Counting Down

Last night after my wife came home, we were sitting in the living room with the Boy and his Sesame Street coloring book. It basically has all the major characters with an emphasis on Elmo (Don't get me started on Elmo since that's for another time). At the moment the Boy can say "Ehwo" (Elmo), "Ocker" (Oscar), "Growrow" (Grover), and "CooCoo" (Cookie Monster). He'll easily point them out to you in a book or when the show is on, but we heard a new one yesterday that made us laugh.

The Boy has always been very interested in The Count and although he will only say the numbers 1, 8, and 9, he tries to count along as best he can. So, when my wife pointed to a picture of The Count yesterday, the Boy said what I thought was "Haha!" which is pretty cute by itself, but we soon realized that he was saying something different. If you remember anything about The Count, it's usually his monicle or his bat like features, but his trademark is a very particular laugh followed by loud thunder and lightning. Well, every time you show the Boy a picture of The Count, you get a huge smile and a hearty "Ah Ah Ah!"

Yes, these are the little things that make other people with kids go "Awww!" and people without kids say "Jeeez!" I used to be one of the latter, but now I find such things as cute as buttons. :)

Long Time Gone

I know I seem to write this same entry every few months and I'm sure it's getting boring, but there has been some really heavy crap going on lately that really makes blogging seem very unimportant. I'm not saying that it is since I find posting to be cathartic, but it has seemed that way. It's nothing I really want to write about at the present time, though perhaps I will after some time has passed.

That class I was teaching this past semester finally ended about a week ago and I'm glad it's over. My crop this year was less than stellar to say the very least. That's not to say that I didn't have ANY good ones, but they were much more scarce than last year. It's good for the resume (the pay sucks) and I like doing the planning, so I'll still do it if they'll have me next year. I'm actually hoping to teach some different courses this Fall or next Spring. We'll see.

The boy is as healthy and spry as ever as he nears his second birthday. I'll get the pictures we've been taking up soon for folks to see, but suffice it to say he's developing as he should. He has this thing where he likes to introduce my wife and I to everyone we meet as if they couldn't tell. He points to my wife and says, "Mama", then to me, "Dada", and ends with a big grin. People eat that up, especially in the checkout at the grocery store. He's definitely a boy now as opposed to a baby, but it's just another step along his journey. I don't bemoan the passing of one stage and just look forward to the next with anticipation.

The thing I most want to accomplish in the near future is to explore what it means to say I'm a Buddhist. As I type this I think I said the same thing in my last post, so excuse the repeat if that's the case. I've been reading a book my mother got me last year called "There's Nothing Wrong With You" by Cheri Huber, who is a Zen Buddhist, and it's not your typical book. However, it is very Zen in turning the responsibility for our lives back onto ourselves, but at the same time realizing our oneness with all that surrounds us. Next I want to start reading a book a friend gave me as a gift last year that I began reading but never finished. I had been planning to start reading that book again, but with the aforementioned "crap" the Huber book was much more applicable. I also have to start seeking out other Buddhists to really learn what it's all about.

So, that's it for now. Hopefully my next post (or more importantly the two or three posts after that) won't be another one of these redundant recaps! Breaking from the cycle? That would be cool!

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.