A Blustery Day

Emilio and I made it to Jewel and back on Friday afternoon without getting wet, and Emilio even managed to stay awake almost the whole time, checking out the houses, porches, trees, brick walls, alleys, cars, blowing leaves, and fire engine sirens. The temperature was in the sixties (first time I’ve been out this year in nothing more than a t-shirt), but some of the wind gusts reached forty miles an hour and I suspect that these mighty winds played some role in Emilio’s alertness. When Mari got home around four, it had started to sprinkle and the temperature started to drop (it didn’t take long to drop into the forties), but we were happy to go on another neighborhood walk with her and a second Jewel visit became our excuse for going out. This time we needed an umbrella (going, but not coming back), and I wore a long-sleeved shirt and a light jacket, which, as you can see in the photo, served both me and Emilio—who slept the entire time.

Five Kings Down

"So Samson took hold of the two middle columns holding up the building. Putting one hand on each column . . . He pushed with all his might, and the building fell down on the five kings and everyone else." (Judges 16: 29-30)

While I was preparing Emilio's second breakfast today, he was role-playing the part of a Hebrew Hercules. His dangling tormentors paid the price.

It's sixty-three degrees outside right now, so I think the young thespian and I should try to get in a Jewel run before the rains come.

Emilio at Twenty

Thursday marked the end of Emilio's twentieth week in the world. He's doing well. Having perfected his back-to-stomach roll-over move when Mari and I are not looking, he now does public roll-overs without breaking a sweat.

When Mari gets up, at about six a.m., to go to work, she gives Emilio his breakfast bottle, and with any luck I can manage to coax him back to sleep. Usually, this involves the two of us streteching out on the couch together, with Emilio either beside me or on my chest. Second breakfast is scheduled for ten and lunch at two. In the intervals, chairs are rocked, books are read, naps are taken, dangling toys are tested, and fluffy toys are shaken, inspected, and hurled.

Mari's arrival (see photo at left) is a daily highlight.

Kickin' It with the E

Because I have been on Spring Break, Emilio and I have spent even more time that usual together this week. It has been fun (photographic vidence at right). These days he really notices when one of us moves out of his eyesight. He is spitting up less now than he used to, so he's sleeping on his back more and we've started weaning him off the formula that is "for babies who spit up frequently" (he still gets a couple of servings of mother's milk every day). He loves to lie on his back and interact with the creatures that dangle from the arc on his gym, and when he gets tired of that he works on flipping over, something using the arc for leverage. But his most frequent and enthusiastic activity is kicking. He really pounds the base of his chair, and though it obviously doesn't hurt him, we've started putting a blanket under his heels anyway.
Emilio often sits peacefully for long stretches just checking out the world. I have found that he sometimes finds it easier to go to sleep when his head is covered with a light blanket like the one seen in the photo at left. Apparently, he lowers it sometimes when I'm not looking so that he can spy on me while I'm working on this blog. He fell asleep (or pretended to) soon after I took the photo at left.

A Visit From Grandmother

On Monday, March 13th, Emilio, Mari and I celebrated the eighth birthday of Iona Gibson (in the photo at right; it was also the birthday of Emilio's Tia Gimena as Mari's blog fans know). We met Iona for the first time in Xiamen, just a few months after she was born, and caught up with her and her little brother Aedan in the summer of 2000, when we visited the Gibson clan on the Isle of Lewis. The Gibsons are hoping to visit us in Chicago this summer during the second week of July and we're looking forward to meeting Iona and Aedan all over again.

Last Monday night I also went to O'Hare to pick up Emilio's grandmother and her travelling companion, Peter Cottontail (whose voice sounds like Gene Autry's). The two of them stayed with us all week (spring break at Mansfield Summit High School).

Every morning, after Mari went to work, Mom and Emilio made their way through Emilio's growing library and played together while I slept in. When I went to work on Tuesday and Thursday, they hung out together at the house. It was a low-key week of Sudoku, bologna sandwiches, John Grisham, rottini Tuscany, Freakonomics, Turner Classic Movies and dulce de leche ice cream for Mom, and a thrilling week of lullabies and stories and gymnastics for grandmother and grandson.

On Thursday, when I got home from school, Mom, Mari, Emilio and I walked the long block to Corner Grille where we met Jack and Julie for hamburgers, meatloaf, fajitas and talks about the Italian Renaissance . Luckily, our favorite singing waitress, Audrey, was working the evening shift. She wasn't so happy to be there (she prefers the day shift), but Emilio cheered her up. She carried him around the restaurant, introducing him to her other customers and then rewarded him with a beautiful, bluesy "Summertime" serenade.

After we'd closed down the Corner Grille, we walked two more long blocks up Clark Street for Sweet Occasion desserts, and then headed home.

On Friday, we bid Mom a sad farewell as she headed back to Texas, leaving behind fond memories of stories read and songs sung. And Peter Cottontail, who is rooming with us now.

Dim Sum

Earlier this week we got an e-mail from Dhyana and Angel, one of the couples who were in the parenting class we took at Weiss Hospital, asking if we wanted to meet them and their daughter Mariana for dim sum at Furama, a Chinese restaurant on Broadway, just a few blocks from our house. We did. We were actually among the first people to meet Mariana, who was born on the last day of class. We got to the hospital early on that day, ran into Angel in the lobby, and he invited us up to see his young daughter (we were really impressed that Dhyana was in such good spirits on the day she had given birth).

The dim sum was great--as good as any we had in China. It's hard to believe we'd never eaten at Furama before. I'm sure we'll go again. It was also a lot of fun getting to catch up with Mariana, and watching her and Emilio checking each other out. Emilio started out in the Baby Bjorn, but he eventually worked his way into my lap and then Mari's. I get the feeling that it won't be long before the Baby Bjorn, aka The Sleep Machine, starts to lose some of its magic.

Dhyana interviews friends and family of people who are either on death row or are heading that way. Her goal is to collect information that will help save the accused from execution . She told us she often takes Mariana with her when she does the interviews, so she has already made plane trips to Florida, New York, and Texas. Dhyana says Mariana doesn't mind flying at all, but believes she'll have a harder time sitting still when she learns how to walk.

Emilio debuted his dragon shirt for the outing. He looked really cool. We look forward to getting together with Dhyana, Angel and Mariana again in a couple of months. Mari suggested that we might go to one of the Middle Eastern restaurants in our neighborhood (Emilio could debut his cartoon Muhammad shirt), but I'd be happy to dim sum it again.

Free at Last!

Temperatures reached the sixties today in Chicago and seemingly every housing unit in the city (ours included) emptied its people-content onto the streets. Think of the dazed, childlike aliens who file out of the space ship that appears at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or the munchkins who pop out from under the foliage after Dorothy drops a house on the Wicked Witch of the East, and you'll get a sense of what the first spring day in Chicago feels like--especially when it's a Saturday. When Mari, Emilio and I got down to the street, we realized that we didn't need our fleece and corduroy layers, so I happily trotted them back up stairs and we began our neighborhood walk feeling almost naked in long sleeve shirts and jeans. The sidewalks on Clark street were thick with pale babies and their transportation paraphenalia and I started asking everybody how old their children were. I'm sure the babies of Andersonville have been out in force in previous springs, but I haven't paid much attention until now. Because Mari is such a good mother, who realizes how much Emilio enjoys watching her eat, she bought a smoothie at the gym and chocolate-covered pretzels at Elizabeth's bon-bon shop (our favorite chocolate-pusher reported that she recently married a man with the unfortunate last name "Felato"). Eventually, we parted ways, I to my office, M&E to the house, but when I came home around nine o'clock, the temperatures were still in the sixties, so we decided to make a late night supermarket run. It has started raining by then, but we stayed dry under our family umbrella and Emilio seemed to be fascinated by the night and the sound of the rain. As you know, once I strap him into the Baby Bjorn he usually manages to fall asleep before I get to the nearest street corner. But tonight he remained alert all the way to the supermarket and he stayed awake the whole time we were shopping, possibly anticipating our return walk home through the rain. It had stopped raining by the time we'd finished shopping, though, and about halfway to the house he drifted off. He remained asleep as I lifted him out of the Baby Bjorn and placed him in the rocking chair that Jack and Julie gave him (see photo at left), but for a long while his arms remained in the same position they had been in while we were on our walk. No doubt he was dreaming of rain and chocolate pretzels.