Smiles

Anne is just about 3 months old now. Elijah often brings her toys and likes to suggest how I do things with her. This afternoon, I let him use my phone to take pictures of us. He was very excited to make her smile, made really silly faces and even poked her a few times. He would never admit it but Elijah is definitely warming up to the little girl.

It's a good idea

Elijah loves to tinker with things and see how they work. It seems that his little mind is constantly trying to make sense of the world. While driving in the car today, he randomly inquired about building construction. Why doesn't Victoria's (third floor) condo squish down Beth's (second floor) condo? Some of his most entertaining comments pertain to Anne. He's generally ambivalent about her but quietly marvels when she does something new. "She smiled and laughed at the same time." We visited the Nature Museum a few days ago and Elijah stopped in the entryway with a perplexed expression. "She can't come inside," he earnestly remarked. I informed him that this was not an option but nonetheless asked where he she might go instead. "You could leave her with the man that takes the coats?" he suggested. "It's a good idea, right?" I wish I could've captured the look on his face when he said it.

9 Weeks

It was unseasonably warm and sunny today. Little Miss Anne must be going through a growth spurt as she was resting peacefully in her crib for much of it. She woke up in wonderful spirits, nursed and promptly overflowed her teeny size one diaper. After giving her a quick bath in the sink, we took these photos and got ready for the park. Light was streaming into the living room, so I scooped up the changing pad and carried her over to the window. She seemed amused by the ride and appeared to delight in being photographed.

I'm generally not a fan of naked photos but she was being so sweet and I wanted to capture the moment. Anne wore denim overalls and a colorful, striped hoodie to the park. It was very breezy and her hair was blowing about. We chatted with the neighborhood families and she garnered many admiring smiles. When we returned from the home, the whole house was bathed in warm light. She slipped easily into her car seat and we drove up to Deerfield for a lovely dinner with the family. It was a most perfect day.

Big brother

A number of people have asked me how Elijah has been adjusting to our new addition.... the short answer is, beautifully. Will write more soon but thought I'd share this cute photo of him as a "ninja." He banged his head on a bookshelf and we used the belt of my bathrobe to attach an orphaned sock ice pack to his forehead!

Kisses

Elijah crawled into our bed earlier this week and kissed by belly. I assumed it was for the baby, but you never know. "Who was that kiss for?" I asked. "Your INTESTINES!" he replied.

Driving home

Elijah has quite a fascination with medicine. The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body is one of his favorite books, and he delights in examining us with his toy medical equipment. I offered to lend him my stethoscope but he seems to think the one in his veterinarian kit operates better. He knows about my work but I have made no special effort to encourage him in this regard. It's fascinating to watch his interests develop and I am amazed at the things he is able to grasp. The kid still confuses "breakfast" with "dinner" but he is able to have a rather sophisticated conversation about the circulatory system.

We were headed north on Clark this evening when Elijah noted "that lady has bad luck." When asked to clarify, he pointed out that there was a woman smoking cigarettes at the side of the road. He then explained that smoking "makes your lungs black." I noted that it can also cause lung cancer and he asked if doctors are able to cure it. We then embarked on a discussion about cancer treatment. It seems like every one of my answers was met with a new answer. Elijah is very curious about medications, how do they get to the cancer and how do they work? He also had some excellent questions about surgery, why doesn't all the blood come out? The idea that only some cancers can be cured was of particular interest and I suggested that he might be able to figure this out when he is a grown up. As we were pulling into the driveway, Elijah asked, "Mommy, where is heaven?" I told him I didn't know. He then explained that when he grows up he is going to get really strong binoculars so that he can find heaven. "Then I'm going to climb a big tree and swing on a rope to heaven." I wish I could remember exactly how he said the next part, but he essentially said he was going to find Grandma Anne in heaven and kill her cancer. "I don't think people can visit heaven without dying," I explained. "But you never know."

Underwear

Elijah has been wearing underwear for some time now, but I still can't resist how adorable he looks in them. There's a bit of me that wishes he'd just skip pants altogether. As most of our clothes are hand-me-downs (thank you Simons), I'm not intimately acquainted with all of Elijah's underclothes and didn't even remember that he had a Spider Man pair. He was digging furiously in his drawer for them this morning and was very excited to put them on. They are "boxer briefs" but Elijah called them "long-sleeved underwear."

Comprise

My mom was a writer and instilled within me an appreciation for language. When I was in elementary school, mom once made me a sticker chart with daily assignments. I only recall only one of the daily tasks, learn a new word. Now that I have my own little one, I love trying to weave new words into his vocabulary.

While discussing a recipe this evening, I said "comprise." Elijah asked what it meant and I decided to use our family as an example. "Our family is comprised of four people. Daddy, Mommy, Elephant and you," I said. Elijah quickly corrected me. "Six people," he said counting on his fingers. "Daddy, Mommy, Elephant, Blue Dog, Roscoe Village and Elijah," he announced with a smile.

Eighty-five cents

An Elijah story, courtesy of his proud father.

I took Elijah down to the laundry room last night to start some washers. As usual, he likes to help a little, but also likes to play around in the room. We then went upstairs to have dinner during the time the clothes were washing, after which we would switch clothes to the dryers. During dinner Elijah brought me coins to the dinner table and asked if they added up to 85 cents.
I counted them out and said, no its 45 cents and some pennies. So he brought me more coins.
Still not enough. He made a third trip and finally had enough quarters, nickels and dimes, so I showed him which ones added up to 85.

We later went down to the laundry room and on the way out I noticed he grabbed some coins off the table. As I was loading clothes into the dryers I hear coins going into some vending machine, thinking uh oh, Elijah is throwing random coins into the vending machine, and then… kerplop, some can gets dispensed out.

I go over to the vending machine to see Elijah with a huge smile on his face, completely delighted with a can of Sprite just dispensed from the vending machine.
As I look, somewhat confused and amazed at what he just did, I notice the vending machine says 85 cents, right above the coin slot.

At that point I finally understood why Elijah was asking for exactly 85 cents, which is exactly what he put in. I have to admit, I did not expect this plan of action from my 4 year old, but obviously he had it planned out all along… What a smart, if somewhat mischievous, little cookie!
My boy ;-)

Chilling

We are in the midst of a lazy holiday weekend and the slow pace suits us well. We made a conscious decision to stay in and have enjoyed some much needed family time.

Elijah just received a set of Matchbox cars and we have been racing them across the dining room floor. We used by childhood blocks to make seating for the spectators, and the Playmobile girl is our referee.

Nothing beats a quiet weekend home with my boys.

Cheerios

Elijah was sporting a Cheerio bracelet when I went to pick him up from school today. He was eager to make one for me, but a little girl knocked over his styrofoam bowl and the crunchy rounds went flying to the floor. After helping to scoop them up, I started chatting with his teacher Betsy. I saw Elijah puttering at the sink, but didn't think anything of it as he seems to delight in hand washing these days. When it was time to leave, I approached the sink and suppressed my urge to laugh. Elijah's bowl was full of water. The Cheerios were floating inside and he was happily popping them into his mouth. "Elijah! What are you doing?" I exclaimed. "We don't eat Cheerios off the floor." Bewildered, Elijah shrugged his shoulders and ate a few more. "But I just washed them," he replied.

Creatures

Any activity that takes Elijah away from his Legos is a hard sell these days. Given that my weekdays are primarily spent on a locked psychiatry unit, I find myself practically begging him to go to the park over the weekend. Last Saturday was no exception. It was a beautiful day and Elijah was intent on playing Legos in the livingroom. After hearing that Deborah was going to be at the park, he eventually agreed to go and of course had a wonderful time. On the way home, I asked if he had fun to which he replied, "Yes, but next time I want to stay home and play Legos."
I was thus shocked when he agreed to go to the pool on Sunday. Elijah has never shown interest in the water, he even avoids sprinklers. He wasn't exactly excited to swim, but seemed amenable hitting the playground and "cooling off" in the water. I quickly slathered him in sun screen and scooted him out of the house before he could change his mind. We had fun at the playground and Elijah reluctantly allowed me to carry him in the pool for a whole of of five minutes. Success!

After swimming, Elijah started chatting with a five year old girl at the pool. Within moments they were laughing and chasing each other about. Sweet and innocent until the girl approached her mom to get a pair of flip flops. "Probably needs it to squish something," said the mom. I soon realized that the girl was on a mission to find and squash insects. The mom was clearly unperturbed but I was horrified. I have attempted to instill in Elijah a respect for the natural world. We have made a point to choose books about animals, plants and science. When critters do make there way into the house, we most always capture and release them outside. Elijah has always taken a liking to insects and seeing his willingness to conspire with the girl was unsettling. Given the mom's indifference, chastising both children seemed inappropriate. A moment passed and Elijah ran over to say hello. I quietly told him that killing bugs was mean and unacceptable. Meanwhile, the little girl explained how she planning to "capture more bugs" inside a leaf so that she could kill them. The other mom said nothing and that was my cue to pack up our things. Upon leaving the pool, Elijah and I had a nice conversation about living creatures. When we were done, I asked him what he would do next time he saw kids killing bugs. He said he'd stop them but I suppose we will have to wait and see.

Tomato machine

If I had to describe Elijah in one word, imaginative would be a likely contender. Here is what we discussed at dinner last night.

The Mommy flamingo has a tomato machine.

Really, what does it do?

It picks them up when it's hard to pick them.

I see, where does it pick them from?

It picks them, from a... umm... Whole Foods!

Where does Whole Foods get the tomatoes?

Well, first the other flamingo has a tomato faraway machine.

But where do the tomatoes come from?

Michianna, they live in Michianna and they are moving on Wednesday.

But, Lili, where do tomatoes come from?

The basement, the basement makes tomatoes.

Ok, but I thought Doda has tomatoes at her house. Where do Doda's tomatoes come from?

They grow from leaves. They are still green. Not ready yet.

Breaking the rules

I am scheduled to take my boards next week and am quite happy to spend my days taking practice exams. The nearby public library has proven to be an excellent study spot. It is very quiet and sunny. There are clean bathrooms, a water fountain and free Wifi. My only problem is adherence to the library's strict rules. Yesterday I was asked to remove my water bottle from the table as all food and drinks are forbidden (fair enough). Later in the afternoon, I became drowsy and rested my head beside my laptop. I dozed off and was abruptly awakened by a loud thump on my table. Apparently sleeping is also banned. The kindly security woman has already reprimanded me twice today, once for propping my feet on a nearby chair and once for slipping off my sandals. I had been surreptitiously snacking on Cheerios but have decided it is too risky.
Thankfully I am in the heart of Lakeview and walking distance from many inexpensive restaurants. I tried a vegetarian Lebanese place yesterday and it was perfect. They have a huge salad bar, and I piled my falafil sandwich high with various pickles, spiced tahini, cabbage salad and jerusalem salad. Pure happiness.

Happiness

What a lovely evening. Sabba and Savta came over to watch Elijah, and Amiel took me out on a date. The little one bid us a happy farewell and we were on our way. There is a movie theater a few blocks down the street and we picked up our tickets for "An Education" before grabbing a quick bite to eat. Dinner was at an inexpensive falafel place; alone time with my charming husband made up for the mediocre food. Loved the movie, highly recommended. We then poked around at Borders, and I splurged on a new work of fiction. I say splurge because I've been trying to stick with library books. Anyway, I wore my hat and mittens home, but didn't really need to as the temperature is finally a few solid degrees above freezing. How I love spring in Chicago. And just when I thought the evening could be no better, I came home to discover that Savta had folded all our laundry (two huge baskets of it). Are clothes now sit in perfect little piles, my own things are between a mound of Elijah's socks and perfect stack of his t-shirts. It looks so nice that I hesitate to put anything away. I am a lucky girl.

Tonight

Tonight was fun. I put our little picnic table in the salon (livingroom), and Elijah arranged the placemats, plates and silverware. When Amiel arrived, we announced that it was family picnic night. The menu? Frozen pizza; sauteed zucchini with dill; and lots of green olives. Not your typical picnic faire but no one seemed to mind.  For dessert, we had melon and raspberries. We then had a special treat, chocolate pudding!! My mom used to make JELLO chocolate pudding with sprinkles in a little picardie glass and that's exactly how we had it tonight.  Watching Elijah savor the pudding was quite entertaining.  After licking every last bit, he poured water into the pudding glass and slurped the resulting 'chocolate water.' He did this several times, repeatedly adding water to the glass and eventually dumping in some raspberries (which he drank up too).