If you could see the way this kid eats a banana.  With the pale yellow goo protruding from his mouth. With it pushing his lips forward.  With him trying to keep it all in, and barely succeeding.  And that look of perplexity on his face, mixed with a stubborn determination to choke it all down.  

If you could see that...you would laugh as hard as I did. 

Will and Elliot Dancing

We visited John and Amanda for a bagels'n'coffee hangout at their place last weekend.  Great times.  As usual, no photos or videos except of the kids.

Turns out Will is an incredible dancer.  Way more dedicated to the craft than Elliot.  True, he is a year older, so I should cut Elliot a break.

Will seems to be teaching Elliot some moves here:

Later Elliot got bored and decided to just lie down and eat a banana.  

The beautiful weimaraner is named Wally, for those unfortunate enough not to have met him. He also goes by Wallybean.   Or Bean. 

There were some gorgeous days last week, and Hannah and I took Elliot to the Brooklyn Museum after work / daycare (that's pretty much like work for Elliot).  They have this nice grassy lawn out front, with gentle arcs of stone interspersed like --- oh, screw metaphor, I’ll just show a picture. 

This nice thing about this place is that we can let him explore in any direction, knowing that if he falls there’s a 90% chance his head will hit grass.  Okay, 75%. 

But he’s actually a fairly cautious child.  He likes to walk holding one of our hands.  He’ll be toddling along, and when he reaches a curb he’s intimidated by, he’ll pause, look back, and raise an arm in the air.  This is our cue to step to his side (quickly, quickly!) and reach down and allow him to curl his five little mealworm fingers around one of our big sausage digits.

Today I we did all five stone strips on the lawn with him, in order from furthest to closest to the museum.  And each time he waited for me to step down from the stone to the lawn.  It became a little joke, me stepping first, and him following.  He looked up at me, blinking into the late evening sun, and did his little wink (which is really just a crinkle of the eyes), and then smiled and stepped off the stone himself.  

Each time he watched closely as I stepped down.  And each time he stepped with the same foot I did.  

Later, we watched a group of 10 young black girls practicing a step routine in front of the Brooklyn museum.  Elliot was fascinated.  He snapped to attention and stared fiercely at the hard percussions of their sneakers on the concrete.  He remained motionless until they finished the routine.  

When it was over, he looked at me, and made one of the sign language gestures we’ve taught him.  

It was the gesture for ‘more’. 

My new phone

Some of you know that my crappy burner dumbphone finally died.  Like really died --- I have none of your phone numbers, unless you are in that tiny magic circle where your number is still in my head.  And man, that circle is TINY.  Don't feel bad.

Anyway, I finally got a phone that has a camera it.

Be honest:  doesn't that still seem a little weird?  Phone with a camera in it?

But I'm not here to fight losing battles.

I'm here to try out my new cameraphone!  Phonecamera!

Whaddyall think?

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

He does this thing sometimes when he's eating a banana. 

(Oh, did I mention how much he loves bananas?  That, too, is brand new.  Today he ate two full bananas in the space of 20 minutes.)

We usually break off about a third of a banana to give to him.  He holds it in his little hand, and looks at it; he considers it.  And during that moment the banana becomes somehow fixed.  It cannot move.  He cannot lift it to his mouth.  Not because it’s too heavy; that’s just where the banana is, end of story.  

And so he dips his head, he cranes his neck, sometimes he even bends his knees, in an effort to bring his mouth low enough to bite the banana.  


He always, of course, succeeds in eating the banana. 

But as of yet he has not deduced whether it was the head, the neck, or the knees that got him his prize.  So he continues to gyrate when eating bananas standing up.

Photo Booth!

He's a climber

Brilliant photo, courtesy of Ed West. 

Happy Birthday Carole!

In her honor, a few greatest hits:

Easter 2012 Part II

We met Lauren and Bob and Audrey at the Astoria Bohemian Beer Garden.  Shocked, are you?  Well, let me assure you it's quite the family-friendly establishment.  At least on Sundays at 2pm it is.  

Elliot loved the Easter Bunny --- or was horrified by him.  All I know is that he stood staring at that giant fuzzy-suited dude for a long damn time, without smiling. 

So I picked him up in my arms, and gingerly approached that big bunny on two legs.  It was scary and weird.  He didn’t want to do it. He wanted to leave and go home.  But I insisted.  

We got closer.  That weird fixed bunny-smile, with those giant black bunny-eyes.  It’s creepy, I get it.  Elliot was still not smiling.  The bunny waved vigorously at him.  No response. . . Who was this goddamn thing?  

And then, genius: the bunny laid forth a horizontal palm.  This, Elliot knew what to do with that.  He broke into a huge smile and slapped that bunny five.  And the heavens broke open and Jesus wept and all the frustrated dreams of this sad world were redeemed.

Then we went back to play with Audrey some more. 

Later on the band started up.  They were three hipsters who played Beatles covers with an accordion, piano, and drums.

At least two people present loved them.

Radio Part II

Easter 2012, part I

Also known as Cardigan 'n' Peeps day.

Yes, Elliot, the sugar crash can be rough.

Elliot covered in tape

We went over Emily and Gerald's for brunch.  It was lovely and tasty and delicious, but we only took out the camera when we started decorating Elliot with tape. 

Loss of the Chair

Our bedtime ritual is gone.

Used to be, we would change into a new diaper, put PJs on, turn the lights down halfway, and sit in the big brown faux - Eames chair to read a story. 

This peaked at about 9 months.  It slowly trickled off, and now Elliot isn't interested at all. 

When 7:30 or 7:45pm rolls around, he walks into his room, points at the crib, and says Ba-Ba (you're smart enough to figure out what that means).  Once we get him his bottle (mostly water, but with a splash of milk that we are trying to wean him off) he just plops down in the crib happily.  

Any attempt to read a book in the big brown chair is met with squeals of dismay.  This makes me sad.  

But I'm hoping that formula for reading books together is Y = sin (X months) and not Y = -(X - 9 months)² + 81 months

Our heroes

Let's take a moment to give thanks to Kate and Ed, who took care of Elliot for the whole week while we were gone in Belize.  

And just to give you a sense of what a real photographer can do, here's a photo Ed took of Elliot during that time.

Here's another from Ed.  

I'm thinking of holding a caption contest:  What is going through Cameron's head at this moment? 

Kayaking Caye Caulker

Caye Caulker is a fascinating place.  There's a North island and a South island, separated by a thin strip of ocean maybe 100 feet across.  The two islands were once connected --- our guidebook says the 1961 hurricane split them, but Juni (who was born on the island and at age 73 still leads an amazing snorkelventure) disputes this.  No further info forthcoming from Juni however.

Our hostel was on the South island, where all the tourism is.  The day before we left for home, we rented a double kayak and paddled around the North island.

We knew there was a protected forest reserve at the Northern tip of the island, and eventually we got there.  It was completely deserted, almost eerie.  Hannah said it felt like something out of Lost.

That building may look welcoming in the photo, but when you get close it's a ghost town.  There's a burned out stove sitting in the sand next to the building.

Despite that, we had a lovely time, ate our lunch at the end of that dock, all alone with this as our view:

Then we paddled home, spent too much time in the sun, and ended up looking like this:

Why do I feel like I'll be taking this photo myself in a few months?

(http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/04/the-feeling-of-parenthood.html)