See all pictures uploaded.

…in misty and foggy northern California. It was a HELL of a return trip - just yesterday we were traveling for approximately 17 hours. We left Tallahassee at 12:50pm, arrived in the airport at Jacksonville at 3:30pm, our flight was delayed and didn’t leave until 6:30pm, the transfer in Houston was 30 minutes delayed too, then our stopover in Las Vegas was held up waiting for connecting flights - which they didn’t tell us they were doing for over an hour. M slept for shit (shocker) on the plane. We were supposed to arrive into Oakland at 11:25PM. We didn’t land until about 1AM! Didn’t get home until about 2AM - Josh spent the night at his grandmother’s, because she was headed out to a wedding in southern California, so bright and early they could load up the dogs and bring them to our place.

Dogs, you say? J’s grandmother just got a new poodle puppy, Bibelot, and Ava is ecstatic beyond belief - I think she thinks she’s a puppy too. They are LOUD but they are cute, so it’s an acceptable situation. And thank goodness we have hardwood floors, because the papertrained puppy is not quite papertrained. And we’ve discovered that at some point, Ava was papertrained, because I caught the little sneak squatting on the paper. She hasn’t had an accident at home in ages.

Josh graduated from grad school in May, on Mother’s Day, after Matthew spent a few days in the hospital with RSV.

Quickly, now, because fatigue is setting in.

Went to the doctor today - a new one for the area. I kind of adore her, except she gave me some really lousy news. I have a double ear infection, I have bronchitis, I have a staph infection on my face, I have a heart murmur (functional, nothing too serious to worry about) and my thyroid looks swollen and she wants some bloodwork on that. Rock on.

Also, we are moronic parents who gave Matthew milk yesterday because he seemed better. Oh noes, he said. Up at 3:45 until 5AM ish and oh my GOD was he pissed off. Then when he finally did wake up, I could unfortunately smell the source of his discontent. GAH. Parenting is gross. He’s also going through a Mama stage where only I will suffice, and while that is comforting in some ways, it’s sad to see him rebuff Josh, who as many of you know was his primary caretaker for over a year, and by all accounts, spends more time with him than I do. I know this will pass, but this is difficult now.

And on that note, I am entering this favorite into Stacie holiday photo contest, which makes the latter half of the last paragraph seem like a bunch of lies.

We leave for Florida in less than a week. Haven’t thought much about getting ready other than that last sentence. Josh’s mom was busy gathering some stuff for us to use while we were in town and wrote this morning that they have secured:

1. A stroller
2. A high chair
3. A crib/portable bed thing
4. something else, and
5. A bucket of dinosaurs.

Christmas ain’t Christmas without a bucket of dinosaurs waiting for you!

Before (a few days old, in the hospital for jaundice):

After (this morning after M woke up at 5:30 and then fell back asleep while I was getting ready for work):

Saturday morning at 6AM: the alarm goes off and I start to get ready for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk that I’ve signed up to participate in - a 5 mile walk in Golden Gate Park. The weather was gorgeous. There were tons of people there. Josh, Matthew and I headed out on BART.

The bus ride out to the park was packed; thank goodness San Francisco is only about 7 miles wide, so it wasn’t too long before we were there. We got checked in and headed out!

There were TONS of people - men, women, children, dogs - oh, the dogs! So many adorable pooches - Matthew pointed to all of them with his stubby little fingers and we marveled how they all differed from Ava - well, I did most of the marveling. Matthew was quite taken with the volunteer cheerleaders - they cheered him on for strolling against breast cancer, and a minute or so later, after we’d passed them, he’d clap wildly. Hee.

Halfway there!

Home stretch now - almost to the finish line! Near the finish line Matthew hopped out of the stroller and the two of us walked together while Baba pushed the stroller behind us.

We did it! We walked the 5 mile course in about 90 minutes, I think - I didn’t check my time. Since it was noncompetitive, I wasn’t obsessively counting it down to the last second!

After the walk, we went to catch a bus… and had an irritating MUNI experience where the bus driver asked us to fold the stroller up and as we were doing it, drove off. Bah! We finally got on a bus and headed out to Oakland to meet Josh’s grandmother for lunch (dim sum) and by the time we got home, it was well after 2. Matthew conked out in the car.

And then woke up 20 minutes after we got back home, wailing. The only thing that settled him was lying on top of me, so we cuddled, and then he fell asleep. Then I fell asleep. Then Josh fell asleep. It was quite possibly the best afternoon nap I’ve ever taken.

We got up at around 4:30 and not too long afterward headed out to do the grocery shopping, and then after that to my new favorite Korean restaurant. My mouth is still tingling from the spiciness of the food. It was a perfect end to a very close to perfect day (there was a dishsoap incident resulting from incompetent bagging skills from the Safeway, but I am putting that out of my mind).

Josh is making tortilla chorizo pie for dinner tonight.

Envy me. Mmm.

I hugged Josh tonight. “Happy Father’s Day,” I said. “You know, it means a lot to me that you are the father of my baby.”

“Awww.” Josh gave me a kiss. “Or that I was willing to let you put my name down on his birth certificate?” I snorted. “I just didn’t want your reputation to be sullied any more than it had already been.”

“Man, I was trying to have a schmoopy moment and here you are, accusing me of being a whore.”

“Who’s accusing?”

Happy Baba’s Day, Josh. I love you, and so does Matthew.

a mosaic I had printed up and framed for Josh (from both me and Matthew, of course)

footprints from yesterday at a fair we went to (compare to this)

Josh: (1:35:06 PM): Just wrestled Matthew back down to sleep. Ooh fun.
Josh: (1:35:39 PM): Never mind, he’s wailing again. Ugh.
Josh: (1:37:03 PM): Except he may have settled back down after all. Heh.
Josh: (1:38:16 PM): And now he’s wailing again. Oy vey.
Casey: (1:39:05 PM): aya
Josh: (1:40:04 PM): I just wrestled him back down. Again.
Josh: (1:40:21 PM): this is like the 2000 election. Gore! No, Bush! No, Gore! No, Bush, really! No, wait, we have no idea!