whatsitallabout

The Joy of Repetition

Eli had a swell meltdown today as we were wrapping up a visit to the zoo. I estimate that he said, "I wanna hit daddy!" somewhere between 120 and 225 times (12-15 minutes X 10-15 times a minute). Now THAT'S some joy for ya, right there.

Grace, on the other hand, has a tendency to chat away with me, or at me, preceding every comment or question with "Daddy." Or "Daddy!" Or "Daddy..." Over. And over. And over again. This happens particularly when I'm busy getting dinner together, sending an email, etc. and can go on for 25, 30 minutes straight, so that means hearing "Daddy" anywhere from 100 to 200 times in a very brief period. Still more joy, but I must admit that I find the persistence/consistency amazing.

Update: Forgot to mention that, while we were at the zoo playground and Elijah was beginning to melt down, I was crouching to, um, help Elijah, um, work out his feelings. There happened to be another kid next to him, and Elijah said in a nice loud, clear voice, "I want to throw wood chips in his eye." There was a mom next to us (though not the boy's mom, I believe), and I looked up and smiled a "how-about-this-little-kid-huh?" smile. She smiled back, but seemed a bit disconcerted by the whole thing.

Photos

Check'em out. Random, from the past couple months.

Yup. I do.

Just got back from getting Eli a haircut, which is still a pretty stressful experience for all involved. He has settled down, however, and is sitting in the living room. Grace just walked by him and said, "You look handsome, Elijah." "Yup. I do," he replied.

Erykah Badu? Or Jill Scott?

Elijah has a pretty remarkable ear for music. I'm pretty much constantly playing a game of "Who is this on the stereo/radio/ipod?" with him and Grace as we go about our day. His ear is sometimes most impressive when he mis-guesses, as he did twice at dinner tonight. He guessed "Donovan" for Belle & Sebastian, and "Rickie Lee Jones" for Sheryl Crow. Listen yourself sometime, and see if you don't hear the similarities in voice, production, etc. I can't help but get an incredible kick out of it.

Yelling

It's a sorry state of affairs, and a cruel indication of how often I'm yelling at Elijah and Grace, when I take pride and comfort in the fact that I DON'T yell at them for coughing when they're sick.

Escalation of Hostilities

Elijah is expressing his frustrations in increasingly exciting and charming ways.

The latest round of development began when he would simply say, "I hit," as he raised his hand to me. I was pleased that he would simply say it, and not actually hit. I was also a little surprised at how simple the expression was,  because  his sentences are usually more  than two words.

As if in response to this thought, the expression morphed into "I hit you," or "I hit Daddy." Within a week of that, my son was saying, "I want to hit you," then "I want to hit you in the face," and, now, for the ultimate in clarity, "I want to hit you right in the face,"  with impeccable enunciation and absolutely no ambiguity. You can be very certain that  THAT gets a few looks and raised eyebrows in the grocery store.

Oh... and he is accompanying that with occasional actual hitting, too. Destined for greatness.

Grace, Elijah, and Music

This is an edited copy of an email I sent to Greg Morris three weeks ago (scroll down if you follow the link. It's actually a very nice picture of Greg, but he needs to update the info, as he is now a certified Actor, too).  I've been meaning to put a copy of this email, or something like it, up for, well, three weeks. It feels out-of-date already. I'm trying hard to be happy that it is going up at all, as opposed to the fact that it's going up three weeks late, and two months after my last post.
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A million stories to pass on about Elijah, Grace, and music. Grace and Elijah listened to Neil Young for the first time (Saturday, I think)- After the Gold Rush (who believes Nils Lofgren was just 17? Good Lord.). We listened to it two or three times. Today, as soon as the opening piano chords of  "Til the Morning Comes" started, Elijah asked, "Til the Morning Comes?"

 

They are also enjoying Exile on Main Street, particularly "Tumblin' Dice." That, too, was a recent introduction, after a steady diet of R&B and Soul. We listened to Exile in the car, and E&G requested it when we were inside. We were about to head out to the park, so I said, "Be sure to remind me to bring it in from the car when we get home from the park." Two hours later, Grace fell asleep in the stroller on our way home. When I parked the stroller at the foot of the stairs to carry Elijah and Grace up, Grace opened her eyes and, with heavy lids and a sleepy voice, said, "Bring in Rolling Stones from the car?"

Lots to say...

... not much energy to say it. Here are some photos of the two greatest kids around, taken some time around the end of May/beginning of June. Grace and Elijah turned 20 months old yesterday.

Florida Trip

Lots of fun, and Elijah made it through security without being frisked.

Feast Your Eyes on These Beauties!