Greens for the little one

I don't think that I have ever really discussed it here, but I really like making Emmett's food and he seems to like eating it. Earlier this evening I returned from Rainbow with what felt like a ton of food and decided to just take care of making some of Emmett's food while I was feeling active. The normal game has been: buy a bunch of one thing (banana squash, say), steam it, food-process it, and freeze it in cubes, then repeat the process another night with the next food. Of late I have gotten tired of all of the dishes I have had to wash so I decided to get smart and just started up the steamer pot, would steam one type of food, cool it in the strainer, and follow the steps above but while cooling would use the already-warm steamer pot to do the next type. I am telling you that this felt like a real stroke of genius (in addition I had made some stock that I had frozen in the ice cube trays earlier so I just rinsed them and added the new stuffs---I may never wash another dish). The picture at left shows the foods that got done tonight: red chard (upper right), kale (lower right), and broccoli/carrot mash-up (left, top and bottom)...and the best part is I didn't clean out the food processor between any of the batches (as evidenced by the broccoli/carrot that snuck into the chard in the upper right-hand corner). It is pretty incredible that making this food is this easy, that it actually tastes good to me, and that it is soooooo cheap (all organic produce and probably 6 dollars spent for food that will last for weeks----there is more in the fridge as I only have two metal ice cube trays).

Born under Bush

Emmett and I got up this morning and headed down to Civic Center where we watched our new president take the oath of office. We met up with Augie and his parents who were also there along with what I would guess was a few thousand people watching it on the big screen right in front of City Hall (Andrea was at school so she had to miss out---well, the school watched the inauguration together so she just missed out on us). I didn't take any pictures (the pictures would have looked like us standing among a bunch of other people so I leave it to the readers' imaginations), but I must say that every time I think of the inauguration I get very happy. I know the word has been overused a ton of late, but I am truly hopeful for our future now---and this means much more when you have brought another life into the world that your generation and the ones before it have so seriously altered. The last eight years have felt like a nightmare politically with things that I really care about (the environment, science, etc.) being ignored or essentially raped in addition the needless wars, broken relationships with other nations, diminished freedoms, etc. for which our departing leader is famous. For me personally this has been a learning experience as I have never quite understood the outpouring of emotion that came when JFK died as, prior to today, the president has not been someone I have felt inspired by or that has seemed motivated to make a difference in our lives. This election, culminating in today's inauguration, has opened my eyes to a different kind of president than I have known and I now feel that I can empathize with those who found similar inspiration 40-some years ago and better understand why they took their loss so hard. I would somehow like to impress upon Emmett as he grows older the idea that a leader can be so much more than what we often end up with, but wonder if he, like me, will only appreciate it if he lives it. Actually, I just remembered my grandfather mentioning to me that his father always seemed so enamored of FDR and (as I recall) he didn't quite get it or didn't have the same appreciation being young during most of his presidency---perhaps he was trying to tell me the same thing I am hoping to tell Emmett. I get it now.

The inauguration was our big event. The only other excitement that I can think of was Emmett's and my bike ride to near the museums in the park where I found a relatively secluded clump of grass and stripped Emmett naked so he could get some sun and air out. I wondered if I would get in trouble or if people would frown on us if I had a naked kid in a public park, but luckily no one came around. Part of the reason for the nakedness is that Emmett is getting a few splotches on his skin and we don't know what they are so I figured the sun would take care of them. We will see as we are probably going to take Emmett in to the doctor at the end of the week (I made the appointment but if the sun cured them we will cancel).

Gorgeous Weekend

We are at the midway point of Andrea's three-day-weekend and it has been a pretty wonderful one with weather in the 70's, sun, and friends. We are back at the house right now after a morning at the Alemany flea market (where Emmett scored a new doll and I a copper sauce pan) and an afternoon in Golden Gate Park with Emmett's two pals, their parents, and Jeff and Luisa. Emmett is an hour-an-a-half into his second nap of the day with the excitement taking it out of him. The picture at left is Augie, Emmett, and Ethan (from left) enjoying their first pretzels (my apologies to Augie for choosing this picture as he was in a great mood all day except this, but the picture looked like they were working on cigars---I owe you, Augie). As a reminder of ages, Ethan is 7 days older than Augie who is 2 days older than Emmett.

The last few days have been filled with a number of rides for Emmett and I, with Andrea coming along when she is not working. On Friday afternoon I took Emmett to his first ever drum circle at hippy hill at the edge of Sharon Meadow. I have to admit that even though I have stayed away from drum circles for all of my life, I kind of enjoyed sitting to watch---and it was pretty great for Emmett as he did his bobbing dance (soon to appear in video form here) and was entranced by the people spinning, wildly dancing, etc. I am not saying that we are going to be going out and buying the Grateful Dead back catalogue or anything, but it was a pretty fun time---once we found a spot that wasn't filled with the smell of petchouli incence or this smoke that had a tinge of skunk smell to it.

Oh...I forgot that Jeff, Emmett and I rode to the park on Friday afternoon so that Jeff and I could throw disc golf discs back and forth while Emmett played in the grass and mud. Emmett was really good entertaining himself for some time and finishing the time with dirtied hands and knees. Saturday was another ride to the park, but this time with Ma as well. We didn't get down there until near sundown, so the light was low, but I got one picture of Andrea and Emmett playing in the sun (note that I learned on a visit to the playground in the background this week that that playground is thought to be the oldest public children's playground in the nation, created in the 1887---who knew). It is off of the phone camera and it makes it look really foggy, but it wasn't foggy.

That is it...lots of playing in the sun and enjoying the weather. Can't complain at all about 70 degree weather in the second week of January.

Everyone should be so lucky

Bath time last night...

Membership has its privileges

Today we rode the bike to the California Academy of Sciences for their morning member hour where only members are admitted. We have done this once before and it was great as we had many of the exhibits all to ourselves. Today we just visited the penguins and looked at one of the big aquariums, but it was pretty great to just let Emmett "walk" along the edge of the tanks and have the penguins come up to him to check him out from the other side of the glass. Pretty good stuff.

Making San Francisco Smaller

Over the weekend the new kid seat for the bike came in. I knew that it wasn't going to work with a bike I had, so I did a little research on Craigslist and found a bike that would work in redding for 50 bucks (my brother was to come down this weekend from Redding, so I knew this would work, too). Darin delivered the bike on Friday and he and I put the seat together while Emmett took his morning nap on Saturday, then Darin, Emmett and I took it out for our first ride. It held up pretty good, Emmett spent much of the ride yelling (I believe a happy yell and am sure it wasn't a scared-to-death yell). Darin took the picture to the left of our first trip mid-ride.

The whole reason I wanted to have a bike seat was so Emmett and I can go to places that are distant in the city and not have to rely on bus transfers which often lead to long trips. This is especially important as Emmett typically has about 3.5 hours of waking time between naps these days. For example, Emmett and I were going to the song/story time in the Mission a few months ago (pre-teaching), but it often took 45 minutes each way and a bit of rushing to catch the correct buses. Today was our first trip there without relying on public transit and the bike worked wonderfully. We made it from our house to the Mission branch of the library (about 3 miles) in 15 minutes or so and got to enjoy some outside time together in each direction.

The only problems I have so far is that it is a pretty tight fit between his seat and mine which makes standing at a stop a little difficult. Another problem is that the new bike has top mounted shifters which sees as toys and he keeps sneaking the bike into a different gear when I am not looking. I have taken to riding around with my thumb in a position to keep him from changing gears, but hopefully he will lose interest in doing this sometime soon.

Emmett passes first test