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").