July 28, 2008 - This past weekend we went to the gay pride parade and picnic. It was really great to be able to attend we haven’t done much with the gay community since being back (we really need to start to budget our time much better). Nicky really enjoyed himself at both but I think the parade was his favorite people were throwing a ton of candy his way, when the parade was finished he had enough sucker sticks in front of him to start a bon fire. We met up with Bob and a couple of his friends while we were there. And of course there were protestors out and about on some of the corners, I suppose they would rather see the world as a carbon copy of themselves then see everyone in a more diverse manner.
After the parade was over we decided not to go to the party in the Armory but instead went down to Sea Breeze for dinner (actually junk food; hot dogs and onion rings – damn it was good). We also walked on the pier and it was nice to see two lesbian couples holding hands and holding each other while watching the water. After our walk Nicky wanted to go to the beach so we walked over to the water and he and I went in, luckily for me it was shallow and warm, because splashing each other was on the menu, I may be bigger but I think Nick won the splashing contest, he was shivering afterwards so I took his shirt off and gave him mine he looked so cute it came down to his ankles.
Rochester supposedly has the second largest LGBT population next to NYC and it was rather proven at the parade by seeing the hundreds of people and supporters out there. It was really a site to see and enjoy. On Sunday we were undecided if we wanted to go to the gay picnic as it was raining on and off all morning. So after we went grocery shopping we decided that we were going and how much more could it possibly rain (?)…well we found out. We got to
He ran to the playground and went up to the tallest slide and as I happen to look down this was the only place on the playground that didn’t have a good amount of wood chips at the bottom, so when he landed he really landed. It was a huge mud puddle and you could see water on both sides of him fly up in the air. He had this look of horror and shock on his face, Mike and I busted up laughing so hard that it made Nicky laugh just as hard and thought that was the best ride ever. We left shortly after that Mike had to go to bed and Nicky was getting tired, it was a lot of fun all the same.
We had made plans to go away camping for my birthday this year. We are looking forward to it as we wanted to take Nicky on his first camping trip really bad this year. We are planning on going up to a Cedars gay campground up in
Oh, very cool too speaking of big boy; we have two pieces of great news. Nick is finally potty trained and haven’t had any accidents in a few weeks and wears underwear all day except of course when he is sleeping, but we’ll work on that part and actually he got up in the middle of the night Wednesday to use the toilet, not pushing that part yet but was still a start. And second we got a note sent home with him the other day that they would like to hold a spot opened for Nick in the preschool class and he can start in September. We were very excited about that one as I really wanted him out of daycare and into preschool, I really didn’t want to wait until he turned four and thought the earlier we can start him the better off he would be. I guess we are doing something right after all and our teachings are helping him out…next is law school.
Well I managed to finally finish my book and had a few very good critics of mine read it over for me and now it’s time to send it out to a couple of publishers and keep my fingers crossed. Considering this is a niche that isn’t very well saturated with much literature I may have a pretty good chance at this one. The genre is a children’s book that is about Nicky’s adoption and leans more towards the birth mother and the adoption process. Most books that we have found and read don’t really talk about the birth mother and this is the subject that we are starting to approach with him and we are sure that there are other gay parents out there that will need to explain this portion to their children and hope that reading to the child will be a more productive to bring out questions and make them feel comfortable with the subject. OK with that said wish me luck!
July 17, 2008 - Hmmmm what the heck has been up since last I wrote? On 4th of July we drove up to
We started completing a bunch of unfinished projects around the house. The painters finished up last week with their last bit of work, now it’s up to us to kick it in overdrive and get the shit done and over with. Started to edge the walkways around the house and this week we will be building a stoop for the side of the house and then add the new lattice around. After all that it’s mainly tidy up and do a small bit of landscaping and the outside is complete. The inside is almost complete we just need to finish painting the first floor landing to the basement and the freakin’ lord it’s done…we hope.
We went to the Cornhill Festival last weekend and stayed for a few hours, the weather was real hot and humid and the rain we got caught in didn’t seem to cool anything down, but it was still nice to be away from the house just the same. This weekend is gay pride here in
We signed Nicky up at Little Gym to do gymnastics which he will go every Saturday morning until the end of August. Last week was his first class and he seemed to really enjoy it a lot. Next year after he turns four we will sign him up for karate…he can practice on the cracked out tenants that live downstairs.
Potty training is really going good, we finally got the daycare to get involved in the training process and the accidents are to a minimal, most mornings he wakes up dry and he’s starting to realize that he has to stop playing or watching TV or whatever and go to the bathroom. Not that I want to jinx myself but this is so nice not changing diapers every couple hours. This is also really good that once he’s trained I can move him from daycare to preschool.
Life is going good for us and so are the jobs. We have been trying to keep up with the gym at least twice a week sometimes we’re able to push it for three times a week, but with everything going on it gets more difficult to make time.
Nicky loves going to grandma’s house on Mondays instead of school and Aunt Dar is also there part of the day to play with him. This really seems to work out well so the two of them can spend some quality time with each other.
Oh well, I’m sure a ton has happened but I just don’t remember what so I’ll end here.