but by mid-December things have changed on the same little path. Now (early Jan) the path just has a few remnants of ice on it which should be melted by tomorrow - esp. if its really going to be close to 60 degrees.

Sunday...

is free day at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Monito wants to show Gabe & Lila his favorite dino bones. When he walked into this room his jaw dropped & he said WOW