Tragedy at Virginia Tech

I was just getting my son his lunch when I found out about the shootings at Virginia Tech. Details are still coming in and the authorities don't have all the facts, but right now at least 31 people are dead, many presumably students, in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. I also heard someone say that the anniversary of Columbine is just 4 days away and that type of viloence has now spread from K-12 to the area I have dedicated my studies to, colleges and university. There have been shootings on campuses before, most notably the students shot by National Guard troops at Kent State in the early 1970s, but there has never been anything like this on campus or off.

I was very affected by Columbine when it happened, but this one has hit me harder. I'm not exactly sure why, although I'm sure my connection to higher education has something to do with it. I had always theorized that high school shootings were due to the pressures and lack of self determination felt by the shooters, thinking that such wouldn't be the case at a university. However, now that I think about it I shouldn't be surprised. I should obviously reserve judgement until we find out what happened and it may have been a more targeted attack. I just can't imagine what the students are going through and as I heard them talking to various eyewitnesses there was an erie calm in their voices that was clearly the result of shock.

There will be a lot of analysis done in the days following this event and I suppose we'll find out more after that has been completed. However, I think that like Columbine we'll never really have all the answers. I just can't imagine why someone would go this far and kill so many people. It's just hard to comprehend right now.

Paper Placemats

There hasn't been much to post this last week since I've been cleaning the apartment. My parents were supposed to come this weekend to see us and the boy (ok, really just the boy), but the snow that cancelled baseball games last week is cancelling travel plans all over the northeast. Suffice it to say that cleaning up cat fur off the carpet doesn't make for very exciting blog posts, but if that kind of thing interests you, try one of these which work wonders on carpets!

Except for my inability to hit high notes and still sounding like a lifetime smoker, everyone in the household is healthy again and the boy is back to his old tricks. I was warned long ago that the real trouble starts when toddlers start exploring in the third dimension: furniture. We've created a reasonably effective buffer so he can't get into too much trouble, but I feel like I'm guarding a POW camp where the prisoners are always working on methods of escape. Today I went upstairs to visit the little daddy's room and when I returned I found him sitting in a chair "reading" an issue of Consumer Reports with a very suspicious look on his face. It gave me the image of someone quickly trying to look casual after doing something in secret. But he's not that smart yet...right?

I've always tried to keep a balance between teaching the boy new things and remembering to just play with him and have fun. However, he needs very little prodding from either myself or my wife since he loves books and will sit for extended periods pointing at the pages and talking a blue streak in his own little toddler-speak. He seems to be very fond of vowels, especially A, E, and O, sometimes I, but is not real fond of U and Y is something we just don't talk about. ;)Every time I take him outside our apartment he notices the letters on each door as we go down the stairs and says them out loud as we go. It's basically teaching him the alphabet song except in reverse since we live on the top floor.

So, fortunately I have another week before my parents show up and hopefully we can pawn the boy off on them at least one night so my wife and I can go somewhere without kids menus or paper placemats. Actually, I wouldn't mind having the placemats since it gives you something to do before your food comes, you can draw inside the lines for a change, and it helps you to remember that you don't have to clean up the table yourself. For non-parents, that might not sound like much of an evening, but it really is the little things, trust me.

Let's Play Ball...in the Snow?

If you know me well, you know I'm a rabid baseball fan and have been since I was a kid. Some wonder how I ended up a Boston Red Sox fan since I've lived in New York my entire life. Short version: My Dad was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who followed the Mets after the Dodgers left Brooklyn, married my mother when both were going to college in Connecticut, and was offered a ticket to Game 2 of the 1967 World Series at Fenway Park in Boston. Since then he's been a Red Sox fan and I have too. It's not always easy being in New York, but that got a bit easier in 2004 when the Sox won it all and made grown men from all over New England cry like babies.

As a fanatic, the beginning of April is a joyous time since the boys of summer start their work after a long cold winter. I'm used to seeing wide green fields of grass bathed in golden sunlight, but while the boy and I were watching today it was snowing instead. What? It's not exactly a new happening and it has been more common since Opening Day was moved from the third week in April to the first one. One time my Dad and I went to an April game at Fenway which was delayed for about an hour or two so they could shovel the outfield! I remember one of the outfielders slipped on the wet grass and broke his leg, so he ended up being out for the season. Fortunately, I haven't heard of that happening this year.

It's been fun for me watching games with the boy since he finds movement on the TV interesting but doesn't really have any idea what's taking place. His favorite moment is when they put the score up on the screen and he points to the letters and numbers. He also responds whenever they say "ball" which in his voice sounds more like "baaaah", but the best part is the huge tooth filled smile he gets on his face. After being sick for the last week he's really returned to his old self which is a wonderful thing to see. The kid is just so happy and steady, although he has been more likely to get frustrated when he needs something or simply wants something. I think he's just learning to ask for what he wants and isn't always sure how to do that. Some call this the beginning of the terrible twos, referring to themselves as the ones who have it "terrible", but it's really the kids that have it that way since there's so much they want to do but don't know how to do. That has to be very overwhelming for him at times, but he always seems to bounce back anew.

So, I'm looking forward to watching more games and hopefully taking the boy to one before long. He and I also play soccer with an undersized ball (small for me, just right for him) which my parents gave him last summer. Whether he hears me say ball or from the TV, he goes and grabs it so he can get me to kick it around with him. Eventually I'm sure we'll get him a glove and basebaaaah to go along with his soccer ball, but I think I'll wait until it stops snowing each spring before we go out and play catch.

Under the Weather

The apartment has been a bit of a clinic the last week or so with all three of us getting sick at various times. My wife had a cold which I got and am still getting over while the boy has a rotavirus and the cold at the same time. For most families this is pretty much par for the course and I'm not really complaining, but as a stay at home kid he's been sick very rarely. So, when he began vomiting up every meal last week we were understandably concerned. In some ways it's good for the boy to have some illness since it helps build immunity, but it's not like you'd take your kid to a mall and ask other people to sneeze on him!

After about a week of Pedialyte and Cheerios for most of his meals, he's getting back on track and my wife re-introduced some regular food last night at dinner. During the worst of it the boy was so listless which is so not like him and probably why we were alarmed by his symptoms. The kid is always happy! People regularly ask us, "Is he always like this or does he really like me?" I'm a "honesty is the best policy" type of person, but lately I've wondered if it might make them feel special if I said, "No, he must really like you!". Actually, I think it's both. He's happy by himself, he's happy with us, and he's happy with everyone he meets!

Well, I better go get the boy his lunch of ...you guessed it! I'm trying to shake my own cold and keep waking him up with my latest coughing fit. Hopefully we'll all be back to 100% by the end of the week so we can celebrate Easter and the coming of spring. It's about time!

Time Away

When I was logging in I noticed that it has been quite awhile since I posted: February 20th! Yikes! I knew it had been a few weeks, but I honestly didn't think it had been that long. I had this great plan to post more often and on more interesting topics and obviously that didn't work out like I expected. I want to post, but I think making these grand plans isn't really working.

Recently, I was reading through another blog and the owner was trying to decide whether or not he should split his blog into two different ones. His logic was that he had two very different threads of thoughts to explore and thought keeping two blogs might be easier. I may be remembering incorrectly, but I think he also said he had tried it once before and it hadn't been as successful as he'd hoped. I know I am getting those details a little off, so please don't quote me on that! Anyway, he asked the readers which way he should go and I voted to keep the blog one unified blog and wrote that it wasn't really necessary since I liked the different topics all rolled into one.

Now, I'm not making a particular comment on what he should do since it's his blog since I want him to do whatever strikes his fancy, but I'm beginning to think that we bloggers worry too much about organization, fancy names, focus points, etc. When I think about my own blog I wrestle with all these issues, but as a reader I love the hodgepodge, potpourri, whatever you call it makeup of blogs that take all kinds of twists and turns. So, what's the point? I think I've spent too much time thinking about what I'm going to write rather than actually writing! Or I post pointless stuff like this post!

Regardless, I'm going to go back to posting about things that occur to me, updates on the family (I have a few ready to go!), and all that fancy jazzy stuff. I'm back baby!

P.S. What happened to my profile picture!?!