So let me set this up for you a little. We made dinner, Porter was occupied with other attentions (naturally) and right as we were finishing he decided he wanted to sit down and eat. I moved on to dishes and Steve and Stella moved on to an impromptu REO Speedwagon sing-along. Because that’s how we roll.
Even while voluntarily sitting at the table, Porter still couldn’t seem to prioritize his dinner obligations, and decided instead to dismantle my centerpiece and use it as a, well, I don’t know exactly what it was, but the two plastic bugs he co-opted into the theatrics were apparently using it as a platform for war.
As I stood at the sink watching this all unfold, I opted for the video camera because I NEED YOU TO ALL SEE WHO I LIVE WITH. And how even Porter’s complete attention deficit adjacent personality can’t pass up joining in to the REO Speedfest.
Make sure your volume is turned up, because you don’t want to miss any of the musical awesomeness going on here.
Hoo boy! Have I been cashing in some serious parenting points this summer. So far, I have accumulated two child-free outings, leaving Steve alone to play zone defense with our sweet but endlessly spunky children. He hasn’t complained even once, and has even been remarkably encouraging. Stupid? Generous? Just plan crazy? I’ll let you be the judge.
My first trip was a couple of weeks back when I went to Mendocino to celebrate Shannon’s 40th birthday. Then, this past weekend I traveled to the Russian River Valley to meet up with my mom and sister for some bonding time that I have been prohibited by law and notarized confidentiality release to ever detail here on these pages. I was allowed to take pictures, but chose to carefully parse and edit them according to the guidelines enumerated in clauses 3, 7, 9 and 14 – pretty much all the clauses pertaining to “excessive ridiculosity”. Instead, you are left with the safe-for-general-consumption set – which should give you some perspective when you get to the photograph of the heart-shaped sign that reads “Tattoos”.
And that’s about all I am legally authorized to report about that.
(click photo to see full set)
I arrived home to find that not only had my family survived weekend number two (complete with a birthday party outing), but that Stella had lost yet another tooth, AND had learned to ride her bike without training wheels – ALL WITHIN A MATTER OF THREE DAYS! She and Steve had this hilariously choreographed set-up wherein he was going to ask me to stand out on the front porch and chat with him while Stella retrieved her bike from the edge of the yard and then nonchalantly ride down the street in front of the house. Unfortunately their plan hit a small snag when Stella was unable to get the kick-stand up and Steve had to run down there to assist her. The whole thing became so ridiculously adorable, I could hardly contain myself. I couldn’t have imagined a better homecoming.
After dinner and bath I had Steve shoot a little bit of footage, including a quick interview before she and I headed out for our evening dog-walk / bike-ride. Pretty much the only thing missing is a yellow jersey.
Hey folks. And all your tapping fingernails. I’m getting there, I’m getting there. You’ll get your precious Christmas photos soon. In the meantime, to reward you for the enduring patience, I put together a little video slide show for y’all.
Enjoy.
(A word of warning, it is just a hair under 9 minutes long and it has audio.)
And here you have it oh father-in-law of mine. My gift to you. The opportunity to SEE your precious grand-children exactly as they are, with all the screaming, crying, look-at-me-look-at-me chaos, and then getting to walk away and actually enjoy your day on your own terms.
For Father’s Day, Steve got a veritable plethora of gifts: leather gloves, stainless water bottle, drill holster, bag of peanut butter chips, plaid shirt – because, you know, nothing says Happy Father’s Day like a bag of peanut butter chips. One of the random assortment of gifts of honor also included a Journey CD. The only thing missing from this list is a set of mini-screwdrivers. Oh wait. Nevermind, he got one of those too.
Not that I am a Journey expert or anything (that is the job of my muscle-shirt-wearin’-Trans-Am-drivin’ husband and brother-in-law), but I have heard those anthems enough times to recognize that something was different. Granted, it took me the better part of 4 songs to reach this conclusion. I off-handedly mentioned that this must have been one of those “digitally remastered collections”, at which point I was schooled on their new incarnation. Apparently they found a new lead singer that is a vocal dead-ringer for Steve Perry. It’s almost creepy.
We managed to catch Stella’s interpretive dance to Faithfully on video. Especially touching, is when she dedicates it to Steve for Father’s Day. I immediately tried calling dibs on it for my site, but Steve would have none of it. So we arm-wrestled. That didn’t work either. So, here it is over on his site. Go there at your own risk. If the kelly green doesn’t give you a blinding headache, then the contrasting yellow surely will. I can’t believe I am actually going to let this man have administrative permissions to my website.
