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)

Radio

Caye Caulker

This was the second half of our vacation....da island.

Ours is the brightly colored one.

You can tell it's a premiere hostel from the hand-lettered sign.

 Notice a similarity with our previous hostel?  (hint:  it's the chairs)

Back to Elliot

Okay, enough vacation photos for a while.  I know why you come to this site, and it's not to see photos of my sunburn. 

But I’m having trouble writing about Elliot lately.  He’s such a real human being now, it seems kind of silly.  Like describing the way Ian drinks a glass of water, or the angle Aaron holds his knife at dinner.

But what seems obvious and uninteresting to me is the opposite to people who don't get to see Elliot every day.  So I'll just start with some basic stuff:

He walks.  Pretty comfortably now, although he occasionally loses his balance and falls down.  He only rarely cries when this happens. 

Under the subheading of walking:  He understands curbs.  He sees them coming, stops, and lifts an arm up.  This means I am supposed to hold his hand and guide him over the curb.  I kind of love it when he does this.

He likes to walk on asphalt more than grass.  Grass can be tough.

He loves new homes.  We went over to Emily and Gerald’s place last weekend, and he was happy as a clam while we sat and ate.  It helped that they have a nice apartment filled with interesting stuff.  But in any new space he is generally content to toddle about and check stuff out.  As Hannah said to Gerald, “Look, you have a pillow on the floor in front of your fireplace.  We don’t have that.”

He loves being upside down.  Not an uncommon thing for a toddler.  Sometimes it’s a tough call whether to hold up by the ankles, because he finds it so exciting and immediately starts crying when you put him down.  But the joy on his face when he’s upside down makes it worth it.

Eating: Spicy stewed goat, asparagus, fancy cheeses.  We’re raising an aristocrat.  Hannah got some provolone thinking it would be a nice mild flavor for him, and he hates it.  So I busted out this stinky French chunk and he wolfed it down and made his “mmm” sound.

Talking:  His most clearly articulated word is currently “Bye-bye.”  He said that this morning, and it came out exactly like an adult would speak the words.  Eerie. 

Otherwise, he’s in standard babbling mode: dada, mama.  He likes to repeat wouldja wouldja wouldja, over and over.  Another favorite is Ngong ngong ngong.  (if you’ve seen the videos this is old news).

Social: Apparently he likes to play with the girls at daycare.  He ignores the boys, or so they tell us.  Unclear what this portends. He has a girlfriend named Nola, they hang out all the time and he tries to hug and kiss her.  But there’s trouble in paradise: last week he bit her.  It may have been in a fit of passion.  But there have been a few other biting incidents, involving other children too.  When this happens at the daycare they make him go sit in the corner for a minute.  We haven’t had to give him a time-out at home yet….he’s stopped biting us for some reason.

Elliot's first three photos

He actually held the camera and pushed the buttons.  All I did was steady the camera with my other hand.

Sure they're not perfect, but he shows talent, no?