So much to blog, so little time!

Working backwards from today: WAY TO GO CALIFORNIA! I promise not to say anything bad about you ever again. Even if I do feel fat every time I visit. (Ok, really, thats about Southern California. But I’ll still quit talking trash about you, California.)

About 5 minutes after hearing the news that their State Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, in a really strong and fantastic opinion, I started wondering when we could go to California to get married.

A few seconds later, I had a brilliant idea: BLOGHER is in San Francisco this summer. I wasn’t going to go, because I’m going to be ~7 weeks shy of my due date and traveling that far that pregnant kinda sucks. Plus flying cross-country is expensive.

But I had a great time last year, and even though my posse the LadyBlogs won’t be going, I would still have a good time.

The idea of going AND GETTING LEGALLY MARRIED became irresistible in about 4 seconds. My fantasy caught fire and all I could think about for the next 5 or 10 minutes was how to convince Jill.

Then I looked at a calendar.

My cousin Kirsten, the last unmarried cousin in my family, is getting married the same weekend. In Milwaukee.

I’m not skipping a family wedding to go to a conference, no matter how cool the conference is. And I’m not skipping a family wedding for what is a super exciting piece of paper, but not for us a “real wedding.”

Our real wedding was February 22, 2003. 

Our immediate families and many of our friends and extended family were there. The only thing missing from that wedding was acknowledgment under the law — and while I certainly want that, exactly when I get it is not that important to me.

We ratified that wedding once through a Vermont Civil Union when we were in New England for Dave & Lizzie’s wedding, but only because we could easily get the exciting piece of paper on Friday and drive to the wedding on Saturday.

So yeah, no BlogHer wedding for us.

Now I’m fantasizing about the 4th of July. Wouldn’t that be cool and symbolic?

(Thought: Is there any chance that being legally married in California would annoy a Georgia court sufficiently to interfere with Jill legally adopting Esmerelda Freugenspeigal? Our civil union was viewed as a good thing, but The M Word sometimes causes strange reactions. Check with the lawyer here before actually doing it.)

YESTERDAY:

Last night, our dear friend Peter Mulvey was in town for a gig. He came over for an early dinner, and stayed at our place after the show.

Noah cracked us all up throughout dinner, and again this morning, with his constant refrain of, “Man? Man? Man!!!” to get Peter’s attention. (Neither “Mr. Peter” nor “Peter” seemed to stick.)

We tried to get Noah to tell his knock-knock joke, and to those of you who know Peter and our mutual friends…I’m afraid Noah’s joke telling ability may rival Scott’s.

Even more exciting than Peter himself, was Peter’s Big Bicycle which parked in our front hall overnight. Noah was beside himself with glee that Peter let him “fix” the bicycle with his yellow plastic hammer and orange plastic wrench.

I got to go to the show, which was fantastic. It’s fun to see how his performance has evolved, and I loved the some of the stories he told. Especially the story about his Dad emailing him stories about a character named Dynamite Bill, and the story about his wife Meredith.

I won’t give away the plot of the Meredith story, except to say that never in the history of the universe has it been funnier to imagine offering someone a sandwich.

The other thing I came to realize in the course of the evening is that I think Peter has the most well-rounded education of anyone I know. I want to be in a book group with him. I don’t know anyone else who reads history, biography, religion, poetry, and apparently astrophysics.

LAST WEEKEND:

Grandma was here! And Noah had a great time. Some combination of Noah and the rest of us went out for dinner, and to music class, and for tricycle rides, and to the zoo, and to see trains.

Noah hasn’t stopped talking about Grandma and her visit since she left. Especially the part about the trip to the zoo, and seeing the elephant pooping. But he loves the toys and books she brought, and he asks about her now that she’s gone.

And Jill and I got to have a much needed date night. We had a nice dinner and saw the movie Baby Mama. It had cute moments, but didn’t live up to the comic potential of the awesome cast. We didn’t really care.

TOMORROW:

Tomorrow is Noah’s last day at Miss Heather’s for day care. He likes it a lot, and we will totally try to use her for backup and/or if there is no space at the church day care when I go back to work after Esmerelda Freugenspeigal is born.

I’m guessing that most of you already knew that Mother’s Day was this weekend. And technically, of course I knew too. It’s just that I only actually realized that Mother’s Day is the day after tomorrow about one minute ago.

You can guess how much preparation we’ve done. Although to be fair to us, we have been cleaning. Especially the room and bathroom that my actual mother will be sleeping in/sharing with Noah beginning tonight.

I guess the thing for me is that I’m just not that much of a “random holiday” person. I love my mom and would be just as excited if she were visiting last weekend, or next weekend. And I love this insane parenthood roller-coaster more and more as Noah’s personality continues to emerge. I’m pretty sure that Sunday will not be a peak experience on that front, though.

One thing I do want to acknowledge, in honor of Mother’s Day, is how glad I am to have companionship on this crazy ride.

I don’t know how single moms do it. Without my wonderful wife Jill, Noah and I would be in much worse shape. The idea of him becoming a big brother without having his This Mommy is inconceivable to me.

Thank you, This Mommy. I love you.

While she is the most critical person with whom I’m sharing this wild ride, we are not alone, and I don’t think we could do it, or at least not well, without a lot of other wonderful companions.

How cool is it that my nephew, Maxim, is almost exactly half-way between Noah’s age and Esmerelda’s? I think that especially as our kids get older, having them so close in age will also bring me and my sister Anna closer together.

Other real-life Mom friends, like Erin, Madelaine, and Liz, have been wonderful sanity-savers and reality-checkers, in spite of the hundreds of miles between us.

Local Mom friends, like Emily & Katherine, Lesley & D, my co-workers, and the women of my LLL group, have also been great sources of support and fun.

Last, but certainly not least, I have to thank my friends in the Mommy-blogosphere. I’m afraid of linking, because I’m sure I’m going to forget important people. PLEASE don’t take it personally if I don’t like to you. Eeeee! Noah is awake and running around. No more time to link. You know this world is much larger than just the 4 I’ve linked to already.
Some people I’ve met in real life. Some I have close friendships with based almost or exclusively on reading and commenting on one another’s blogs and other online media. And some…the relationship is probably more like that we have to favorite newspaper columnists. They know “we” are out there reading them, but they no more know that I’m that reader than they would know if I were in line behind them at the grocery store.

Living as far away from family and long-term friends as we do, those mommy-bloggers sometimes provide the human contact, sympathy, empathy, or laughs I need to stay on the right side of the edge of insanity.

Also, this seems like a great time to announce that I’m joining a new group of many of those moms I’ve only read until now! The amazing group, Silicon Valley Moms, is about to launch DeepSouthMoms.com. Look for an official announcement here in the next few weeks!!!

I have the worst cold & cough I can remember having in ages. It hit it’s worst Saturday night, when I actually lost my voice. I still sound vaguely Lauren Bacallesque, but I’m 80-90% better today.

Inconveniently, I was visiting my parents in Wisconsin on Saturday night. It’s always better to be sick at home.

The trip was still great, at least between the coughing!

I got in Saturday morning, had fabulous pizza for lunch with my family and a family friend. Then I walked from the pizza place to a nearby coffeeshop and hung out with my dear friends Peter & Meredith. (For those who care, they are in for the big 4-0 celebration next year, and vote for during spring break.)

Saturday night was the whole point of the trip.

My Dad was given a Lifetime Achievement award by the ACLU of Wisconsin.

It was given as part of their big annual fundraising dinner, which was scheduled long before anyone imagined that today would be the most exciting presidential primary election in the state in a generation. The dinner was unfortunately scheduled for the exact same time as the State Democratic Party’s big annual fundraising dinner, to which both Senators Clinton and Obama accepted invitations. So the ACLU dinner wasn’t quite as well attended as we might have hoped.

Also, the keynote speaker was supposed to have been cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, but his last-minute flight was canceled. Luckily a local progressive academic was available to talk about civil liberties and the war on terrorism.

ANYWAY, the dinner was fabulous, even with all of that. It was fun to see people like my dad’s college roommate, mom’s law school roommate, political and organizing friends from various efforts over the past almost-50 years, and close and long-term family friends. I got a chance to see some law school friends, too, which was nice. (More were at the Dem dinner, including the husband of the lovely woman who nominated my dad for the award, and introduced him at the dinner. And BTW, she looked amazing for a woman who was a month post-partum!)

Sunday morning, still croaky, I went with dad to an event for Senator Clinton. As I’ve mentioned, I voted for the other candidate, but I think either of them would be great, and I have a lot of admiration for Senator Clinton. I do think it would be amazing to have a woman President. But I mostly went to hang out with dad, and also to see other friends whom I suspected would be there.

That part was great! It was mostly family friends, but some fun catching up took place. Congresswoman Baldwin was lovely, and it was exciting to hear that her partner Lauren has a fabulous new job. (Lauren was a friend during law school, before she ever met Tammy.) It was also good to hear from Maria that Madelaine and Eric weren’t ignoring me, they were celebrating Eric’s 40th in Vegas. Happy Birthday, Eric!!!

The photo ops turned out better than the one of Mrs. Clinton, Mom, and me in 1996, but since that still rates as one of the 10 worst pictures ever taken of me (or mom!), this is faint praise indeed. At least, in addition to looking fat and pasty, I look happy.

I spent Sunday afternoon in the airport, hearing that my flight was delayed in 15 minute increments, until the one they gave us an hour delay. After we got on the plane, 3 hours late, something went wrong with the baggage loading. So we missed our window to leave, and had to get back at the end of the line. Another 1.5 hours later.

Did I mention I was sick? And that I would have then gotten home about 4 MORE hours later?

I got off the plane and begged my parents to leave the theater and come take me back to their house to sleep. Fortunately, Dad was hating the play.

I crashed and tried again at 7:15 am with much better results. Except that I was still sick. I called in sick to work yesterday, but went in today. Until my boss said, “You look terrible. Go home.”

Now Jill is sick. She moved from the couch briefly, for about an hour after dinner. Noah was happy about that part!

Now I’m eagerly and facinatedly watching the Wisconsin primary results and listening to the Obama speech about grants for students in exchange for community service. Is that like the National Service Corp on steroids?

Also? Today is the first time I’ve noticed technical difficulties when I go to bend over. Not major difficulties, but that belly bulge is … becoming more real. And more solid. I think I might be having a baby.

I think it’s bedtime.

Noah had a great time with Grandma visiting!

In addition to reading, we had a treat at the mall (where we could not find any shoes that fit Noah), got new hooded sweatshirts & mittens, got potty seats, went to 2 different pet stores and looked at mice and rabbits and fish, played countless hours of choo-choos, and laughed, read, and tickled.

Is it any wonder that Noah and I both feel like this?

The score this weekend is Noah: 2,376,439 to Adults: 0.

Grandma and Grandpa (Jill’s parents) are visiting. They arrived post-nap on Friday to find a chipper boy, who frankly did better than I expected.

The orange cat came visiting, so Noah chased him in circles around the deck, while Jill and Grandma watched. Then we came out front and Nittany, our neighbor’s dog, came by to say hello. Since Nittany is still bigger than Noah, Noah does less chasing.

Until he remembers his favorite game, “Catch Noah!”

The way Catch Noah works is that he runs around in as large a loop as space permits, while an adult pretends to chase him. At some point, Noah flings himself at the adult, who lifts him up or hugs him. Lather, rinse, repeat endlessly or until the adult is worn out and would rather endure Noah crying than to lift him up in the air again.

After Grandpa started playing, I could have been chopped liver.

Saturday was even more exhausting. Noah ran laps around the kiddie park, usually demanding to be pushed in some random “car.” Occasionally he took a break and climbed the picnic tables or the jungle gym. An hour and 45 minutes later when we left to go eat lunch and have a nap, he was exhausted and inconsolable.

After lunch and a nap? Back into town with Grandma and Mommy to find some shoes. A store had been recommended by one of his teachers, and since Mr Chubby Feet has not done well with most shoes, we thought that a special store might help.

If only we could have found it.

I don’t think it exists.

We found the sign, we circled the building, and nada.

So we walked 2 blocks to a little baby/toddler boutique and hoped they had shoes.

They did.

They also had an amazing choo-choo setup.

Noah consented to try on shoes while holding choo-choos at the choo-choo table. The size 9s fit him.

Grandma bought him the adorable shoes as an early Christmas present, which was lovely of her. We played for a few more minutes, but as we only had 20 minutes on the parking meter, we couldn’t stay forever.

Noah was furious. He cried and protested all the way back to the car, and to the house. Nothing helped except “boobah” — which is what Noah calls the Teletubbies. He discovered them on early morning PBS and has become a dedicated devotee. Much to the chagrin of his mommies, who do not use “recreational pharmaceuticals.”

Later, the orange cat came by for another visit, and Noah made the thrilling discovery that Right! Here! In our backyard! There is Dirt! DIRT! D-I-R-T!

Jill’s birthday was Sunday, and I imagine I would have blogged about it by now if we weren’t addicted to Rock of Love, Army Wives, The Closer, and Weeds. (The book review post was written earlier, but was scheduled for today.)

Noah and I got up early and drew Mommy some cards:

It’s fun to watch how much Noah likes drawing, and also putting away the crayons. Until it gets difficult to fit them in the box.

After Jill got up, I made apple muffins, which turned out ghastly. It was from the last version of Joy of Cooking, and I swear they called for wayyyyyy too much salt. We actually had salt-apple muffins, which I don’t recommend, but Jill was very nice about it.

Saturday evening, she and I and Noah all went out to a “cruise-in” held by a local car club. Noah liked the running around in the street more than he seemed to like the cars, but Jill had a good time, and that was the most important part. I had fun too, although maybe not as much fun.

The rest of Sunday was pretty low-key. Jill got some quiet time around the house — and time to get ready for The Car’s arrival (tomorrow!!!) — and we took Noah to the local B&N children’s area to play with the trains. He was mad when we left after 2 hours, having driven away outlasted half a dozen other children.

Jill got her thyroid bloodwork results in, and they look great!

Her TSH level is now 1.3!!! That means the docs will work with her and will not be unduly concerned about the risk of miscarriage. Woot!

Also, whether it was carefully and repeatedly explaining to Noah that he wasn’t supposed to get up until the birds start singing, or exhaustion, or leaving his fan on all night, or an act of God, G-d, Goddess, or the deity of your choice, IT WORKED. Noah slept through from about 8:30 until ??? — he’s still sleeping now at 5:21 am.

Here he is looking all cute yesterday, when instead of dinner he wanted to run around outside.

(He loves those shorts. Yesterday I had to find something he could wear with them. As soon as I opened the drawer, he was all “Fwower? Fwower? Fwower?”)

Updated to add: The hat thing was equally funny. We have a heap of his jackets and hats sitting in a chair near the front door, with a heap of shoes under/around the chair. Every so often, Noah gets inspired and digs into the heap.

Yesterday, while ignoring the pizza we were trying to get him to eat, Noah dug into the heap and pulled out all the hats. Then he put on that one and “Mommy, up!”-ed us into taking him outside.

Noah proceeded to carry his soccer ball all the way to the play area in our development (~2, maybe 2.5 blocks), distracted only by hearing dogs behind a fence. The hat stayed in place, random tie hanging in his face, for half an hour at least.

I have a cute son, if I do say so myself.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here, but my adorable nephew, Max, is once again thriving! He’s eating well and gaining weight like a champ. Way to go Max! Way to go Aunt Anna! Way to go Uncle Jason!

I hear birds singing. And a baby grunting.