tennis, anyone?

Today baby-j and I went to the outdoor tennis courts, which are a block away and a recent discovery of mine. I mean, there are large signs all around them that state they are for the students and faculty of the local college, so prior to this week, who was I to intrude? But a walk with a neighbor and her dog--during which we entered aforementioned unlocked tennis courts--showed me that there is a very cool space to walk around with (i.e., to exhaust) baby-j.

By the way, I love this, this walking with a neighbor and her dog. I have never felt such a sense of community in my life since moving here... which means, of course, that we are soon destined to move yet again.

Back to the tennis courts. We were there for an hour, engaging in baby-j’s favorite activities, which include chomping on leaves, twigs, and old Powerbar wrappers; giggling while chasing his shadow; and kicking his blue mini-soccer ball which P. purchased on a whim during a Target trip many months ago.

P. is in the city now, rehearsing for one of his many projects. And I must stop blogging in a second, as I prepare for a chat with my online students while keeping one ear alert for baby-j, who is soon to wake up from his post-tennis court nap.

nice legs

Those are some nice legs.

I really can’t get over baby-j’s legs sometimes. They’re just so... lumpy. They’re wonderful. Sometimes I worry about how large he is. I mean, he is large for his age, but not in an eatin’-Doritos-all-day-long kind of way. He’s strong. When I look at him, I’m reminded of my own younger days, particularly when, at fourteen, I spied the notes my pediatrician had written in my file about me at age 10: This is a girl who is large for her age. I know he didn’t mean “fat,” not quite... he meant tall, and thick. But it was shocking, reading that line about me in the folder. In one sense, it was yet another factor contributing to the body/self-loathing that was to come in college. I think it was more than that, though. Reading that line, it dawned on me that in the eyes of a doctor, I was no more than a subject, a body to be analyzed and dissected. And so now, I want to acknowledge that baby-j is--will always be--much more than his beautiful, delicious, chunky body.

P and baby-j just finished watching Wedding Crashers on cable. Now they’re dancing together around the living room singing to The Long Winters. It’s a good, happy Saturday night.

a is for apple

P and I are officially recording baby-j's first word as "apple."

Sure, he's said a lot of "da-das" and even "ex-ee." But last week, at our first parent/child class, the teacher passed around a morning snack of sliced apples, and without even prompting, it came: App-uh. App-uh.

It is the mark of a parent when the word takes on a life of its own. P said he never realized how beautiful, how textured the word apple really is. And it is. Isn't it? :)

car-ful o' fun

This has been our first full week back at work, and I don’t know about baby-j, but it’s sure been rough on his parents. Especially when his mom’s car threatens to break down.

Forty-five minutes into my ninety-minute commute Monday, my car started shimmying and shaking, especially when accelerating. Thankfully, I was able to make it to work and back Monday. (Though I was going 50 mph in the right lane with my hazards on… and those damn NJ drivers were still on my ass. I mean, what do you have to do to just get those suicidal drivers to pass you?)

We took the car in to the shop Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, both P and I had to go to work. So he headed off in his car, and I rented a car. The only car that Enterprise had available? A big blue pick-up truck. New and beautiful, but still: a huge truck, particularly for someone who avoids large cars (ok, mostly SUVs) as a general rule.

Yes-indeedy, I looked mighty cool rollin’ into work.

Luckily, the shop said all we needed was a tune-up (rather than a new transmission, which would have meant P and I would be looking for a new car). So we got the car back Tuesday night and dropped off the rental truck. I won’t mention that P got pulled over by the cops in my car on the way to drop off the rental. ;) I mean, he was speeding for good reason--testing out the engine on my car. Luckily the officer took pity on him and gave him a warning. Otherwise, that would have been one of the most expensive days in the history of our relationship.

But Wednesday was much better. I had a productive day at work, and it sounds like P had a good day at home with baby-j. It warms my heart just to think about it. At the risk of sounding like a complete sap, I cannot imagine P being a better dad for the j-man.

a photo a day...

I've been having great fun exploring YouTube (yes, I'm often late to the hip Web sites that the young people enjoy these days). I like to fool myself by saying that it's all for school and research--that's partly true, as I'm going to require students to use hyperlinks, images, and video in their research papers this semester. However, I've been enjoying YouTube on its own. Last night, I was looking at this one:

Noah takes a photo of himself everyday for 6 years.

It's nice. But then, after looking at the above, you have to check out a review at this link:

Re: Noah takes a photo of himself everyday for 6 years.

And then, when you get pretty slap-happy, try this:

Phil takes a photo of himself everyday for 2 days.

Minutes of enjoyment for me and P last night, I tell you.

sweepin' up

Well, I'm back at work and I can tell already that it's going to tough to keep up with the blogging when I'm grading papers for 4 different writing classes. But I promise to try. The issue is that I'm also writing to my other blog for dissertation purposes, so it's hard to keep all these things straight in my head.

baby-j is starting school next week! Ok, so it's not school-school: it's a parent-child class one day a week and I'll be with him, which is definitely a good thing, since he still enjoys nibbling on other children. (We need to work on that.) We got a letter in the mail from the school yesterday explaining how the class will run. I'm very nervous about it, because the class encourages the adults to work on "purposeful activity" (like various crafts) while the children wander about freely and help as they can. However, we're also expected to maintain responsibility for our child, which I fear means that my "purposeful activity" will entail running around the room after baby-j so he doesn't eat another child.

If he has something to do, though, he should be ok. One of the activities is cleaning (yes, we're paying to clean together), and baby-j does love sweeping. This is a picture of him sweeping up while we were on vacation in MI. Apparently, once he got a taste of how exciting sweeping can be, he was hooked. We have a Swiffer at home that I use occasionally. (Ok, I use it rarely--so rarely that I've had the same box of Swiffer cloths for at least 3 years. Using that much paper to clean is bad for the environment anyway... yeah, that's why I haven't used them).

Ahem. Anyway, baby-j will grab that Swiffer and just won't let go. K (our amazing babysitter) said that this week, when she tried to take it away in order to put him in his highchair, he wailed hysterically.

Don't try to separate a baby and his broom.

babylegs

Wow: it's gotten cold(er) here over the past two days, making it difficult to pretend I don't have to go back to teach next week. It already feels like fall. There are good things about fall, though: the first of which is that baby-j can wear things like his babylegs. These things are supposed to be "one size fits all," but honestly, baby-j has some chunky thighs that challenge such a declaration. Since they roll down his thighs, the babylegs look more like legwarmers, particularly his "funky green jester" ones.

He's also getting more accomplished as a walker. I'm not quite used to how fast he moves. Today I mistakenly left the bedroom door open to dispose of the goodies he left in his cloth diaper, only to turn back and see him quickly waddling towards the stairs. He was giggling, holding a shoebox through which he had just gnawed a hole. And he was wearing only a diaper and some babylegs.

I think it's the teeth--when he grins maniacally you see the gap between the front two teeth and the gums above them--that make surprising moments like that hilarious for his parents.