My mom came down with him sometimes, and that was even better. As strict as she’d been with me about everything, she was incredibly permissive with Kallie and Charlie and Alice and I knew we’d have issues as they got older and she spoiled them. We couldn’t really say anything to her though, and it wasn’t as if we cared too much. She seemed to be so happy around them that we couldn’t have said a word to her about it. Or to Lenore, who spoiled them both absolutely rotten from day one.

Our friends spoiled them too. Not so much Bette and Tina, since they had Angie, but everyone else adored the kids and were always asking to take them to the zoo or the park or the museum or something. When we hung out as a group, the great majority of the time the kids were there. Alice and I found it a little strange that Bette and Tina had never really brought Angie around that much when we were all hanging out. Everyone loved her as much as they loved Kallie and Charlie, and we couldn’t understand finding sitters for her all the time. Despite our kids spending a lot of time with their grandparents and with our friends on a one to one basis, we were against babysitters and nannies and the like. Even as very small children we loved being around them, and every day felt like a new experience and we couldn’t really imagine spending any time away from them if we could help it.

Kallie and Angelica were playmates on a fairly regular basis, and despite the age difference between them they seemed to get along very well. From the time Charlie was about eight months old we’d invited several other children over so he could get some interaction in with other kids, especially other boys. There were several gay fathers in our immediate neighborhood with small children and they all seemed to like the idea, and we’d have dinners with them every month or so.

That’s not to say that we never went out after they kids were born. Our social calendar got much more interesting once Charlie got past the newborn stage, and we were constantly planning things, including cookouts at Bette and Tina’s. On the nights my parents or Lenore would take the kids, Alice and I would usually see if Helena or Shane was free and we’d go out to clubs. We never really stayed as long as we used to, since there was really no point to that with us all being paired up. Shane and Jenny hadn’t admitted to being with each other yet, but it was fairly obvious that they were, and not just to Alice anymore. Still, Shane would usually pick someone up and we would laugh at her good-naturedly. I was still trying to make Alice stop gossiping and would chastise her whenever she claimed that it was weird.