‘Your sons are killing me’ 35/10
Photo by Adam (note remote)Things sort of went off the rails around here with the boy-reporting, what with our end-of-summer holiday and your grandma’s visit, papa getting ill and lazy, and blah blah blah. I’m trying to put things back on track here, because just last night your mother and I were talking about how we feel more and more as though this whole parenting thing is getting away from us and the precious moments are running though our fingers like sand. Then you both roll over onto us at 3.00 am and sneeze gales of viscous pest-phlegm into our faces and we’re all, like, go to college, already.
This photo is courtesy of OliwkowygajSo you guys are ill. We’re not much better, but are attempting to hold it together because it requires vast reserves of strength to insert the tasty, tasty liquid antibiotics into you. Well, one of you, anyway. Fortunately Adam is of bribable age, but Ike, man, giving you medicine should be on the curriculum at Alligator Wrestling School.
(Sadly, and somewhat surprisingly, there is no photo that is truly appropriate for posting beneath the words Alligator Wrestling School. Here’s something sub-satisfying instead:)
It is true that this whole thing seems to move terribly quickly. Our last boys’ report mentioned Alek’s crawling progress, and now you’re already on the verge of walking — in fact, I thought I saw you take your first steps a few nights ago, out of the corner of my eye, as your brother was re-negotiating the terms of his medicine-taking agreement by vomiting large chunks of half-digested pizza into my lap in hopes of loosening my negotiating resolve. But I could be wrong about that walking watershed, because I was slightly distracted.
Another one taken by OliwkowygajWhat’s new with Adam? Well, mainly I suppose you could call it “growth self-awareness”. This is manifested in lording it over your brother by trying to police his bad behavior, dispensing the wisdom that can only be hard-won with years of maturity (”NO BOOKS FOR BABIES!”) or even physically relocating him if you don’t like what he’s doing or where he’s headed. Which, let’s face it, you pretty much never do. So far you have not dropped Alek on his head, but let me tell you, your brother is putting on the weight faster than you are, so please STOP CARRYING ALEK AROUND. Sometimes it is true that you are only picking him up in order to kiss him and tell him, “AI LUB JUUU”, which I will admit is slightly cute, but STOP CARRYING ALEK AROUND.
Adam self-portraitAnother way we see your self-awareness is this little narrative thread you have called “ADAM GET BIG”. You’re still referring to yourself in the Elmo-like third person, and it typically involves plans for how you will dispose of future wealth:
“Adam get big, Adam go to the new shomps, buy kosilophone!
Or upcoming dietary changes:
“Adam get big, Adam WILL eat fish. AND cheese!
My favorite, though, is the little promises you make:
“Adam get big, Adam WILL make you a sandwich, honey.”
Taz is talking, too, but his discourse is limited mainly to going on and on and on about Bob Loblaw and his Law Blog, though he does also occasionally issue extended complaints about how Jar Jar does nothing but jaw about Jah and his jam jar. At this point, we don’t think it’s too early to begin making predictions about when first steps and first words will appear. Alek, you look set to accomplish both well before your first birthday.
Now that I’ve put that in writing, you’d better not make a monkey out of me.
We had an exciting time with visitors recently, and it was really interesting to see what life was like with a little girl in the mix. Adam, you were so excited to chase Oliwka around the place that we could hardly stand it (and the downstairs neighbors full-on couldn’t), and though you’re always a big fan of evening bathtime, coed evening bathtime was the greatest thing in your life since the Kinder Surprise.
Another one courtesy of OliwkowygajThe energy the three of you threw off during their three days here could have lit up Ljubljana.
Adam, you would have done anything to impress sweet Oliwka:
To your face, Adam, we chide you endlessly and the need for discipline seems to grow with every passing week, but in private your mama and I have long talks about how proud we are of you, how bright you are, how much you entertain us with your boundless growth, trilingual storytelling, your little obsessions and inventions. This is an area where I feel the most helpless to record this phase, and with both you and your brother I am painfully aware of the tautology of time that makes us feel that every month with you two is our favorite month of your, and our, lives. I know that next month will be just as rich, but I’m already mourning the loss of this one. The paradox of parenting.
Let’s have less wet sneezing into our sleeping faces next month, though, okay?
całkiem fajnie w tej Słowenii..
a chłopaki jakie fajne!:D
Comment by Kasia — Tuesday 13 November 07 @ 17.51 MST+2.00
sorry… nigdy wiecej polskiej czcionki…
Comment by Kasia — Tuesday 13 November 07 @ 17.51 MST+2.00
Excellent work, as usual. Bonus points for the “Taz is talking” paragraph.
Comment by Erik R. — Tuesday 13 November 07 @ 18.01 MST+2.00
Kasia, juz poprawilam;)
Comment by magda — Tuesday 13 November 07 @ 18.29 MST+2.00
What Erik said.
Comment by Jane — Tuesday 13 November 07 @ 19.22 MST+2.00
I really hope you’re keeping like 450 different backups of these ‘your sons’ reports spread across safety deposit boxes all around the globe, thereby guaranteeing that your sons, their wifes, and your grandchildren can read this stuff. It would be a shame for them to lose this just because Flickr got hacked.
Knowing you, you probably are.
Comment by Erik R. — Tuesday 13 November 07 @ 19.47 MST+2.00
Lovely stuff.
Comment by simon — Tuesday 13 November 07 @ 22.22 MST+2.00
Erik: No doubt he has his own Iron Mountain
tunnelvault.Comment by jane — Wednesday 14 November 07 @ 04.00 MST+2.00
sooooooo are you thinking of completing your family with a girl? ;)
Comment by aniah — Wednesday 14 November 07 @ 14.31 MST+2.00
No comment ‘cept to say that the greyish-white “Self Portrait” picture is fantastic. Did you play around with the pixels after taking the photo? Or it just came out this way? Fabulous pic.
Comment by DarkoV — Wednesday 14 November 07 @ 15.54 MST+2.00
I can’t believe how big Alek is! They have the same size of heads already!
Love the photos. And that you’re raising Adam to be a Mac geek. Well done.
Comment by KP — Wednesday 14 November 07 @ 18.41 MST+2.00
Thanks, everyone, for commenting on what is essentially a self-referential exercise. Erik, you make me realize that although I am a pretty paranoid back-up nerd, the strength of the system for preserving these posts is certainly not proportional to their future value. I’ll have to get on that.
aniah: there are dissenting views on this.
DarkoV: the self-portrait (really, you can see the remote control in his hand) was not altered other than cropping, a little sharpening, and desaturation towards B&W.
KP: yes, Alek is enormous, and more so all the time.
Comment by sgazzetti — Wednesday 14 November 07 @ 20.12 MST+2.00
funny how utterly angelic they look, but truly demon-seed they become when either their:
1. binky can’t be found
2. momma’s teat isn’t available bcs it’s completely painfully offline for a bit of R & R
3. their fav cookie fell into the rain gutter and can’t be retrived after the 10 hour still-can-be-eaten-with-impunity-rule with kiddos
great blog.
Comment by michele — Wednesday 5 December 07 @ 01.39 MST+2.00