NLCS

We're rooting for the home team. San Francisco comes togther when the Giants are winning, surprisingly, when tickets cost as much as they do, but that doesn't keep the roofers and the techies from all rooting for the same thing, a Giants victory.

The Dragon Boss and I are hoping that we'll come back to beat the Cards and play some World Series games the last weekend in October. If we do, then I'm buying a seat for the back of my commuter bike and we're headed on over to the ballpark.

Hopefull,y Baleen will get over her aversion to riding in the city for this and see her husband and son together on two wheels. We might even have to get Cooper and his dad involved. It's entirely flat from the Marina to the ballpark without any trouble, that is, unless you're riding on the sidewalk right next to a bike cop.

Glam-ma

Gigi and Mikey are in town, bringing some North Shore chic to Northern California. On Friday they were his primary caretakers, bringing him a few dozen yards from me in my downtown office as they strolled down Market Street to the Ferry Building, and then strolled him back by the ballpark. It was his first visit to either of those places.

This weekend we all went to the Dipsea steps and the Tourist Club that we've successfully visited on two consecutive second Saturdays of the month. But it's not for the German bier that we climb those steps, it's the views so we might be back on November 10th, too.

We showed them the treehouse we almost bought, 140 steps from the Mill Valley floor. Mikey thought they weren't up to code, not in structure, but in stature, and Gigi agreed, saying the shallow steps didn't make them seem like 140. But everybody agreed that maybe, it just makes a lot more sense to hike up the Dipsea steps than to own a house on them.

Report Card

The Dragon Boss got his first report card. It's from Bright Horizons, the back-up day care facility right downtown. When Baleen and I poured over it, as we will in the years to come, we noticed a lot of exclamation points. He also had five wet diapers.

Whitby loves bubbles! He would watch them float around and try to catch them with his hands! A bubble that landed on his cheek surprised him and then he laughed! While he was watching the bubbles, he would make funny faces, too!

Downtown

The Dragon Boss came to work with me this morning. We took the early J train right outside our door, early enough to get a comfortable seat in the last car. TDB hung out in the Baby Bjorn on my chest watching the San Francisco downtown working crowd: men in sharp suits with nice shoes and nice haircuts, the jeans and t-shirt crowd, and the man who got on with golf clubs, looked down at TDB and said, Good morning, blue eyes.

On the 5.45 train home, we were squeezed in like sardines. TDB, again on my chest in the Baby Bjorn, seemed just as happy as before, even as I worried he'd soon start overheating like his dad. People talk to you when they're forced up right next to you with a baby on your chest like they wouldn't if there wasn't a baby there.

One woman asked how old TDB was and said she was on her way home to her 10 month old. Another told him he was being so good. The closest guy, wearing a nice, crisp white shirt and closest to TDB, right in front of him, actually, said, loudly, I'm guessing becasue of the earphones connected to his iPhone, He's not going to spit up on me, is me?   

St Francis

The Dragon Boss thinks churches are petting zoos. Papa and Marmee took him to the church up the hill from us on Sunday morning while Baleen and I were down in Salinas for the Western Chic wedding.

One might assume that the animals outnumbering the children in the church was just San Francisco being San Francisco, but there was an excuse this time: Sunday was the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, our city's namesake and the patron saint of animals.

So while my Brooks Brothers jacket was getting chewed on by a horse, Marmee was keeping TDB's hands by his side and they navigated the pews in a stroller. Down doggie, she said in church for the first time in her life.

Baleen's Return

Baleen returned from a little jaunt to Europe and Asia with presents for our caretakers and our son. German chocolate for the caretakers and Turkish shoes for the The Dragon Boss. They're just the right kind of shoes, too, because those onesies with the booties Baleen puts him in don't have any grip. These Turkish shoes do.

TDB needs grip on his shoes because his legs are his motors, steering wheel and propulsion all rolled into one. So far he can move in only one direction, which is backwards, pushing in the direction of his head when he's on his back and toward his feet when he's on his stomach.

But he can't do it when he can't grip the ground. And if he can't grip the ground then he can't motor around. Which just might mean that we'll have to wait on the shoes until we get a gate for the stairs because TDB just become mobile (but only in one direction).

Red and Blue

I've flown in the cavalry, or rather, they've left the Wasatch and crossed the Sierras in their rental car and driven here. I mean, I could have taken care of The Dragon Boss all on my own, and I was looking forward to it with Baleen straddling Europe and Asia all week, but instead of just making me happy, I could make two other people happy two.

So I called up Papa and Marmee and said why not head out to San Francisco on Tuesday morning. They were headed out here on Thursday anyway to take care of TDB for our weekend wedding in Monterey. I think Papa started packing the car before I was off the phone with Marmee.

They arrived Tuesday night in time for dinner, which was San Francisco fast food of Lucca's fresh-made fettucini, hot sausages and meat sauce, and even brought a white peach pie from Ikeda's outside Auburn. And while they loked dinner, what they really, really liked was watching TDB drink his unvarying 8oz dinner in a bottle.

Men

It's all men over here in the Mission suburbs. Baleen got the call on Friday that she was needed in Istanbul this week and that she'd have to leave on Sunday. So we're back to eating pasta from the pan and tiny spoonfulls of plum and applesauce instead of spinach and cauliflower. Then there's grasshopper pie from Mitchell's. Don't tell Baleen.

We also get to pick our own outfits each day which hasn't been a problem for me now that Baleen has directed her attention down to my ankles, not to the shoes I wear, but to our little son (almost) crawling around the floor down there.

It's hot here in the city, I'm talking 90 degrees outside the apartment and 80 degrees inside hot, so we're wearing next to nothing around here, just a simple white onesie. And at night, when I tuck little TDB into the sleep sack, we're really wearing nothing, just a diaper to catch anything if TDB decides to let loose during the night.  

Doctor

It's back to the doctor's office, the Friday night after hours clinic as The Dragon Boss can't kick his wheeze. That means super veggie burriots from Papalote and a late bedtime for the little guy.

That's two visits in as many months for respiratory issues, as the doctor calls it. It's too early to declare it asthma. If he had asthma, it would sound like this, but if it is only a chest cold, then it would sound like this, too.

So we'll wait a few more months to see if he has the gentle lungs that Uncle Margarine had that would let him know about increased pollen, dust in the house or a sharp change in the weather. And if so, Uncle Margarine just might have a sit down with him over Thanskgiving and tell him just what to expect.

Little Bird

The Dragon Boss doesn't hang out with many girls. He and Rowan spend more of their waking hours together than Baleen and I do, and he sees Cooper on the occasional weekend. So when he hangs out with Henley, there doesn't seem to be much difference.

It's not like she's making it any easy for him to distinguish. Besides her pinks and reds, she's almost as tall as he is and drinks the same 8oz five times a day. If they're laying together on the floor and TDB doesn't get his hand up first to crawl all over her, then she doesn't waste any time in crawling over him.

Plus, when the meal's over, she gives back an ounce or two each time just like he does. As far as we can tell about what he can tell, there doesn't seem to be any difference. But he'll learn.