On the Move

Starring the kid. Also featuring a handsome Dr. Spanglestien in two cameo appearances. Critic Martin Riker says this film comes closest to "capturing the spirit of Elijah Beck."

Being Elijah

He crawls. Real crawling on his hands and knees. He's speedy. It's cute. If he misses us he will just come and find us now. Even in the bathroom. You can tell he's really pleased with himself when he finds us. He also really likes books. His favorite thing to do, maybe his favorite, besides ripping paper, is to sit in front of a bookshelf and pull off all the books he can reach. In terms of my poetry shelves, he seems to favor Eleni Sikelianos, but he has also taken a recent liking to the works of Chelsea Minnis and Bin Ramke and Laynie Browne. He's obviously really into contemporary poetry . . . so far no noticeable interest in classics. He also has four teeth now. He seems more into solid food all of a sudden. Especially if it's orange. Sometimes he bugs out in his highchair while M and I are eating so now I just put a spoonful of food (and the spoon, highly coveted by him) on his tray and let him go nuts. He loves it. He slowly sticks his fingers in it and giggles. Then he mushes it around in his hands, etc. I think it's just part of getting to know and love food. Yeah? Another hilarious thing he's into . . . tiny bits of paper or leaves. If he finds any little bit on the floor he slowly tries to pick it up (pincer grasp is pretty good) and pushes it around and laughs. Overall, he laughs A LOT. And he talks NONSTOP. Seriously. I don't notice him mimicking our speech, which seems a little weird to me, but he's certainly chatty. And there do seem to be some words he clearly understands, primarily: up, kitty, standing up, dada, mama's feet. Also, if you say the word baby or the word bunny nice and slow, he'll laugh and laugh. He's a funny morsel.

Here is a little video of him from earlier this week. Just being Elijah. Seriously, that's all.

Halloween

bored

Voila!

Dorothy goes live . . .

Pomo 'rents

How do you know you're a postmodern parent? It's when you ignore your crying baby cause you're too busy looking at cute picture of him on your computer. But, seriously, they're really cute.

Prince Macho-belly Turns Seven Months!

This guy laughs ALL the time. Seriously. It was one thing to laugh when we were working for it (goofy faces, peekaboo, etc.), but he's started laughing all on his own recently. Developing his funny bone, I guess. Like . . . we were at the Rikers' in PA and his Grandpa Riker brought up some blocks from the basement (toy storage, not creepy with spiders) and I made a little stack of them and HAR HAR Elijah though that was hilarious. But if you thought a stack of blocks was funny HOLY MOLY when the stack falls down it is so tooooootally HILARIOUS. And Grandma Riker gave us some toys to play with in the bath. So there we are taking a bath, me and E, and I pick up one of the toys, a yellow bunny, and I says YELLOW BUNNY, and Elijah LOSES it. Everytime I say YELLOW BUNNY he goes NUTS. This lasted for over twenty four hours. The next night before dinner we all tormented him by saying YELLOW BUNNY over and over until he turned purple. He also laughs in his sleep (like his mom).

Here's his majesty for you, enthroned:

He's mighty stinky since we started feeding him solid foods. Tootastic. He loves prunes and avocado and sweet potato. I still really like red wine and cheese. Marty loves lasagna. Spangley loves his stinky Friskies.

Here's a new month's-worth of pics. Incidentally, Elijah laughed his little tush off as we looked at these on the computer, in between screeches at the cat.

virginia woolf, talking!

here

Grandma!

Thanks for the memories . . .







 

Half Birthdays

Happy Half Birthday to M and to E! 

Here are pics of the previous month . . . including the tree that fell in our yard, swimming with Katrin and Anton, William and Cristy's wedding, and Elijah's first solid foods (brown rice cereal and applesauce).

Some September Stuff

Who said it could be September already?

Okay, so, brace yourselves: Elijah has tooth. We have tooth, people. Tooth pics soon. Har har. Hee hee.

I have newish writing online here.

Also, I went in for the ear test thing and it didn't make me dizzy. So, apparently, I might just be crazy after all. Marty says ditzy, not dizzy. I'm pretty sure the ENT doctor was flirting with me. 

Sitting

Last week Elijah sat by himself in his room for several sweet minutes.

Then he faceplanted into the rug and cried and cried. His first real cry of independence (sometimes it sucks to be free). If you click to enlarge you can see his wittle teaws of pain.

Lately

Lately, I haven't really been writing on this blog so much as posting moving/still images of young master E. But here's what's what:

Went to the doc and I am officially dizzy. Medically dizzy. Not crazy. I repeat. Not crazy.

Elijah got his first cold. Then Marty and I got Elijah's first cold. We are collectively pathetic at the moment.

Elijah stopped being a good sleeper about two weeks ago. Wakes constantly during the night. Suckles/eats every hour or two. Every. Hour. Or. Two. Seriously. Seriously! About every other night he'll wake at 1 or 3 or so and think it is morning and cry and want to play. It is cute but also not very cute. I think I've slept about 4 or so hours a night (never more than an hour at once) every night for the past two weeks. Still, I am medically dizzy. Not crazy!

There are butterflies all over town. Big monarchy ones. Little pale lavender ones. White ones. Big black and blue ones. Even on Elijah's little swing.

I am still knitting a scarf for Marty (which he was supposed to have last winter), but I have my eye on two new projects.

A tree fell in our backyard two weeks ago. It is still there. Birds are building nests.

I'm getting close to finishing my third book. I think. Parts one and three seem good. Part two still wonky.

I started a press, with help from M. It is called Dorothy. I already got back contracts from my first writer, whose book will come out in Fall 2010. More on this to come . . .

Naropa starts next week. Holy shit! That means: Elijah, Dalkey, Dorothy, Naropa class, third book, knitting, dizzy, etc.

Elijah went swimming for the first time, with his pal Anton.

We were going to start Elijah on solid foods this past weekend, but with the cold we decided to wait. Maybe next weekend. In the meantime, he's been drinking water from his sippy cup. He LOVES it. He actually sort of freaks out when he sees the cup and he holds it with both hands super tight and does pretty well getting the water out. His eyes get all big. He is amazed by it.

Also, Elijah had his first real babysitter. Well, his first babysitter that wasn't a grandma maternal or paternal. This babysitter was my friend Sarah.



And whilst Elijah was in Sarah's capable hands, Marty and Danielle went to the cute, eclectic, slightly weird wedding of Cristy and William.

Hey Sailor

On the Couch

For you.

The Whole Ugly Family

After the rousing success of our first movie venture, we bring you: Flipping Out.

And: Someone Save Me from this Horrifying Giraffe.

Amazing

A few announcements:

Elijah has rolled. Front to back and back to front. That's right. He did it. The amount to which this developmental, uh, development has become the high point of my week is a little pathetic, actually. Here's a picture of him after the big one (front to back, which had been troubling him for a while). He likes to wear his bib at a jaunty angle, as you can see.

He also said "Hi" yesterday. Marty came home from work and said "Hi" and Elijah said "Hi." But this morning we're pretty sure he said Hindenburg, so . . .

Here he is with the frog Unkee Gred sent. Shucks they're cute.



I think I also have a life outside of babydom, but I can't be sure. More on that soon.

xo-D

Elijah the Barbarian Live

At about three months, Elijah first developed a taste for butterflies.

A day in July

Went to Elijah's four-month check up last week. All is in working order! He is super vocal and coos and gurgles and rolls his Rs and babbles away. He also screeches. And sometimes he just yells. He giggles a lot. We tickle him and he giggles. It's a thing we do. Other things that crack him up: saying "Scoo-doo-doo" to him; telling him "You are the poo maker and I am the poo remover," his Mom's new haircut, blowing hot air on his belly and/or grabbing his little fingers in your mouth. At the appt he was 16 lbs 9 oz and 26 inches - which was the 83rd percentile in height and 79th in weight. He got shots again. I always leave the room like a weenie, but Marty stays (of course). He didn't cry for the first one and then after the second he was like "WTF!?!?!" Right now I'm typing at the dining room table and he is screeching and wiggling in his swing (an embarrassing monstrosity that he loves, most of the time). He's also drooling. He drools a lot. It's gray and muggy here. Knit night tonight (I'm working on a scarf that will probably take three years at this rate). Some random pics for you (click to enlarge: Elijah with pals Anton and Miles; Elijah the Barbarian eating two butterflies and one giraffe at the same time!; Elijah the bath-taking Arab). Love, D

See mom, no hair