Hungry Caterpillar, Hidden Dog

All done . . . Not!

Kitchen Cousins

Texas Xmas

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

El ojo del abuelo

When Jaime and Maria Rosa caught the taxi that would take them to O'Hare and their flight to Madrid, they left us with a freezer full of delicious frozen meals prepared by Maria Rosa, a week's worth of shared adventures, and a wonderful collection of photos that Jaime took of his grandson. For all of these gifts, we are grateful.

El ultimo paseo

Baño y bata

Alimentando al abuelo

Ojitos

Un viaje en tren

Jugando con la abuela

Llegan los abuelos

The Mysterious Case of the Flying Bowl

Thanksgiving Giggles

Emilio's First

As on most mornings, Emilio started the morning of his first birthday by waking me up, and as on most mornings, I lifted him out of his crib and found a place for him under the covers on the bed beside me. Once there, he soon went back to sleep. And so did I (making me the human snooze button, I guess).

I love this morning ritual.

On most days, it is followed by another morning ritual of bed-play in which the sheets, duvet, and bedspread become cave walls, tent sides, submarine windows and/or premature night skies.

But Emilio had a doctor's appointment on his birthday, so Mari made sure we all got up in time to eat breakfast and catch the bus we needed to take to get there in time--which we did.

Before we left, Mari showed me the happy-birthday photos Emilio had been receiving that morning from Spain, France and Argentina. More were on the way, she had been told, I recommended that she put them on her blog as a way to say "thanks" and "keep 'em coming."

At the Ravenswood Medical Clinic, Emilio measured in at 23 lbs. 7 ounces (10.6 kilos) and 29.5 inches (74 cm), which, Dr. Samayoa informed us, puts him near the 50th percentile in both measures.

Dr. Samayoa confirmed our sense that Emilio is in perfect health. Then, to make sure that he stays that way, he asked the nurse to give him two innoculation shots, one in each thigh. Ouch!

The nurse, who was the first to sing happy birthday to Emilio, told us that the mumps/measles/rubella shot stings a little after the initial pinch. Emilio confirmed as much. The experience was painful for us all, but Mari had brought a bottle of formula with us and she hooked Emilio up soon after the shots were given and that seemed to help.

When we made our way out to the lobby to check out, we realized that it was 11:30, which made Emilio exactly one year old (see photo at right).

When we left the clinic, I helped Mari and Emi onto the bus and then I took the El downtown to get my work hours in. Over the course of the day, I was able to check in to Mari's blog and see more of the avalanche of congratulatory photos that were coming in for Emilio.

Gifts had been coming in, too, I found out when I got home. When Mom came to visit a few weeks ago, she gave us a toy-purchasing check (which we have not yet fully used up). Earlier this week, Emilio received an Italian-designed Modo Activity Car 2000 from Brian, Lyndsae and Olivia (in the video clips below you can see its tempting Emilio away from other gifts) and two sweet cards from Ruth and Haley in Plano.

We waited until Emilio's birthday to open the gift which his babysitter Emily brought him on Thursday--a beautiful collection of stacking cubes from the Land of Nod and a bounceable rubber coil (see second video clip below). And--good timing--a gift from Lisa and Melissa arrived on the day as well: a pair of stylin', long-sleeved onesies; cargo pants; and several engrossing books (see the video immediately below).

On Saturday, more congratulatory photos (and on Tuesday, a"Mirror Pound-a-Ball") came in from Maria Estrada--a fellow blogger--and her family, and when we met with Nathaniel Lewis and his peeps at Sweet Occasions on Clark, Emilio reeled in still more gifts from the Lewis Crew: more stacking blocks, a ball-sorting machine with accompanying hammer and two sports-themed long-sleeved shirts. And on Sunday, when Emilio had his first play date--with Robert, the son of a Romanian couple Mari and I met in the birthing class we took at Weiss Hospital--he added more winter clothes to his wardrobe (and, I am told, had a blast playing torero to Robert's toro).

Other than Mari taking a day from work to be with Emilio all day, we didn't make special celebratory plans for Emilio's birthday, but the day and the weekend could hardly have turned out better if we had. To all of you who helped make Emilio's first birthday and his first year a great one, I send you deepest thanks from the Ruiz-Benton collective.

E and L Take a Dip

Peek-a-Finger

Emilio Enjoys a Cold One

Emilio Deals With the Papa Razzi

Peek-a-Grandmother

The Spectacle Snatcher

De tal palo, tal astilla

Hello, Granddaddy!

Speed Reader

Schwing!

Walking Man

The Ladies' Man

Last week, Emilio had four babysitters over the course of four days. He also has four upper teeth coming in (I don't think the two are related.) Dionne's last day was Tuesday (she started a new job on Wednesday). Sara (a business student at DePaul who is friends with the woman who babysat the son of Jerry Graff, my dissertation advisor) stayed with him on Wednesday. She had a scheduling conflict on Thursday and I had a meeting that morning, but fortunately, Matt the Plumber (that's how my fellow Cowboy diehard and Slugger's bar mate identifies himself when he leaves messages on my phone) hooked us up with Tara (an education student at Northeastern Illinois), who babysits his two kids. She was great, but her class schedule made her unavailable for future weekday mornings. Sara was supposed to come back on Friday, but she got food poisoning on Thursday and called in sick. I thought that I might have to miss my meeting on Friday, but Prairie, who works in the same office as me, introduced us to Emily (see photo at right), a classmate of hers in her master's degree creative writing program at Roosevelt University, and she was able to fill on on Friday.

Fortunately, Emilio seemed to get along well with everyone, despite his teething traumas, and it now appears that we have a tentative, semi-permanent babysitting plan for the future: a tag-team effort by Emily and Gladys (sitter #5), who stayed with Emilio last spring while I was teaching (and who has recently returned from Mexico). We think it is a good idea to have two sitters, in case one or the other gets sicks or has a conflict of one kind or another (I did a lot of orientation work last week) and we are lucky that both Emily and Gladys are willing to accomodate my work schedule (which changes from week to week) and are able to hnag out with Emilio in surroundings that are familiar to him. Emily and Gladys both really seem to enjoy their time with Emilio and for that, too, we are most grateful.

Mary Poppins?

Wednesday was Mari's first official day back at work and the first day since last May that Emilio experimented with spending part of the workday with a babysitter. Jack and Julie recommended Dionne to us (she and Nathaniel are pals) and when we met her and her 21-month-old daughter Michelle last Sunday it was easy to see why. The threesome was getting along famously when I left for work this morning and when Mari came home this afternoon , the happy state of affairs continued. Dionne reported that Emilio had eaten well, played well, napped long and cried not at all, which was welcome news to his mama and papa. Dionne and Michelle are coming back on Thursday and on Saturday (Mari and I are actually going to the movies--woo hoo!) and next Tuesday (maybe), but then, alas, they will begin working with another family. Obviously, we hope Emilio's next babysitting experiences are as successful as today's.

¡Que los cumplas feliz, abuela!

Revelry, Ritual and Another Clean Bill

Emilio and I took a break from the Cowboys delightful 30-7 slaughter of the Saints on Monday night (note the iconography on the Cowboy onesie that Brian brought him on his most recent visit to the Windy City) to indulge in our nightly round of Karaoke. Current hits include: "I Got You Babe," "Born to Be Wild," "Monday, Monday," "Beat It," "We Got the Beat," and "Rocket Man." Our harmonies are a work in progress.

At his nine-month check-up on Tuesday, Emilio weighed in at 22 pounds and got his Hepatitis innoculation. The shot was a shock, but he got over it quickly, and Dr. Samayoa told Mari that Emilio looks entirely healthy.

A week from today, Mari starts back to work so we are currently trying to figure out what we're going to do about childcare. When we make a decision, I'll post the details here.

The Swimmer

Misa Criolla en el Millennium

Llegan los tios

The Nephew

The Bather

The Crawler

Brave New Video World

Remembering the Gibsons

These photos were taken during the Gibsons' last two days in Chicago, some were taken by Peter. The one below was on their last day, when Iona and Aedan escorted Emilio through the neighborhood, singing to him when he got restless and generally taking good care of him.



Several times this week, we have cleared the furniture out of the living room to give Emilio a big play space and he has enjoyed scrambling across the floorboards towards its forbidden borders (the stereo, the bookshelf, etc.). He has also enjoyed perfecting his Tarzan call and is starting to get a little picky with his food. He loves to feed himself and Morning O's are a big self-service favorite; broccoli puré not so much. I think I managed to get all of the green vegetable out of his hair, ears and stomach yesterday, but Mari says she found some in his nostrils this morning. Our biggest adventure of the week probably came on Tuesday, when all the electricity in the building (and the block, I assume) went out suddenly at about 2 p.m. When Mari got home from her Rochelle Lee conference at about 8:45 p.m. that night, it was still out. In the mean time, Emilio and I had cooled off by taking a shower together. When Mari got home, she suggested that we light a candle while we could still find the matches (it was dusk at that point), and the second she lit the flame all of the electricity in the house came back on.

Scottish Kisses

Emilio tends to be shy around unfamiliar faces and wary of abrupt noises--including, at times, friendly laughter, and such has been the case this past week when he has been getting to know our Scottish friends Peter, Mhairi, Iona, and Aedan Gibson. Gradually, though, these particular Scottish faces have gone from unfamiliar to favorites and Emilio has laughed and played with all (and offered some the occasional Scottish kiss). Aedan has become the official translator of Emilio-speak. Iona has become Emilio's official portrait painter. Mhairi has become a favorite alternative cradle. And on the Metra train ride back from Ravinia on Monday night, a ticket-snatching Peter claimed favored status as a giggle-box tickler (see photo).

Easy Rider

On Monday, we received a UPS package from Texas that included a gift that Mom and Dad sent Than Lewis, our young friend and neighbor (who is celebrating his one-month birthday today!). So after carting some boxes to the storage space we have rented halfway between our house and the Lewis's, we dropped in on Than and his mom Julie (Jack was at rehearsal) for what turned out to be an exchange of gifts, as Than's grandparents had also left Emilio a gift. All the gifts were a hit, but the highlight of the visit for Emilio came when Julie offered him a chance to test-drive the Jumperoo that Than's Aunt Mary Beth and her family had given the youngest Lewis. Well, suffice it to say, Emilio had a blast and Mari and I promptly decided that we're going to have to get one for our house. The Els also have the air-conditioning going, and that's something else we need to get over here. I keep waiting for the AC elves to show up, but they haven't done so yet . . .

Because It Was There

One day this past week, while I was working on the bed beside Emilio's crib, the little fella finally managed to get his center of gravity over the rail which we had to that point kept lowered for easier access (ours not his). I was playing with him at the time--having sensed that he was getting close to getting over the wall (images of the Superstars obstacle course come to mind)--so there was never any danger (the crib was flush against the bed anyway), but we now keep both rails in the raised position. In the photo at left, Emilio doesn't seem too happy about the bar-raising, but you know what they say about keeping a good man down. Not long after we raised that bar, Emilio managed to stand up on his own for the first time (that we know of) using two sides of the crib for balancers, as readers of Mari's blog already know. What was a rare occurence just a few days ago is a habitual one now and I fear that the crib is no longer going to be a place of repose for our young Sir Edmund Hillary (who, according to legend, explained that he wanted to climb Everest "because it was there").

By holding on to two sides of his crib and rocking a little bit, Emilio is able to navigate the wheeled crib-vessel across the bedroom floor and if it weren't for the walls that block his eastward trajectory, he might be on Lake Michigan by now. So far we've been able to stop him before he reaches the bookshelf Charybdis, but that particular siren call remains strong.

When Emilio is not scaling the East Face or sailing our wooden-floor seas, he has learned to wash down his sorrows (and celebrate his victories) with a two-handled mug of juice, which he now handles himself like the accomplished sailor that he is. And he has started munching on organic O's (which function as cocktail peanuts, I guess).

After he has had his share of swigs (and even when he hasn't), Emilio has joined me in my initial forays into the land of Karoke, which, I learned this week, is available through our Comcast digital cable package. I know there was some karaoke at the Holiday Inn the night before Brian's wedding, but I never made it to the mike. And there was plenty of karoke in China, but I never knew the tunes. Comcast's options are not as numerous as we might like, but we've enjoyed a little Van Morrison for Mamá ( "Brown-Eyed Girl," "Have I Told You Lately"), a little Steppenwolf for Da Boys ( "Born to Be Wild," "Magic Carpet Ride"), some Mannilow when we're feeling disco ("Copacabana" which gets us moving--see the photo at right), some Don McLean when we're feeling long-winded ("American Pie"), some Bad Company when we're feeling tricky ("Feel Like Makin' Love" starts out sweet, but ends up dirty), and some Petula when we're feeling alone and life is making us lonely ("Downtown").

Whence the Bedhead?

When Emilio woke up from his post-breakfast nap today, he had quite a case of bed-head, which had already calmed down some by the time Mari took the photo below on the right. I don't think he gets his bed-head tendencies from me or from my dad (certainly not anymore, he doesn't). Any theories out there?

That's One Big Youzi

At today's well-baby appointment weigh-in, 26-plus inches of Emilio tipped the scales at 20-plus pounds, sans hat (and everything else). That's about 2.5 gallons of milk, folks.

Yesterday, Emilio got a visit from Kristin of Kristin and Bob fame (that's her on the posing couch in the photo at right) and she gave him his first lesson in pat-a-cake.

Kristin and Bob are in the process of moving into a new home, which, like their current apartment, will be within walking distance of our Foster Home. We walked Kristin part of the way back to the ex-, where she and Bob were finishing up with their evacuation labors. On our walk back through little Saigon, near the Argyle stop on the Red line El, we came across a big mural on the side of the supermarket where we used to buy pomelo--yòuzi, in Chinese--before they started selling it at Jewel. According to wikipedia, some pomelos can weigh as much as 22 pounds, but I find that hard to believe.

A New Daddy in the Middle

María José made a special effort to make my first Father’s Day as a father a good one and she succeeded. While I was sleeping, she invited the sticker elves into the house and they left stickers with messages like “#1 Dad” and “Happy Father’s Day!” near my toothbrush, on my cell phone and sundry sites that I came across over the course of the day. She also gave me a number of carefully chosen gifts, including: 1) a book about World Cup history and a run-down of this year’s teams; 2) a book called About Me, which contains hundreds of fill-in-the-blank interview questions (I have since bought her one, too, so we are going to be an open book to each other); 3) a collection of baby sign language cards (point to your nose if you want to ask Emilio if he’s wet); 4) two $10 movie gift certificates (maybe this will inspire me to actually go to the movies some day . . .); 5) two white Tees from the Gap; 6) Sid Maier’s Civilization 4 (which, we learned this morning, is too powerful for my little ole' laptop since it requires a 1.2 Processor and mine is a 1.19 model, so I’m going to have to save it until we bring the next generation of computer power into our house); 7) 3 chocolate-chip cookies from Sweet Occasions; and 8) two children’s books which I have now read to Emilio: Papa! and Why Is Daddy Bald?. Jaime and María Rosa also sent me The Street and San Man’s Guide to Chicago Eats written by an employee of Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation so that I can further my studies of this town’s prole-friendly eateries (I now know that Wikstrom’s Deli on Clark Street has good meatloaf sandwiches). For breakfast, Mari served me a cheddar cheese omelet and while Emilio enjoyed his first siesta of the day, we made some initial headway on the “radical re-organization” of the house that we’ve been fantasizing about. For lunch the three of us trucked up to Evanston (see photo above on the right) and Emilio slept while Mari and I made our way through half a plate of nachos, half a country-fried steak, a corn cob, a slice of Texas toast, some mashed potatoes with gravy, some ribs, some grilled shrimp, some mixed veggies and—the piece de resistance—a chocolate molten cake. We would have down some more walking around Evanston, but cloudy skies began to sprinkle, so we headed back to the Foster Home, where I called Dad (that's him in the photo at left) to wish him a good one (the highlights of Dad's day: I-HOP breakfast and a new desktop computer!), and enjoyed a long stretch of play time in the bed with Emilio.

Yesterday, when I went to Potbelly in Evanston (my first visit in a month), Andy, the shift manager, wished me a happy father’s day and paid for my lunch!

Emilio IS Jake Blues

Friday was María José’s last day at work before summer vacation (Yeeeaah!) and in honor of the occasion, Emilio got up early and rode the bus with her to school so that he could meet all of her students and colleagues (the ones he hadn’t met yet). The evening plan was a Mari’s-choice restaurant visit and the winner was: Angel’s. We had hoped to eat on the patio, but it was full when we got there around 6:30, so we settled for a window seat in the dining room. Emilio immediately assumed the relaxed posture that you see in the photo at left with his left foot perched on the stroller tray and spent much of the evening giving a dead-eye stare at the family of three sitting beside us. I imagined that any minute he might say to the man of the family, “How much for the leetle girl? How much for the women? ” (That's a quote from The Blues Brothers, for those of you who don't know.)I’m not sure the little girl would have been up for a separation from her dad, but the woman of the table might been more open to Emilio’s proposition. She told us she thought Emilio was “charming.”

After dinner, we called Julie and arranged for a rendezvous at Sweet Occasions with her, young Than, and Than’s grandmother Barbara (who arrived on Wednesday). On our way there, we picked up Jack at his Seattle division on Clark Street, where he was memorizing lines for his next play--Lyle Kessler’s “Orphans,” which opens at the end of July (Emilio enjoyed the sneak preview Jack gave him).We waited for the rest of Jack’s crew on the sidewalk outside the Sweet O and later moved indoors for the attack. Mari went for the Zanzibar chocolate with strawberry ice.

Pamper Prometheus

Some time this afternoon while Blogger and I were going at it, I realized that Emilio, who was in the crib beside the bed I was then sitting on, was engaged in an equally absorbing task of some kind. He had for some time been unusually quiet--active, but quiet. Turns out my suspicions were correct: when I looked in the crib, he had unhitched the adhesive hitch of his diaper and removed his right leg from its Pamper manacle. Some time within the last day or so, I had noticed that he was working on an initial study of the adhesive hitch problem and had successfully unhitched his hitch on two successive occasions. I initially believed that these successes were the result of random luck and would not be easily repeated. As events have shown, I was wrong. When I put Pandora back in his nappy box, he was a good sport about it, realizing, no doubt, what they say about the train and the station.

Gettin' Known in the 'Hood

Since we last saw Emilio in this space, he has enjoyed a number of evening strolls around the neighborhood with his mother and me, including a visit to young Mr. Than Lewis (see photo below). I think I can say we were all impressed by Than's swinging ride and if Emilio could, I'm sure he'd be asking us, "Can I get one of those?"

Used to be that Emilio couldn't hold out for very long on these strolls, but his resistance levels have gradually built up and now he makes an occasional comment and lets us know when he needs a pacifier or wouldn't mind taking a ride in the arm carriage. And we still break out the Baby Bjorn on occasion--as when our stroll took us to Andersonville's annual Midsommarfest this past weekend. This year we limited our purchases to a purple tie-dye t-shirt for Emilio and a lemonade for Mari and we looked pityingly on the people buying turkey legs--which look great, but don't taste great.

Emilio and I have also become regulars at JB's Kosher Deli on Clark Street, where they make meaty pastrami sandwiches (on rye with yellow mustard), as I discovered during Jaime's visit last to Chicago. At Jaime's request, I got him and María Rosa one to eat on the plane during their flight back to Madrid. I also got one for myself and I am now a habitual user. Gordon's also sells gelato which, I learned on a recent visit, is cream-based, where the ice cream we eat most of the time is butter-based (sorbet is water-based). Mari is a big gelato fan. I also got her a chocolate-covered strawberry the last time we were in.

The fireflies have started coming out. That's always fun.

I Dream of Red Rackham's Treasure

Emilio's hair is not thick and bushy by any means; he's got a thin patch than runs around the crown of his head that makes you think he has been wearing a baseball cap all of his life. But he's got enough hair on top, now, that he can get bed head from time to time.
This morning he woke up with a Tintin cowlick, which you can just make out in these photos. He had a lot of kicking and galloping to do this morning, activities that may or may not have been inspired by dreams of Captain Haddock and the search for Red Rackham's treasure.