Sunny Son

It wasn't truly warm on Sunday, but bright and sunny, and the grass was recently cut and reasonably dry... A nice day for Mommy and Mummy to watch the people who were playing frisbee and flying kites, and a nice day for Asa to try to get away with eating grass.  (As far as we know, he did not succeed.)

Since Sunday, he has become more adept at both getting his knees under himself and pushing up.  Crawling can't be far behind... prayers would be appreciated.

Rainbow Boy

Early morning rainbow in the bouncy seat.

The Wheels in His Head Go Round and Round

All of the late night feedings (last night: 4) are paying off in a developmental spurt.  Not quite a growth spurt - haven't really noticed that he's gained a lot of weight or length - but definitely an increase in figuring things out.  And oh, are we in trouble.

It happened last night.  First off, in the bathtub, which is one of his favorite places.  We'd already gotten him all clean, and he was playing with his new Finding Nemo toys.  I put him on my lap (reason for which there are no pictures of this), and he suddenly brought both feet up to his chest, extended his legs upwards, and brought them down in unison into the water.  Hard.  The resultant splash was impressive.  He certainly thought so, since he immediately did it again, with a huge grin.  The next splash sprayed a few drops back on me.  (He was definitely getting the hang of things.)  He pulled up his feet... extended his legs.... And Mommy, leaning over the tub watching this performance, was suddenly dripping.  And Asa was laughing.  A first lesson in cause-and-effect.

Not five minutes later, as we put him down on his towel to dry and lotion him, he flipped for the first time from back to belly.  We chalked it up to the lack of big bulky cloth diaper, flipped him back over, dried and diapered and dressed him, and went to play in the living room for a few minutes before bed.  Put him on his back on a blanket, surrounded by toys, which he ignored to reach for the cat instead.... and flipped from back to belly.  Like it was nothing.  No effort at all.  Uh-oh.

He even flipped over while we were skyping with Nonni and Poppy.  (Isn't it great when they show off for the grandparents?)

But would he do it while I had my camera pointed at him?  Note: no video here.  Something to keep you coming back, I guess...

New Nicknames

From time to time, I've taken to calling my son Lucy.  Not because I really wanted a daughter, or some such thing - how could I not be content with my little guy?  Not because that would have been his name if he had been a girl.  No, I call him Lucy when he is crabby, inconsolable, and generally a... fuss-budget.

And we'll hope that the resemblance stops with the teething pain.

His other, much more frequent nickname?  It also has to do with teething, and one of the major (in Asa's case) side effects: a runny nose.  A perennially runny nose.  A nasty, slimy, crusty, boogery nose.  So Asa is often simply called "Goober".  In all affection, of course.  (I'll spare you the photo.)

On a side note, we learned recently that as infant teeth push through the last bit of the gums, the body releases histamines, which is what causes the runny nose, the pulling on the ears, the post-nasal drip and resultant cough.  When we learned that, almost three weeks ago, we were so excited that he might actually cut a tooth soon.  Ah, hope springs eternal, but nothing yet.

And, since I know you all prefer pictures to chat:

Chewing on Auntie Juana.

Waking Kayla on Easter morning, in his "I-look-like-Grampa" outfit.

Hanging out with Uncle Jeremie and Uncle James (and Sheepie).

Having his picture taken as a Sloth Bear at the zoo - with a little help from Mummy.

Cute little Goober, isn't he?

The Lifestyle

Many thanks to Auntie Jen for passing this along.  I'm reproducing it here in its entirety, for those of you who don't feel like clicking a link, or whose office firewalls won't let you go to CNN.com.

Myth of the 'gay lifestyle' justifies bias

By LZ Granderson, Special to CNN

(CNN) -- On most mornings, my better half wakes up around 5:30, throws on some sweats and heads to the gym before work.

About a half hour later, I wake up my 13-year-old son, go downstairs to the kitchen to make his breakfast and pack his lunch. Once he's out the door, I brew some coffee and get to work.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the "gay lifestyle" -- run for your heterosexual lives.

I understand opponents of gay rights must highlight differences in order to maintain the "us against them" tension that's paramount to their arguments. But this notion that sexual orientation comes with a different and pre-ordained way of life -- as if we're all ordering the No. 3 at a drive thru -- only highlights how irrational groups such as Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, the American Family Association and others like them are in this whole debate.

Pro-marriage organizations try to stop two consenting adults from marrying. Pro-family groups try to stop stable couples wanting children from adopting unloved orphans.

And somehow, me doing something like going to the grocery store threatens the very fabric of society, as Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern spewed. She says "the homosexual agenda is destroying this nation" and "homosexuality is more of a threat than terrorism." I'm not sure what her idea of a gay lifestyle might be, but with a growing teenager, buying and cooking food dominates my day-to-day.

I don't worship Barbra Streisand, I don't watch any TV show with the word "Housewives" in its title and I love fishing, beer and Madonna. But more importantly, I'm just a father trying to keep my son away from drugs, get him into college and have a little money left over for retirement. I'm no sociologist but I'm pretty sure those concerns are not exclusive to gay people.

In one of the most pivotal scenes in the biopic "Milk," Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, gathers a group of community organizers and activists to come up with strategies to combat a 1978 ballot initiative that sought to ban LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) teachers and their supporters from working in public schools in California. As the small crowd settles down, Milk quickly glances around the room and says ..

"If we're going to convince the 90 percent to give a ---- about us 10 percent, we have to let them know who we are ..."

"What" we are -- be it gay, straight, black, white -- is simply window dressing. "Who" we are is where the substance is, where the person is, where our humanity is.

Too often, discussions about gay people and gay rights focus on sex, as if a person's entire being is defined by his or her Hollywood crush.

This fixation has been the crux behind attempts to link gay men to pedophilia -- from John Briggs, a state legislator from Orange County who introduced the proposed ban on gay teachers in California, to the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, whose recent attempts to excuse the church for its global scandal coverup by seemingly blaming homosexuality, is evil incarnate.

"The vast majority of the victims are post-pubescent," Donohue recently said on "Larry King Live." "That's not pedophilia, buddy. That's homosexuality."

Actually, Bill, sexual predators whose victims are 13- to 17-years-old are called hebephiles -- a la Joey Buttafuoco, Madeleine Martin and Heather Kennedy -- not homosexuals. And that still doesn't explain why the church opted to save face as opposed to, in the words of the infamous anti-gay figurehead Anita Bryant, "Save our children."

Being gay doesn't dictate how people live their lives any more than being straight does. There are gay people who go to church every Sunday and straight people who do not believe in God. There are single gay men who believe in the sanctity of marriage and married straight men who apparently do not -- such as Gov. Mark Sanford, ex-Sen. John Edwards and Sen. John Ensign, to name a few.

The truth is the only thing all gay people have in common -- you know, besides being gay -- is that we face continuous rhetorical, social and legal attacks for simply existing, thus potentially making something as mundane as bringing a date to a work function a fight-or-flee situation.

And yet, even in the face of that discrimination, LGBT people all handle it differently.

Some of us live in the closet, some of us do drag every Wednesday night, some of us are Republicans hoping to be change agents within a conservative sect and some of us are apathetic Democrats too dumb to carry on a conversation about anything other than Lady Gaga.

In other words, we're just as diverse, intolerant, upstanding and tragic as our straight counterparts and unless there is an annual meeting I don't know about, the only item on the much talked-about gay agenda is an abbreviated passage from the Declaration of Independence -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

In 29 states, people can be fired simply for being gay regardless of their education, experience or job performance; servicemen and women can be dismissed from the military regardless of their qualifications, dedication and courage; and partners are unable to see their better halves in the hospital regardless of the love, commitment and life they share.

Wanting to be judged by the content of one's character isn't a special right, it's a constitutional one guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments.

And yet, 145 years since the abolition of slavery, 90 years since women were allowed to vote and 20 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act, we're still involved in McCarthy-like investigations, holding Briggs-like elections and taking opinion polls based solely upon "what" someone is as opposed to "who" they are.

It's sad. We're such a great nation, still full of great hope and promise and yet we keep being tripped up by ignorance, which leads to fear and then eventually hate. Being gay isn't a choice, but being a bigot certainly is.

Is there a photographer in the house?

Yup.  Auntie Juana came to visit.  

Bouncing Baby Boy!

And, in other news, he just slowly but surely scootched across the floor to me.  Took about 15 minutes to go 6", but he did it.  We're in such trouble.