Baddy has changed so much since I first met him on Halloween. I loved his demeanor then but was not used to nice, quiet and shy men but there was something that drew me to him, regardless.

After spending about a year together I would catch glimpses of roguish behavior after a night of poker or a weekend back country skiing with his friends, and I liked it but he definitely wasn’t dubbed “Baddy” until after kids.

The other night at a friends dinner party Baddy had enough of Thumper’s crazy behavior and demanded him out of the dining room. A friend whispered to me that Baddy was so cute with the boys. I asked her what was so cute about his calling his son an ass in front of all of our friends. The thing is, he has no tolerance for whiny behavior and gives them warnings like, “I’m in the mood for killing small animals today and you are next on the food chain”.

When we first started to have children we would have Baddy and Jillian parties all the time. We were overdue for one and so last night we had the children’s favorite “dark dinner” and ate by candlelight. The kids drank their carbonated Martinelli apple juice and I made Baddy and I tequila drinks with fresh strawberry and lemon juice. I was on a role and beat him in Rummy 500, again. He sees himself as a manly poker player and gets offended whenever he loses to me, which is mostly always. Last night he told me that he hated me for always getting the best cards and told me that I only won all the time because I was lucky. I told him that his Indian name should be “big man draws low hand”.

A few drinks later I mentioned that lately when I have been ready to turn it on, he seems ready to go to sleep. He explained that he had a bacon and blue cheese hamburger for a late lunch. I reminded him that the last time I dragged him up to Aspen for dinner and dancing he ruined the night by eating too much at dinner. He reminded me that I got mad at him for needing to walk off the food instead of immediately going dancing. Next date, no food!