It's always fun to hang out with Emilio and Mari on weekend mornings and holidays when the three of us can play in the bed together. As many of you know, I'm a slow starter in the mornings, but I enjoy waking up to smiles like these.It got up into the 90s today in Chicago and without air-conditioning it was really uncomfortable in our apartment. We turned on all the ceiling fans, opened the windows, wished for breezes, and used wet cloths and baths to cool off. We have a heavy window unit that I am going to have to put in--one of my least favorite seasonal activities (our landlord makes all his tenants remove their window units in winter), but to install the unit this year, I'm going to have to move a bookshelf and some other furniture (and I'm always afraid that the air conditioner is going to fall through the hole and then three floors down to the street). Tomorrow, the highs are supposed to be in the eighties, but on Wednesday the highs are supposed to be back in the seventies again for a while, so I think I can put it off a little longer.
After I gave Emilio his second breakfast bottle this morning, he checked out internet news sites with me for a while. Eventually, though, he wearied of this and drifted off (see photo at right). When he woke up, Mari and I took him a neighborhood walk, hoping that the breeze under shady trees would cool us off (it didn't much). Later, though, when I got home from the "office," we went on a second walk and this time it was a lot cooler out (it rained some). Before coming home, we paid a visit to Sweet Occasions (a neighborhood dispenser of dairy products that we had never, ever visited before today) and then some of us watched a fine episode of our favorite BBC crime drama, Foyle's War, while others of us played on a blanket on the floor.
When Emilio woke up this morning, he was talking like never before. Part of the time, he seemed to be quoting Elaine Benes: "yadda, yadda, yadda" (twice). Sometimes he would get his jaw going first and after he'd cranked it a few times the sound would start coming out, like water from a hand-pumped well. Sometimes he would put his tongue between his gums and chew on it while trying to say all the same things he'd been saying before--an old actor's exercise. Most of the time, he seemed to be imitating Mari and me, as if to say, you guys go on and on and on and on and on as if I could understand you, but I can't, so I'm just going to give you some of your own medicine.Tonight, at around 10:30, after a full day of this jabber, he started crying inconsolably and after some diagnostic trial and error we finally guessed 
what Emilio had been trying to tell us all day: he was pregnant! Once we figured this out, we felt some relief, but we didn't know how long the labor would last. We got some cold cloths and some ice, tried to massage and comfort him, and that all seemed to help some. Finally, at around eleven p.m., Emilio became the proud papa of his first tooth. Front, middle, bottom, left. We read that he could get some relief if we massaged the gum area, so Mari and I took turns doing that (see photo at right). We also put a cube of ice in a clean diaper and let him suck on that.
It was an exciting way to celebrate the end of Emilio's 28th week in this world,. Apparently, Emilio is going to give birth to about 19 more of these suckers, but the first is supposed to be the most traumatic. I hope that is the case.
Up at eight for breakfast (bottle #1), then crib play and nappage until 11:30. Diaper change and then half a banana and a bottle #2 for a ravenously-devoured lunch. Lap sittage for half an hour, then a floor blanket exploratory mission: foot grabbing; trunk patting; pillow grabbing; ceiling staring; rolling; wiggling; noise making; dad staring. Then some crying followed by a promotion to the couch and the dadbelly lounge. More nappage. Family portrait. Transport to the home crib. 
More nappage while dishes are washed. Then an "I Am Awake" advisory, followed by some mobile turning, pacifier plugging, chenille blanket tucking and bottle preparing. More diaper change--not appreciated--and then afternoon tea. A minute-long phone message left for Mamá who is on the bus home from school. Message says, in effect: "this bottle of formula--my third of the day--is being devoured in steady gulps." A Burp. Lap sittage. And then the waiting. And then the arrival. 4:20--Mamá is home, hands are washed, hugs are given, and kisses, too. Another family portrait.
Emilio is wearing a long-sleeve trains top, given to him by DeMaris, a colleague of Mari's. He is not wearing pants.
This afternoon, Emilio enjoyed hearing the cheers of FC Barcelona's fans as his abuelo's favorite team won the 2006 UEFA Champions League--the Super Bowl of Soccer. I turned on the game at halftime (the game was broadcast live from Paris), only to find Barca down 0-1. When Eto scored a goal in the 76th minute, I called Madrid to let Jaime know he had the support of Chicago. We talked briefly--I didn't want to draw him away from the game--and then, while I was on the phone with Emilio's abuela , Belletti scored the goal that gave Barca the lead with less than 10 minutes to play. I was both thrilled to be able to hear Jaime's impassioned "GOOOOOOOOOL!" call, and also relieved that the goal had not been scored when he was answering the phone (I'm not sure if he can see the TV screen from where the phone is).
For those of you who don't know, when I lived in Madrid in the early nineties, Jaime used to set his alarm for 2 or 3 in the morning so that he could get up and watch the Cowboy Super Bowls live with me on Canal Plus (I didn't have a subscription to this channel at my house). The evidence is now almost irrefutable: there is power in numbers, folks. And that means, with Emilio now on our side, the future is bright in Dallas and Barcelona!
Emilio celebrated his first Mother’s Day by taking an afternoon nap with his mamá, letting me trace his hand print on a Mother’s Day card, joining his mother and me on a flower inspection tour of the barrio (see photo at left), and accompanying us to Sweet Occasions—home of one of our barrio's most successful "cream" pushers (they hooked me up with some premium butter pecan; Mari opted for Zanzibar chocolate and lemon ice). My contribution to the day included lunch preparation (BLTs), dish washeration, and gift presentation: a hammer-and-sickle tee, a book about education by pedagogical provacateur Alfie Kohn, and two wallet-sized photos of e.r.b. , thereby honoring the radical, intellectual, and sentimental facets of la mamá de Emilio.During our stroll, we enjoyed getting a chance to talk to my mom and were pleased to hear that the card (featuring Emilio’s outlined hand) and gift (a framed 8”x10” photo of two smiling Chicago Benton-men) we sent her had arrived in timely fashion. 
It was good to hear that her day was going well, that the Olivia & Grandmother Show had been a big hit at the morning service at University Christian, that Mom was able to maintain her cool even though Olivia had beaten her at Uno at least half a dozen times over the course of the weekend, that Schlotzsky’s sandwiches and Lisa’s homemade buttermilk pie and Melissa’s famous dip had been savored, and that Lisa’s home-made collage card and the Anne LaMott books she gave her as well as the new clothes she got from Brian and Lyndsae were sincerely appreciated (sorry if I’ve forgotten other crucial details of our conversation and the gifts that Mom was given!).It was, in short, a day of peace for my mother and for the mother of my son and for that I am oh, so thankful.
Emilio has not yet developed a Linus-like attachment to the two chenille blankets in his bountiful blanket collection, but he has grown accustomed to having either or both of them near when he and Morpheus get together. The blue one is at his feet in the photo below; the other is the green, pink and white mixture that is covering him. Emilio often nuzzles his face into one or the other, and sometimes uses one to completely cover his head--to block out all the light, I imagine. It's nice to have something to do to initiate a going-to-sleep routine, and bringing him one of these blankets has become one of those rituals.
We are expecting the Mother's Day package we sent via UPS to arrive in Texas today. It was supposed to be accompanied by a card, but though we took it to the OoPS store with us, we forget to include it with the package (oops, indeed), so it will be arriving later--hopefully before Sunday, but we can't be sure. I was, no doubt, distracted by the enthusiasm Helen and Mighisti, the Eritrean UPS employees, showed for the photos of Emilio I showed them. Mighisti is expecting her first child at the end of June.
Anyway, if you read this before the package comes, Mom, you can either wait for the card (which may come Saturday?) or not, but don't wait past Sunday to open the package!.
Eritrea, incidentally, established its independence from Ethiopia on May 23, 1993, after several decades of civil war. According to wikipedia, "the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) is occupying a 25 km by 900 km area on the border to help stabilize the region."
Our good friend Hillel Crandus--the first friend Mari and I made in Chicago, way back in the summer of 1998--came to the house today to celebrate Emilio's sixth-month birthday. It is almost as hard to believe that Emilio is already half-a-year old as it is to believe that we haven't seen Hill in almost a year (records show that we last saw Hill when we went to see Happy Endings with him and Nava on July 20th, 2005). In anticipation of Hillel's visit, I brought home a smorgasbord of munchies from the Middle Eastern bakery (hummus, spicy hummus, mini-pitas, falafel, baklava, sesame cookies, spinach pies, etc.) and as we enjoyed these dishes, Emilio, got his first taste of cauliflower and broccoli (he gave them a thumbs up). 
After dinner, Emilio retired to Hill's lap for some after-dinner relaxation. The two of them seemed very comfortable with the configuration and I wondered if Emilio found something familiar about the beard, the glasses and the little round glasses of the lap-provider. Over the course of the evening, Hill told us about the new house (built in 1945, actually) he and Nava just bought , their July moving plans , his supportive department supervisor, David Halberstam's biography of Michael Jordan (he liked it), an assignment he gave his students requiring them to read and write about the work produced by a N. Y. Times editorialist over a series of weeks, his ten-day-old niece, his fifteen-mile-a-week running routine, the financial difficulties of his minyan, Nava's master's degree program at Northwestern, and his dad's work for the Golden Apple foundation. And I, of course, got on my why-don't-you-start-a-blog soapbox, promising that I would be a loyal, enthusiastic reader. Whether or not the Hill Blog happens, I hope we'll both do a better job of staying in touch in the future. It was great catching up.
It's always fun to hang out with Emilio and Mari on weekend mornings and holidays when the three of us can play in the bed together. As many of you know, I'm a slow starter in the mornings, but I enjoy waking up to smiles like these.
After I gave Emilio his second breakfast bottle this morning, he checked out internet news sites with me for a while. Eventually, though, he wearied of this and drifted off (see photo at right). When he woke up, Mari and I took him a neighborhood walk, hoping that the breeze under shady trees would cool us off (it didn't much). Later, though, when I got home from the "office," we went on a second walk and this time it was a lot cooler out (it rained some). Before coming home, we paid a visit to Sweet Occasions (a neighborhood dispenser of dairy products that we had never, ever visited before today) and then some of us watched a fine episode of our favorite BBC crime drama, Foyle's War, while others of us played on a blanket on the floor.
