11 November 2008
today i bought myself some new books to read to miles. he would be happy if i read him the same book twelve times every night but i get a little tired of reading the same thing. tonight he was squirrelling about while i read him sylvester and the magic pebble. he has a hard time holding still for wordier books and i just let him play while i read. i know he listens because after i’ve read one of the longer books a couple times, he specifically requests them and becomes more interested in looking at the pictures.
tonight he built me a pile of poker chip “money” while i read skippyjon jones. my chihuahua accent was really amazing. i wish i’d had a more receptive audience. the next book was shorter so i had him come sit next to me and focus a little bit. i opened the book and read the first line, “is your mama a llama?” as i was turning the page miles said, “my momma eh-kah.” shocked, i said, “yeah, momma’s name is erica!” then he said, “daddy is ay-yon and miles is miles.”
10 November 2008
You ever have one of those days when you just wish you could get a witness? That’s what we had yesterday afternoon at the Camas High School gymnasium. Granted, there were four of us so you’d think we could vouch for each other but Aaron and I kind of cancel each other out since we share crazy, Miles is just as likely to say “yes” as he is to say “no” and you can change the likelihood based on the order and frequency of questions you ask and Oz, well, seriously.
So you’re just gonna have to take my word for it when I tell you - COMPETITIVE INDOOR KITE FLYING IS THE BOMB. Yup. Who had any idea in the world that you could fly kites in a windless environment? Like the gym of a high school with a sign posted saying - No Livestock On Campus. But, really, how much would you have bet on a big fat no if someone told you that they could round up a handful of TEENAGE BOYS to COMPETE in CHOREOGRAPHED indoor kite flying??!?!?? To MUSIC?!
Overheard:
14 year old boy from Bend, Ore. to 15 year old boy boy from Lincoln City - both in jeans and black T-shirts:
“What music are you flying today?” “I don’t know, man, it’s a slow one.”
AND IT WAS! IT WAS SLOW and pretty and very dramatic and that kid made his kite freakin’ dance to the music. Which is good because 60% of their score is the ability to interpret the music with the kite flying. Lowlight on that front - the 10 year old chubster from a long line of kite-fliers who made his flying debut with a butterfly kite on a stick and waved it around to “Imagine” - but not after an iPod malfunctiony false start during which he dropped his kite on the floor, twice, and wandered over to check out the action in the “sound booth” (table in the corner of the gym). Nonplussed (like Sarah Silverman I’m pretty sure I’m using that world incorrectly).
Ok, but, see, this is why I NEED A WITNESS! Because here’s the wackadoodliest part - there was some incredibly awesome indoor kite-flying. And we couldn’t even stay for the “exhibition fliers” (there were two) so who knows what the cream of the kites looks like. Or what kind of music they were flying. My favorite was this 14 year old kid from British Columbia who was totally hip and adorable and flew a dual-kite routine to that OneRepublic song “Apologize” which I fell in love with via SYTYCD…and I CRIED. At the kite-flying. It was incredibly beautiful and inspired. He and another kid had these big kits with four lines that they could swoop up over their heads or make them go totally flat and SNAP them back really loud and it was so amazing.
Oz was enthralled. There was this, um, seasoned man (pretty creaky) in brightly colored plaid pants, striped shirt and big clowny hat who I guess is a kite-building pioneer and he flew this super shiny mylar kite he made to this sort of whimsical circus music and it was truly beautiful. It was a little dance…and reminded me of my great-grandpa glibert who was a great, graceful dancer. Oz was so taken by the shiny kite gliding around and then snapping up - he didn’t make a peep and just bounced his head in time to the music.
Miles had a different fun time that had more to do with climbing bleachers and eating stray candy he found (it was still in the wrapper - but I’ll probably still make somebody’s bad mother list for that one).
We ended up leaving because Miles was getting more and more squirrelly and the kite flying was getting more and more impressive so I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s chances of a big win with my loony toddler. Oh, because (I forgot to mention) you can’t open the doors during flying ’cause it creates draft and makes the kites all wonky. And we were the only non-fliers in the audience of about 25 people as far as I could tell so we wanted to escape before we created too much of a distraction.
Anyway, I’m serious. If you see a flier on a Burgerville door when you just went for Sweet Potato Fries and it says there’s an indoor kite flying contest in a high school gymnasium with $2 admission on that very day - GO! You won’t be disappointed.
6 November 2008
Both times I’ve blogged from my phone I’ve been at the courthouse. First time was miles’ adoption day. This time I have jury duty. So far no action.
3 November 2008
it was a dark day for foreheads in our home this weekend. ozzie smacked his head on something and got a big bruise. then he hit my tooth with his forehead. one hour later miles heaved a matchbox car and my forehead interfered with its trajectory. there was blood. miles observantly stated that my head was broken. i gently informed him that it was all his fault. he agreed.
aside from the injuries, it was a great weekend. for milesfest we took our second annual scenic drive to our second annual celebratory pancake breakfast at the zigzag inn. the genesis of the zigzag inn pancake breakfast is that it’s on the way to bend, or which is where we spent the weekend before we got miles. it’s also a cute, rustic little restaurant and it’s a beautiful late fall drive.
after the pancakes, we found a great day use park a few minutes down the road and took a little walk along the zigzag river. i asked miles if he wanted to go throw rocks into the river. he grabbed a long thin stick and told me that he was going to go fishing. after fishing for a while he told me that he had caught a nemo and a dory for me. his little imagination has really kicked in recently. i see lots of really ridiculous games in my future.
after our milesfest nap, we went to big park which miles has been dying to do all week. it was sort of a rainy day so there weren’t many kids at the park but there were a few girls running around. miles really cheesed them off by growling at them. hopefully it won’t be too much longer before he realizes that he can just say hi. hopefully he’s not a lifelong pigtail puller.
27 October 2008
this afternoon britta came over and got the boys to look at the camera and pushed the button for our holiday card picture. this is our eighth christmas together and every year we have big plans for sending out a holiday card. this is the first time we’ve gotten as far as taking a picture. actually this is our second attempt at taking pictures, so double points for persistence.
miles was working on his second meltdown in as many hours. after refusing to smile unless he was giving me fish lips by squeezing my cheeks together, we finally resorted to bribing him with a drink of diet coke. ozzie seems pretty interested in that action. i’m sure he picked up some great pointers on playing hard-to-get.
miles wanted to take some pictures too. he’s responsible for the three cute pictures of erica and oz. he’s also responsible for a few pictures of a plastic dinosaur and one of the ceiling. i didn’t put those on flickr.
i already ordered the cards so we’re off to a promising start. but if you don’t get a card from us don’t be offended. it probably just means that they’re sitting in their box on top of the stack of thank you cards for miles’ adoption party. yes, we’re embarrassed. at least there’s that.
27 October 2008
our sweet little miles is such an amazing big brother. if he took a skills evaluation test, it would show that he should be a professional big brother. i was so prepared for miles to have a serious case of attention-envy once oz arrived. not only has he not resented oz at all ever even for a second, he has been so nurturing and sweet.
he loves trying to entertain oz which usually means getting close to him and doing a really loud fake laugh. it doesn’t always work, but last night they were in the bathtub and miles had oz laughing harder than i’ve ever heard him laugh. everytime miles would do more fake laughing it would set ozzie off again and we’d all be rolling on the floor.
this morning i opened the door to ozzie’s room to get the bottle of tylenol because miles claimed he had a headache and needed some pink. i found ozzie laying in bed awake looking at the ceiling. somehow that reminded me that both boys needed diapers at school so i went to take care of that before the thought flew out of my ear.
when i came back to ozzie’s room i found miles feeding oz little bits of waffle. “daddy, i feeding oddie my bopple!” then he helped me pick out clothes for ozzie to wear.
in the car he is always giving us status updates on ozzie. it’s like having facebook in the backseat. “oddie sleeping!” “oddie wake!” “oddie need binkie!” “oddie crying!!” the best one was when ozzie wouldn’t stop crying and miles said, “oddie, no barking!”
miles really doesn’t like it when ozzie falls asleep in the car. after he alerts us that ozzie is asleep he yells, “oddie, wake up! bock-a-doo-doo!!”
in the morning when i take them to daycare miles always tells me if he wants to go straight to his class or to ozzie’s class. lately it’s been ozzie’s class every day. now that he can open doors by himself, i’ve trained him to walk into the baby room and say, “oddie’s here everybody!” then he likes me to let him put ozzie’s bottles in the refrigerator and then we give oz a kiss on the head and go to miles’ class.
i just love how engaged miles is with his brother. they are both so interested in each other and really enjoy playing with each other (or watching each other play). i can’t wait for them to be able to talk to each other and make up their own games and drive each other crazy.
23 October 2008
miles is super into the phone these days. he’s taking to checking in with his grandparents by phone every morning. one morning he had even dialed by himself and i found him on the couch leaving a message for grandma sue. the little goofball is better at talking on the phone than i am. goodbye rollover minutes.
before i left for india i had gotten to the point where i could understand pretty much everything he said because his vocabulary was limited and fairly static. now that he’s had the proverbial word explosion, his vocabulary is so large that i’m only able to understand about half of what he says. the half i can understand is absolutely hilarious.
miles has moved up to the next classroom at daycare, and in this class everyday they post an easel sized sheet of paper outside the classroom. it has a question and then the responses of all the kids. i’m going to try to start posting miles responses everyday because they totally crack my jack.
here’s a little bit of backlog to get you warmed up:
question: what do you include when setting the table?
miles: chair
question: what was our flannelboard story about today? (i had to look at the other kids’ responses to see that it was something about policemen)
miles: poppa
question: how do you help make biscuits?
miles: i open!!
(funniest response of the day goes to the kid who said, “apple!!”)
19 October 2008
it’s been so great to be back home with the boys. when i left i had resigned myself to missing a bunch of changes in oz, including him starting to crawl. honestly, i thought miles would be mostly the same.
surprisingly, it was exactly the opposite. oz somehow managed not to start crawling. he’s certainly very close, moving from a seated position to his hands and knees by tucking in one leg and leg and then leaning over it. he’s got all the moves, he’s just not motivated enough to get mobile. he’s always been pretty content to sit in one spot and play with what he can reach (unlike miles who was always mr. grass is greener two feet beyond my reach).
i haven’t ever been all about being in the room for the first time each of our kids does every little thing. i’m sure it’s a byproduct of missing the first 6 months of miles. you quickly realize that to a certain extent, what you miss is far less important than how you’re there for the things you’re there for. even still, i was struggling so much with the thought of missing oz learning to crawl.
when i had less than a week left on my trip and erica said she didn’t think oz was getting close, i was so excited. i hadn’t even dared hope that he would wait but he did and i’m so thrilled to get to watch him figure this out.
the crawling aside, oz is definitely looking like an older baby. he actually thinned out a bit, his bottom two teeth are all the way in and so so funny. and he grew some hair!! i couldn’t believe how much hair he has! i mean, it’s still not very much, but he was such a little cue ball when i left.
his muscle control has improved significantly. he seems to be better able to control all the little movements required to control the larger movements of his body. he can pick up bits of food off of a table and actually get them in his mouth. not nearly fast enough to keep him satisfied, but he is physically capable of it.
miles, though! i cannot believe how much that kid has changed in four weeks. his verbal skills have taken a huge jump since i left. his thought processes have become so much more self-driven. he asks clarifying questions. he asks questions about one subject with respect to another subject he knows something about. he remembers previous conversations, and his inflection has developed so much and is so funny. the kid is a ham to the maximum degree but so far has shown an uncanny knack for knowing when a bit has been played out. for a two-year old anyway.
i absolutely cannot believe the volume and strength of love i feel for my family. i always knew that the love a parent feels for a child is unique and unimaginable unless experienced, but i am repeatedly shocked at this love’s ability to continually expand. i can’t believe that i’m lucky enough to be miles’ only dad.
i’m not expressing this very well, but because of how we went about having kids, i felt like our kid could be anyone. there are so many adoptable children and there were so many spoken and unspoken choices that went into how we ended up with each of them. it’s not like we picked them out of a catalog, but we certainly had an element of control in the process. on the other hand, as a kid, you just end up with one guy who, no matter what, is your dad. whether he’s gone, whether he’s there and then he leaves, anyone else who steps in later is just a replacement.
miles is old enough that i can see that i’m his guy. he asked about me while i was gone, in spite of all the fun he was having with erica and her parents and rachel and mike. he remembered me, missed me, wanted to know when i was coming back, and even apparently talked about my cooking. i just feel so lucky to be that guy to him, to be the guy who gets that much of his love. he’s such a cool kid. i don’t know what his future will hold but i will always try to be a dad who justifies the idolatry of a two year-old. it’s certainly an impossible ideal, but i believe in aiming high.
17 October 2008
finally got back home. i almost missed my connecting flight in frankfurt. my flight landed 15 minutes after boarding started for my next flight. i had to run through the airport and switch terminals and then i was almost to the gate. and then there was security. ordinarily i wouldn’t dream of trying to find a way to jump to the front of the line, but i happened to know that there is only one direct flight to portland from frankfurt every day and i would rather have fallen down dead on the spot than miss that flight.
i jumped out of line and showed the line monitor my boarding pass and asked if she could help me out. amazingly, she let me go ahead. i cruised through security, but my camera bag did not. i stood there, already sleep deprived, while they scanned my camera bag again. and again. and again. i asked them if they would call the gate for me and let them know i was coming. no one would do anything. i was seriously just about to lose my mind when one of the guys looked at my boarding pass and told me that i had 45 minutes more than i thought i did. then he told me that they thought one of my lenses was a grenade. they finally assured themselves that the lens was just a lens and i made it to the plane just fine.
now i’m home with oz. he’s had a fever and hasn’t been sleeping well. i finally gave him a little extra tylenol and he cooled down. now he’s been sleeping for two hours. it’s so good to be home.
14 October 2008
please notice my stony (yet youthful) look. and walter’s day-glo swatch watch (it’s swiss!!).
