mikeandmichael's blog

When we began our potty-training journey a few weeks back, my son and I started with the adult-sized toilet. For those of you who are about to begin this journey...don't start with this toilet. We had some success, however, despite his screams as I placed his bottom on the cold, white seat. My mom suggested that I purchase a kiddy toilet, intimating that he might be afraid of the larger one. I stepped back, looked at the giant and realized that our super flusher toilet is rather ominous. It's tall, contains water that briefly disappears and sometimes smells. Hmmm. Okay.

Just this Saturday, my partner and I took the boy to our favorite breakfast place. We decided to order a dish that contained pesto and mushrooms. We had been given the okay by our ped to try mushrooms, and I figured pesto was rather innocuous, right? It contains basil, cheese, garlic, and olive oil. He has had all those things. As I gave him a mouthful, I thought back to the one time I made homemade pesto...about 20 years ago. It contains pinenuts. What the hell was I thinking?

Okay, I want to start this post by stating that the person about whom I am writing was very sweet and I am sure meant absolutely no harm. However...

About two to three times weekly, I take my 14-month-old son for a morning stroll down to Peet's Coffee. I find Peet's to be much better than Starbucks, but I shall leave that topic for another discussion. Anyway, the stroll is about one mile in each direction, and it gives us some time outside before his morning nap. Generally, I take some fruit and a yogurt for him, and I order a muffin and a dry cap. This morning was no different.

As a stay-at-home dad, I have a few hours each day when I can jump online and connect with the world. One of my favorite spots, including this site, is AtHomeDad.org. Here I am able to discuss issues relavent to parenting (e.g., dynamics of play dates, eating (or not)), or issues relevant to stay-at-home dads. Well, I happened to come across a posting last week entitled, "distress on the changing table." Essentially, dad was having a hard time with a rambunctious child. Many of us chimed in with advice; yet, one post struck me the most.

I have always known that one day I would be a dad. Looking back, my fantasy always included another husband; yet, I often wondered how I would make my dream a reality. My fantasy was usually abruptly halted by the reality that a woman was needed to make this dream come true. Little did I know that my dream would become my life.

My partner and I will celebrate nine years together in July. We plan to commemorate our life together by getting married. Wow...I'm getting married. How many gays and lesbians can actually say that? I digress.

My parnter and I adopted our son in 2007. Can I just say that we absolutely LOVE being parents! In fact, we love it so much that we plan to adopt again. However, this time we are planning to do things a bit differently.

We made the decision to adopt in April 2006 after considering surrogacy as an option, too. We decided that having children was more important to us than having children that looked like us.