Bedtime Stories

Baleen was worried that in her two weeks away The Dragon Boss would forget all about her and hold it against her when she returned and not let her put him to bed with a bottle and a bedtime story as she normally does.

I promised her that TDB wouldn't forget her or punish her for leaving and that he really wouldn't even know the difference, but just to make sure, we've been reading stories that remind him about Baleen.

Normally that's Baleen's territory, the reading, as I can't quite remember to grab the bottle, the binky, the sleepsack and a book and just tell him a story instead, but to make sure, I've put 365 by his bed each night and when it's time for bed, we flip the pages and talk about Baleen.

Boys Gone Wild

Baleen's gone for two weeks, off to London and then straight to Brazil because her employer needs her in those two places and won't pay for her to come home in between. She's very sad, especially today this day of departure with her afternoon flight to Heathrow so she walked The Dragon Boss to the park on his daily jaunt with Rowan to say goodbye.

While we are sad, and we do wish that mom was here, too, we're making the best of it. It's whole milk and carbs on day 1 and tomorrow night is looking like more of the same.

We've got an itinerary of bike rides, maybe an East Bay hike, and if mom has her way, a shopping list for our second father-son IKEA trip. We'll just stay away from the horse meatballs.

Walked

The Dragon Boss has definitely walked. We're not ready to say he's walking, as his preferred travel mode is still crawling or being carried, but he's definitely walked at least 50 steps by now.

The first steps were in January. He'd been standing on his own for a few weeks and walking with his hands on something, like the wall or the coffee table, so when he stood up in front of Baleen from a sitting position, we weren't ready for the two wobbly steps he took to Baleen's arms. Did he just walk, Baleen asked? He did, I said, and then we clapped and hugged him to let him know that he'd done something good, which probably didn't impress him all that much as we clap in unison a couple times a day at such tasks as eating puffs on his own or pointing to the soccer ball and saying, Ba.

We didn't see a repeat of those independent steps for another week and then it was a few days before they appeared again, but in the last week, it's been a few times a day now. It's still never more than 2 or 3 steps at a time and it's really, really hard to prompt him to walk, he seems to do so when he wants to and only when he wants do, but we can definitely say without hesitation that TDB has walked.

Maximum Exertion

Ants can carry up to 50x their bodyweight. The Dragon Boss is figuring out what that multiple is for him.

He's in Maximum Exertion phase, as Abigail's mom calls it, where he's trying to pick up the largest thing he can just to see if he can. So far, that's included pewter serving dishes, full water bottles and a very small bicycle.

It's even prompted Baleen and me to weigh the water bottle (4 pounds) and then try carrying something 20% our weight with just two fingers. No video of that, I'm afriad, but it did include video of Baleen making sounds oddly similar to TDB's.

Tahoe

The Dragon Boss climbed to 8,000 feet this weekend, the highest he's even been. It's a lot closer to the sun up there so we lathered him in sunscreen and put him in a Red Sox cap to stave off snow blindness as we snowshoed from Boreal Ridge to the Pacific Crest Trailhead.

When we paused to drink water or rest before a steep section, TDB got antsy. But when we were moving, he was happy, especially that half kilometer stretch where we followed a dog, whereby TDB metamorphosed from captive infant to human jockey. He'd grab my hair, kick his legs and coo until I sped up and closed the gap to the dogs, which just made him kick, grab and coo all the more.

Baleen and I never got around to skiing - it was too warm and it's been too dry to ski without grandparents' free babysitting - but our CraigsList Deuter Kid Carrier II got plenty of work. TDB even showed us he can  fall asleep in it, so we don't have to plan our future hikes only between the hours of 11am to 3pm, but can hike all day long. Maybe we'll even invite Cooper's dad for a hike one day.  

Ski Weekend

When we told The Dragon Boss that this was a 3-day weekend, he said, Take me to the mountains. So we're off early tomorrow morning to the van Often's house near Truckee, a 3 hour drive, with a promise of an early lunch at the Tahoe drive institution, Ikeda's. That'll be Baleen's first Ikeda stop in her half dozen trips up there and my first in probably 60 trips over 12 years.

That early morning departure means our bags are packed (feeding and packing TDB into his carseat should take at least half an hour of constant activity) so I spent a good half hour in the garage yesterday trying to find all our winter clothing, including TDB's various one-pieces from REI, Hanna Anderson and Patagonia.

I haven't packed the heavy winter gloves as it'll be 45 and sunny on Saturday and Sunday, but when the sun goes down it'll dip below freezing. That's when father and sun pull out the ski sweaters.

Houston

The Dragon Boss almost came to Houston with me. The week before I'd had one half of me in my boss' office trying to coordinate with her boss in Houston while the other half was on the phone with Baleen asking, When are you going to Brazil, When are you going to London? When are you going to the UAE?

Instead, Aunt Wizzie and Uncle Margarine just got me, as I slept in the same guest bedroom at the top of the stairs where our family of 3 did over Thanksgiving except this time, instead of TDB sleeping in the closet, I hung some clothes in there.

Baleen called me on her drive back from work on Tuesday, interrupting the second gargantuan plate of meat in front of me in as many meals, and told me what I'd told her two or three times before, which is what I had told Cooper's mom and Rowan's dad and almost anybody else with an infant and an iPhone, which is that she was surprised how attentive she was with TDB when it was just the two of them. No distractions, no assumptions that your spouse has TDB or could get to him if he were to fall, just the two of you. So while I'm glad that I saw Aunt W and Uncle M and got to see my boss' boss again, I'm really glad that Baleen learned what I already know. 

The Hawaiian Paradox

Thanks to The Big Hawaiian (TbH), Baleen and I have 3,000 wonderful, incredible, gorgeous photos of our family of three from the highest point in San Francisco.  Yes, 3,000. In town for a few days, we invited TbH over for dinner. He asked if he could swing by early for some family photos at twilight. 

We rushed to the top of Twin Peaks, Baleen's first time there, and TbH did what I've seen him do dozens of times before, which is weasel the dozen other people up there out of the way to get the best shots, except this time, I gladly followed his lead. Thinking about it afterwards, as TbH washed and cleaned the pot I cooked the pork in while I dished it out, I decided that TbH lives his life like Germans in line for the ski lift, which is, Don't wait for anybody else and don't apologize, just go for what you want and assume everybody else will, too. 

I still don't think I'd trust The Dragon Boss for a day in The Big Hawaiian's care, which might sound harsh, but what I mean is that TbH has no consideration for his own health - this is the photographer who had blurry vision for a few years in one eye because he had a street doctor perform surgery on his eye in Bangkok after getting swiped in a rooftop water polo match - so it's a leap to think he'd treat somebody else differently, but if TDB ever shows an interest in surfing photography, one in a million entrepreneurism, or, just generally living a little closer to the edge than I can show him, I'll put him on a plane to Hawaii with a thousand bucks in his pocket, a few six-packs to hand out to whomever they offend, and a laminated list in his pocket that starts, Under NO circumstances will you...which, we all know is useless as the thing I'm trying to protect TDB from with TbH is something I can't possibly imagine. And neither can you. 

The Dragon Boss spies The Big Hawaiian for the first time

Man Clothes

The Dragon Boss has a pair of jeans. They're Polo, to be sure, Baleen hasn't abandoned the reins, she's just loosened them, but they let a young man crawl all over the park without worry that they'll accumulate what Tide can't fix.

We put them on whenever we're headed to Mission Dolores or the park at 30th where TDB spends half his time on the ground, at first staring at all the big kids running about, then crab crawling toward something to climb.

Right now, a few months or maybe even weeks from stumbling around on his feet, TDB loves the roped webbing. It gives a little as he stands like he's on the deck of a boat and it lets him walk from one side to the other, all while staring at the bigger kids climbing to the top, while his parents know that if topples, the jeans and the kids are alright.

Fish

I've found my biking peer group: new fathers. They can get up early on a Saturday and craft a route that gets a little bit of climbing in, some sprints, and a few deserved downhills before ending at a spot that opens just as Baleen and The Dragon Boss arrive.

While it's great to pass along toddler tidbits in the saddle, and compare them afterwards with Baleen to get the other side's version on her walk with the wife, what's most appreciated is the pace. New fathers haven't spent the last three weeks doing intervals in the morning and indoor training in the evening. They're lucky if they've slept 42 hours in the past week.

This past Saturday was with Annie's dad, ending at Fish a few minutes before 11.30, making us the first in line. Papa and Marmee first took TDB to Fish when he was just a few months old, then sent us a check to take Uncle Margarine and Aunt Wizzy, so TDB seems to make it over there every few months. It might be his go to lunch spot, at least when he's in Sausalito.

Super Bowl Sunday

We went over to Baleen's colleague's apartment for the Super Bowl where The Dragon Boss slep thru the first half. When he awoke, it was banans and avacadoes, then Beyonce. Ten minutes of Beyonce, in fact, a few seconds of which were spent as close as he could get.

He had a little competition for attention, a 12 pound, very well behaved dog picked up just two weeks ago from the Marin Humane Society, which was his first continued interaction with a four-legged friend. Since TDB was almost double his weight, and Alexander the Dog was very mild-manered, they got along just fine.

At first, TDB was a little shy around Alexander, especially when Alexander started licking TDB's fingers as he sat there, but once Alexander laid down under the coffee table, TDB showed his heft. He walked guided circles around Alexander and the coffee table, roaring and reaching for the beer bottles in hands around him, not for what was inside, but to put his finger inside the opened glass top.

The Dragon Boss and Beyonce

The Dragon Boss and Alexander

Picking up Baleen

There's a new shuttle from 30th and Church straight to Baleen's satellite office, which means that Baleen doesn't have to take a second shuttle from HQ to her office, which saves 20 minutes a day, which means that she's now taking the shuttle about 3 times a week.

To reward her, The Dragon Boss and I will meet her on her walk home. It's not much of a task, we normally see at least a J or two along the way, which is almost as exciting as seeing Baleen, so we're happy to do it.

It's dark by the time Baleen gets off the bus, which means we can't see her until she's just a few yards away, but when we do, it's even better than a wooden bench surrounding a tree covered in lights. It means mom's home for the weekend.