Learning to Use a Spoon Pt 4

All right, I'm tired of chopping up these videos and commenting on them.  If you want to watch me play with Elliot for another 3 minutes, go crazy.  

Happy New Year!

Learning to Use a Spoon Pt 3

A short summary of Christmas in Ann Arbor

It was the five of us again this year.  Five and a half if you include Elliot.  Last year each of us (me, Hannah, Anna, Kate, and Ed) made the point of a star out of plasticine (remember that stuff?)  The plan was to bake them into a singe five-point star.  Lovely idea right?  A year later the five triangles are still on our kitchen counter.  They look nice there.

On Christmas Eve we read A Child's Christmas in Wales out loud together. It's a family tradition of Anna's, a really beautiful one I must say.  "A boy the spit of myself, with a pink-tipped cigarette and the violet past of a black eye."

Woke up Christmas morning and came downstairs.  Elliot cried us awake at the normal time, he didn't seem to have any Christmas anxiety.  He had to eat, and then we did, and then a few stockings, and then a break, so full-blown present-opening didn't start til lunchtime, nearly.

I got a sweet guitar from Hannah's parents, which I am very excited about.  I haven't had a chance to noodle on the guitar for a long time.  Will have to dig out my old journals, where I wrote down the chords to all the songs I taught myself busking in Munich.

I got a great pocket-video camera (Flip, for those in the market) from Hannah, as well as a find-your-keys device that will be desperately useful at desperate moments.  The West family is good at gift-giving.  Hopefully it's a skill I will pick up.

Christmas afternoon we walked in the freezing cold to the playground, and put Elliot in the swing.

He did much better than the last time we went to the playground.  Which was, now that I think of it, on Thanksgiving Day.

The next day we mostly hung out.  Had a casual brunch with Deb and Marionetta.  The Ferguson family persimmon pudding was featured, and was very well received.  I made lemon sauce for it.  Worked on a puzzle of Hopper's Nighthawks.

That night we made pizza, one of which was loaded with bacon.  I mean loaded. I put so much bacon on it it was ridiculous.  Like 6 strips.  By the end, I had to search for places to drop a bacon bit where it wouldn't touch another bacon bit.

On the 27th it snowed!  Big puffy flakes.  I took Elliot out in it, a walk to the playground again, but he didn't come out of the carrier this time.

We had a really nice dinner with friends of Kate and Ed.  Nick Delbanco used to run the writing program at UMich, and his wife Elena is in the public policy program.  Also Lou and Margaret, a sculptor/painter couple with a ten year-old daughter Sadie.  (We did not mention that we used to have a dog named Sadie)

One highlight of the evening was the story of how Nick became a writer.  When he was a teenager he had the privilege of meeting a famous writer couple who pulled up in a chauffeur-driven limo.  Their first book, Raffi the Giraffe, went nowhere, and then they wrote Pretzel the Dog, which went a few more places, and then Curious George, which went a lot of places.  And Nick decided that if you could write books and ride in a limo, that was the profession for him.

I left too early.  Now I'm puttering around New York, missing Hannah and Elliot.  They're back tomorrow!

Learning to Use a Spoon, Pt. 2

It's a slow process.  Not always interesting to watch.

Learning to Use a Spoon

This is from before Xmas.  In case it's not clear, I just left the camera on the table and went into the kitchen to make breakfast with Hannah.  Judge me. 

Sleep

He lies on his side and makes circles on the mattress with his hand.  Have I written about this already?  When he is trying to fall asleep, he makes circles.  On the mattress. This is hard to describe well.

He lies on his side, and begins with his free arm down by his waist.  Then, keeping the arm perfectly straight, he rotates it up toward his head, tracing a circle.   I think this is comforting to him.  Then he draws his hand down along his body until it is by his waist again, and the cycle repeats.

Stories about adventures in sleep could suck up the entire output of this blog.  But one particularly enraging  story occurred while we were visiting Aaron and Daria over Thanksgiving.

We brought a Pack'n'Play, which is like a fold-up crib, and the night before Thanksgiving he went to sleep in it without a problem.  But at 2am he woke up, scared at his unfamiliar surroundings, and started to cry.

I got up, changed his diaper, and fed him a bottle.  He slowly closed his eyes.  At that time of night minutes seem like hours--- about a day later he was sleeping peacefully in my arms.

I stood and moved him to the Pack'n'Play. He barely stirred.  I laid him down on the mattress (typically the most dangerous moment for reawakening) and he lay still.  Success was mine, it seemed.

And then, in his sleep, he kicked his little leg and his plastic PJ sole scraped against the nylon mesh of the Pack'n'Play wall.  It made a loud rrrrrr-rrrrrrr-rrrrrrrr noise, and I saw his head twitch.

But he was still pretty much asleep.  If I could prevent another incident he would drift back into slumber.  I kept my hand protectively between the crib wall and his foot.

RRRRR-RRRRR-RRRRRR!

I looked and saw that he'd kicked his other foot.  This was a tiny crib and both were in striking distance of the damned nylon mesh.

And now he was definitely awake.  He lifted his head, wondering what he'd heard.

I'll spare you the details of the next twenty minutes.  The short version is I failed to get him back to sleep and fumed for hours about how close I'd been.

Story time

Merry Christmas! We are in Ann Arbor having an awesome time. Peace and love to all

Gravity

Elliot has a beautiful set of brightly colored blocks, given to him on his birthday by Emily and Gerald.  We were playing with these recently, and he picked up a small cardboard box that had previously held a pair of earrings.  Together we discovered that one of the colored blocks fit perfectly inside the small cardboard box.  The fit was so tight that it was impossible to pull the block out with your fingers. 

So I showed Elliot how to tip over the box and slide the block out.  He was fascinated.  I repeated the motion: put the block inside the box, rotatate your wrist until it’s upside down and the block comes out.  Then I gave it to him.  He did just as I had, turning it upside down to dump the block out. 

Yay!  I thought.  He understands gravity.   

I reset the device: took the box from him, put the block in it, and gave it back.  He tipped it again, but not quite far enough to let the block slide out.  He waited there, watching the opening of the box intently.  Then he tipped the box upright and stared at the opening, mystified.  Again he turned the box to the side, again not far enough to slide the block out.  Then he got bored and crawled over to play his mini-piano. 

I realized I had misinterpreted his actions.  I thought when he flipped the box upside down, he understood the principles at work.  But to Elliot, there was no larger principle, just a simple rule:  flip box and block will emerge.  As far as he knew, the rule applied only to this box and this block.  A larger theory of gravity was not implicated here. 

Which got me thinking about this notion of gravity.  It seems so fundamental, so deeply woven into our understanding of the universe, that there could never have been a time when we didn’t understand it.  Like saying that there was a time we didn’t know how to breathe, or poop. 

But watch a baby in a high chair, throwing objects over the edge and then peering down after them.  What are they doing but experimenting with gravity?  They're saying, Does it work every time I throw it?  Does it work with every object?  Does anything ever go up?

I tried to do some research into when babies understand gravity.  The academic literature is in flux:  conventional understanding is around a year.  But some researchers argue that humans are born with an understanding of physics, and they have some studies suggesting we understand gravity at 4 months. 

To me, there seems to be a fairly obvious way to tell.  A baby understands gravity when he stops chucking spoons off his highchair and watching them fall.  

Update

I've been severely reprimanded by a close family member for not posting an update:  Elliot is walking.

In my own defense, I did post something last month saying that he took his first steps.  But he was still mostly crawling then.

Actually, he's still mostly crawling now.  It's his preferred mode of transport.  But rather than the two little stutter-steps that we counted as his "first steps," Elliot can now walk across the living room.  And instead of walking only when we prop him up and cajole him, now he's doing it without anyone looking.

I really should be more aggressive at getting some of this on film.  I've posted a billion videos of Elliot sitting doing nothing, but haven't taken the time to capture him walking.  I will try to do better.

Elliot's hot new girlfriend

 Actually, they haven't seen each other for a while now, so the romance may have cooled. 

June and Elliot are uniquely connected: she is the daughter of the man who put the final seal of approval on Elliot's name.  Susan and Elliot were co-classmates in our childbirth education class--- we had already been considering the name, and when we met adult-Elliot we figured his combination of coolness and likability was a sign.  And the rest is history....

More Cat Manipulation

As I mention in this video, this may be the moment Elliot realized he liked being in control. 

Hot Kid in the City

You know, hanging out in front of the Brooklyn Museum, like the cool one year-olds do.  Checking out the scene. 

That last photo reminds me so much of Aaron I can barely stand it.

Elliot and the cat

I think I mentioned earlier that we cat-sat for our friend Irina over the Thanksgiving holiday.  It was awesome, Ding Dong (yes, her name is Ding Dong, don't make me write it again) is the snuggliest cat you ever met.  She does wake you up in the middle of the night with her love and affection...but I've been known to do that myself. 

One of my favorite Elliot moments of all time happens in the first five seconds of this video.  Watch closely, don't blink. 

Not to ruin the adorableness of that last video, but Ding Dong killed a mouse for us, while we watched.  I sh!t you not.  I had to leave for work before the grisly finale, but Hannah tells me that by the end the mouse was just walking up to Ding Dong and resting its head against her mouth.  Cats are sickos. 

Eating seaweed by the dishwasher

There is really nothing to see in this video.  I just think Elliot is adorable even when he's doing nothing.

Be child-like.  I used to hear that phrase and it kind of glanced off me.  Yeah right, be child-like.

But now I get it.  It's so easy.  And so hard. 

Forgiveness, for example.  Elliot is great at forgiveness.  He will scream at us for hours in the middle of the night, but have no problem cuddling and laughing with us in the morning. 

The facile response is, "he just forgot about that."  But infants have great memories.  Elliot will go a week or more without seeing our camera, but when he does see it he'll lunge for it.

The truth is that he can be lonely and desperate in his crib at night, scream for us and hate us for abandoning him.  And in the morning he can forgive us.

We dismiss this as, um,  infantile.  We think it immature not to hold grudges, not to stew and mutter about slights against us, not to steep oneself in the bitter juices of resentment at every opportunity. 

Think of how the world would be if we all had the capacity for forgiveness of a one year-old.  

mylar is baby catnip

Correction:  A previous version of this video was labeled as occurring one month in the future.  The video was not filmed in the future.  It was filmed in the past.  The same applies to all videos posted on this blog.  The management apologizes for any confusion.  

He likes to read

Or at least he enjoys flipping pages...

Trip to the botanical garden

We go there about once a week, but usually forget to bring the camera.  So the one time we did remember, we got a little photo-crazy....

Emily and Jesse

Visits with these two always produce quirky photos...

Updates

Lately Elliot has been showing me his O face.  

(If you just went “ewwww” then I'm guessing you were born between 1970 and 1995.)

He purses his lips into a tight O and raises his eyebrows.  It's freaking adorable.  We have no idea where he learned it, but he’s been doing it all the time.

The expression seems to express surprise, shock, wonderment.  But I’m not sure he’s using it that way.  He usually makes the O face when I scold him, tell him no.  A few months ago, when I scolded him, he would respond with this ugly half-smile, like he was trying to be cute and failing.  

For the past few months we've been letting him stand in front of the open refrigerator door.  Naturally he wants to grab stuff.  But we’ve been telling him No, and amazingly it works.  Now he just stands there and looks.  Sometimes he pokes out a little mealworm finger and touches the tupperwares and cartons of eggs.  Sometimes you can see a rising urge to grab: he unfurls all five fingers and moves his hand forward a few inches.  Then he stops and looks to see if we're watching.  Which we are.  And we congratulate him for his restraint.

He took his first steps on (I think) November 18.  The number of steps was two, and the stride length was between one and two inches.  Still, we're counting it.  He hasn’t exactly exploded into walking, he still prefers crawling.  BUt he’s getting there. 

We are cat sitting for our friend Irina this week.  At first, Elliot had a little trouble restraining his desire to poke the cat in the eye.  But with a little encouragement (I say the word “gentle” more than any other now when I’m around Elliot) he’s no longer doing that.  Now he just slaps at her back.  Which is closer to petting than poking the eyes was.  So we’re counting that a success.  

To Ding Dong’s credit (did I mention the cat’s name is Ding Dong?) she has not given Elliot the cold shoulder.  In fact, this morning she walked past him and rubbed against him while he was sitting drinking a bottle.

The problem is that cats have only one setting when it comes to rubbing against you.  They rub against a 200lb adult with the same force as a 26lb infant.  So Elliot has almost been knocked over a few times.  Which he finds irritating, as anyone would.

Ding Dong

I think I mentioned earlier that we've been cat-sitting for a friend.  This is a pretty awesome video:

First trip to the playground

This was in Mt. Rainier over Thanksgiving.  Elliot had just woken up so we thought he would be energetic.  But you know how sometimes you get real logy after a nap?  That was Elliot. 

But he eventually woke up and started to enjoy it.

Mamma and Grammy

These photos are so perfectly posed it's eerie...

Brunch at Bubby's

We went with Morgan and Anne, and got the best table in the restaurant:  second floor, at the corner, with views of both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.  These photos don't even partially do it justice...

He grows into things

We got this awesome sweater from Maria a few months after Elliot was born.  He looked cute in it but it didn't really fit.  Now he's rocking it right.  

Thanks Maria!

Thanksgiving!

Aaron and Daria have done a fabulous job fixing up their house in Mount Rainier.  It features a "sidecar," which I didn't get any photos of.  In fact, I didn't get photos of anywhere but the first floor.  It was a short trip.  But I think captured a lot of the nice details.

 Aaron built that bookshelf by hand.  And yes, those are lengths of black pipe he used for the vertical supports. Pretty sweet.

My Pride and Joy

During my two weeks off I made radiator covers.  These took about 10 hours each to make.  Which is probably longer than most real carpenters would require....

btw I'm using the leftover wood to make a toy chest.  No idea when I will have another 10 hours free...

Thanksgiving

We headed to Mount Rainier, right outside D.C., to visit my brother Aaron and his wife Daria.  It was a quick trip, but a great chance for the extended family to hang out with Elliot.  And the brine turkey alone was worth the four hour drive.

Photos coming soon....

There is no before photo here.  That pile of white is the after photo.

More Things to Remember

This week he started throwing his hands up over his head.  Previously he was really into taking objects and putting them on his head.  Given the ratio between his arm length (6 inches) and the height of his head (also 6 inches) it was a trick thing to pull off.  Now we’ve started one of my favorites, the “so big” game. 

Clapping is still big.  Every time he eats a mouthful of some food he likes, he feels the need to clap it out, show it some love.

He’s also started kissing recently.  Well, it’s really more like a head butt coming at you mouth first.  But it’s done with affection, we think, and so we tolerate the bruised upper lips. 

We’ve started baby proofing the house.  Some of you may have seen the radiator covers I proudly posted on Facebook.  We’ve got a gate installed, and we’ve cobbled together a decent package of anti-cabinet door devices to keep him from getting under the sink.

When we first got the baby gate it was missing a few parts, but we put it into position in the doorway between the kitchen and the hall.  And he loved playing with it.  The door swung freely, so he would push it and let it glide back toward him.  He seemed to take a lot of pleasure in navigating the complex threshold that the babygate created: in addition to the transition from hardwood floor to kitchen tile, now he had this metal lip to hop over.  And to do it all with only the support of a swinging gate door?   It was like Outward Bound. 

Now we’re finally getting all the parts for the gate.  So it actually does what it’s supposed to and keeps him out. 

He is not going to like that.

That’s all I can think of for now.   

Petting Zoo

This was actually at the Old Stone House in Park Slope.   Just a big cage with animals in it.  I was surprised they weren't actively biting kids, that's what I would be doing if you stuck me in that situation...

Yes, he was more interested in the cage handle than the bunnies inside.

To be fair those bunnies were real boring.