Olympics

The Dragon Boss loves the Olympics. It's not the chest thumping national pride that P&G might want from the TV audience, or that you might expect from how long TDB will stare at any American flag in his line of sight, but the interest and attention of a pure sportsman.

No matter if it's Ryan Lochte on the screen or the women's cycling road race, he stares with equal intensity, uninterested in Sebastian and Carole the crab or any other of the pile of toys he's accumulating. He keeps up his effort during the commercials, too, if we don't interrupt our own watching to play with him for 90 seconds, making P&G happy, I'm sure, as they begin to influence a new, young customer.

But last night it was just Baleen and me watching TV well past 10pm. That's what the Olympics can do, even when the internet's already told you what will happen. She explained the dread she felt at the balance beam and vault back when she was a mighty mite gymnast in Massachusetts and we both marvelled at the human pogo stick, McKayla Maroney. Had he not been asleep, TDB might have even let out a gasp.  

Fever

It's 100 degrees under The Dragon Boss' right arm. We're told that's a typical response to vaccinations, one that sent Rowan and his mom to the emergency room on Wednesday night, but it took us a few days to bring out the thermometer because TDB is just so darn well behaved.

He didn't cry any more than he normally does, which is very little, and in describing his symptoms to the nurse on the phone, we said he just wanted to be held a little more than normal. And who doesn't want to hold TDB, we asked?

The nurse hotline told us to check his temperature every 4 hours to make sure it doesn't increase. I've got the first one, a little after midnight, and Baleen will take the second one, four hours later. And four hours after that, hopefully all three of us are waking up for breakfast.

More Shots

The Dragon Boss loves San Francisco. He didn't even mind taking the BART home from the airport on Sunday, walking the mile with mom from the 24th St station to our apartment in the Mission suburbs so he could get a feel for his city again, while his dad carried the 160 pounds of luggage it takes so support this family of three for a month in Massachusetts.

In the three nights he's spent in his own bed in his own room in his own city, he's slept through all of them. This morning we had to wake him up at 7.30am like a teenager late for school. This continual slumber is in stark contrast to how he slept on the East Coast where he usually woke his mom up a few times a night and wouldn't go to sleep without his pacifier.

The days have gone well, too, a combination of good activity and nice naps with one notable exception. TDB got two shots at his 4-month pediatrician's visit yesterday. The first occured without event, but he gave out one heck of a shriek for the second, and spent the rest of the day squawking like a flock of geese if Baleen didn't play with him. We assume it was the shots that were bothering him, but maybe it was his declining measurements: only 90% in relative weight at 17.5 lbs and 75% in length at 25.5 inches.

Home Sweet Home

After a month away, The Dragon Boss was back in San Francisco for all of 16 hours before his mom said, enough of this 60 degree summer, let's find some heat again. So she packed TDB up into the family wagon along with his good friend Rowan and Rowan's mom and drove north to Napa to meet Cooper and Cooper's mom by the Coppola pool.

They gabbed like friends who've known each other for most of their lives and talked about their summers so far, Coop in Maine for most of a month where TDB asked him how cold the water was (too cold) and about Rowan's visit to the very same island that TDB just came back from.

TDB did a little swimming again, thankful that his mom was with him this time so he didn't get completely submerged and that the water was a whole lot warmer than that Atlantic from last week. That's a lot of swimming in the past few days while there's still one big body of water close by he hasn't tested: the backyard Pacific. 

34

Well, The Dragon Boss' month in Massachusetts (and twenty minutes in New Hampshire and two days in Portland, Maine) is coming to an end in a few days, as is our time on Martha's Vineyard. We'll be heading back to San Francisco on Sunday, but before we do, it's worth recounting a few things that happened on this island:
TDB swam in the Atlantic for the first time doing both the backstroke and the crawl
TDB's dad turned 34
PaPa started soccer training with TDB, ritually arriving with an inflated beach ball for TDB to kick each day
TDB had his first taste of beer, an Ispwich Ale that Marmee dipped his pacifier in at the Atlantic in Edgartown
He also had some ice cream from Mad Martha's, just like Bill Clinton, courtsey of Gigi
But he didn't drive into Menemsha, the local local's spot on the island where the coffee at the boathouse Texaco is still 50c a cup (so we're told), he just saw it from across the jetty in  Lobsterville, which is how most of the visitors see Menemsha anyway. There's always next year.

Atlantic

The Dragon Boss went swimming in the ocean for the first time yesterday. Though he's a California baby, that Pacific seems a little too cold for an infant (maybe at 6 months outside the South End, eh Coop?), so we thought we'd start him in the Atlantic.

Remembering Lake Anza, we brought him in gingerly, starting with some simple standing in the sand to warm his feet. Then, with grandparents, mom, and dad all crowded around, creating some shade and fighting for a spot in front of him, we brought him in the Atlantic incrementally, a few inches at a time.

When the water rose above his waist and his mood held, we went for some swimming, first on his stomach with his head raised high and his legs a-kicking, and then on his back. We didn't dunk his head like we did in the pool near Gigi's house, but we had him in there for a good 10 minutes, long enough to get used to it, and long enough to sleep like a hibernating bear when he got back to shore, wrapped in a towel in first Marmee's arms and then Baleen's.

Ferry

The Dragon Boss took his first boat ride yesterday. It was a large boat, big enough to carry dozens of cars along with bikers and pedestrians from Cape Cod to the island of Martha's Vineyard. Gigi, Mikey, Marmee and PaPa came along, too, as we delivered TDB back to Baleen who'd been mom for two nights to half a dozen twenty-somethings at Aunt Erin's bachelerotte.

We stayed outside on the middle deck of the bow (as long as the bow is the front of the boat) where TDB could see the island we were aiming for and feel the cool sea breezes absent these last few days from the North Shore.

He smiled a wide smile when Baleen arrived after their 56 hours apart, their absolute longest to date, and let her know that he had missed her, but that he'd been alright with dad for a few days. Hey mom, he said, we did a lot of hiking and standing in the grass behind Gigi's house and I hung out with Dario and Abby, but it's good to be back with you mom.

(Remember the) Maine

TDB took 3 months to visit his second state which went alright so he thought, why not make it 4 in before I hit 4 months? So we strapped him into the car and said hi to New Hampshire for a few miles to get to Maine and great-grandpa Robert Bruce and great grandma Barracuda in South Portland.

Robert the Bruce welcomed us with a dozen lobsters, of which I had two, the second with a little more gusto after Baleen showed me again how to remove the tail and took the body from the junk pile that I had put it in and made me rip it apart to get to the knuckles.

He followed it up with some high quality sirloin from Omaha Steaks with a view of the harbor from his deck and told TDB that he would take him to Whitby, the coastal town in the northeast of England where Captain Cook learned his trade, but not until he was twelve, because by that point, great-grandpa Robert the Bruce said, TDB will be able to carry my bags. 

Reunion

I saw The Dragon Boss 1st thing this morning and he gave me the biggest smile. Well, first I saw the man in seat 1C, then the stewardess, a cab driver, the man at Dunkin Donuts who said to the man next to him, that's like finding sunken treh-sha, then the Latino at the Chelsea commuter rail station who indicated that Boston was that way, then Mikey and Carole and finally Baleen and TDB sleeping together in Baleen's childhood bed.

It's been a little rough for Baleen all on her own, feeding and cleaning and then entertaining in her hometown for 2 weeks so TBD has crept into bed with her a few early mornings. That makes both of them happy which makes me happy and which means I didn't have to choose who I went to first when I arrived.

When he's smiling in the morning, TDB looks just as he did back in California, but then you keep on looking and see that the guy has put on some pounds. However many 17 minus what he was when he left is, to be exact.

Pending Reunion

Tomorrow's my last day without Baleen and The Dragon Boss. In their two weeks away, I've slept both less (at first) and more (recently) than I thought and had just as much pasta with butter as I expected.

I swam with Walk a few more times than I expected, a total of 4, which is 4 times more than I'd swum in the 4 months before, and I even saw SdB, a tall man sad not to have seen TDB.

I've missed TDB and Baleen as much as expected, which is a lot, but you just keep telling yourself I can do 2 weeks when Abigail Adams did 2 years (or was it 5?), but what I didn't expect is how frequently I'd rewatch videos on LilTurtle the last 2 days.

Day After Ride

The hummingbirds must be patriots because this July 5th, only 6 cyclists showed up to climb Hawk Hill. It felt like a January morning in 2010 - but not in the legs, those felt more like January 1986.

Everybody started slow so I took the front wheel while Packy, Ios and the others fell in behind. I pushed the pace all the way to the Circle where Packy pulled in front, just far enough to keep me from pushing until I puked to try and catch him, which let Ios pass me just at the line. Always know who's behind you.

A racer joined us on the sprint to make it 7. Packy broke just before the turn. I sprinted to catch his wheel, which I did, but Ios passed on by with the racer on his, just far enough in front that I had time to catch Ios, but not the racer. O for 2.  

Independence Day

The Dragon Boss loves the Fourth of July. That's what his mom tells me and I've got the picture to prove it. When the fireworks went up she said that he couldn't take his eyes off them.

She brought him inside for the grand finale, against the wishes of Gigi and the crowd of admirers along the North Shore, as she worried all the noise might overexcite him. She is the one, after all, who pays for it at 2am.

But what's easy to notice in the below photo, besides how much The Dragon Boss loves his country, is how big he is. He's barely over 3 and a half months, but already he's snug in his 6 month outfits. Another few months and he'll be telling us his clothes are too tight. And maybe, that there are too many bows for a man of his size.

The Bay

I put on adult speedos, the kind seen less frequently on St. Tropez, but still in public pools all over France, and went in the Bay on Friday for only the third time this year. It wasn't in response to Baleen's admonition a few years back that my shoulders weren't nearly as broad as they were when we met, but because the work week was over and Baleen and The Dragon Boss were on the other side of the country.

Cooper's dad came along, too, and he told me that his Greek friend, the currency trader and UEFA referee who's fine flying into Split and staying at the Intercontinental under a fake name the night before he refs the derby, lasted all of thirty seconds in the cold, not even reaching the end of the dock.

That's thirty seconds longer than The Dragon Boss who hasn't been in the Bay yet. Judging by Lake Anza a few weeks ago he probably won't be getting in the Bay anytime soon, but there's a chance that just a few weeks from now the two of us will be in the Atlantic, but with only one of us wearing a speedo. I'm not telling his mom which one of us that'll be.