A New Blog is Born!

Having come to the realization that I might like to be able to offer an blog address to people who are interested in Emilio's progress (that's yesterday--Day 111--at right) but not so much in my musings about the rest of the world, I am opening up yet another blog that will be strictly dedicated to the doings of our first- born. To check it out, just click on "The Emilio Report" link at left.

To those of you who are already suffering from blog overload, I apologize. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have chosen to have 2 blogs--one for me and one for me-as-dad--and not created my movie and sports blogs. This new re-organization may not take, but I want to experiment with it.

My next blog goal is to figure out how the blog syndication system works so that interested "subscribers" can receive e-mail notification when a blog they are interested in gets updated instead of having to scroll through them all one by one to see who has updated recently (see the Settings page).

Vee Haf Vays off Making You Giggle

Cousin Amy came all the way from Tyler, Texas to see Emilio today and we were really happy to see her. As soon as she walked in the door of our apartment, she picked Emilio up and he started giggling and he had a hard time stopping. We eventually had to go to lunch, and though Emilio was initially displeased at the prospect of getting strapped into the Baby Bjorn, once he was locked in he fell asleep almost immediately. He stayed asleep as we walked down the block through the rain (first we've had in a long time) to the Corner Grille, where we were greeted by Audrey, our favorite singing-waitress, and Joel, our honorary family chef. While we were eating, Amy told us again our favorite old story of her first experiences cooking Key Lime pie (don't confuse "cream of tartar" with "tartar sauce") and mashed potatoes (boil the potatoes before you try to mash them), and we told her (again) the story of my electrical storm declarations of love (remember there may be thunder). I was just about finishing up my lunch (scrambled egg sandwich) when Emilio--who'd been asleep the whole time in the Baby Bjorn I was wearing--woke up and kindly requested his bottle of mother's milk. After we fed him we walked back home, and opened up a recently arrived package of gifts from Japan (a kimono, a bib, a traditional Japanese doll) that had been sent to Emilio from our friend Barbara Sale, who now lives in Tokyo. A couple of weeks ago Emilio received gifts that had been sent to him from Saudi Arabia by our friends the Gibsons, so he's really swimming in it. Amy brought Emilio two of her favorite books--Love You Forever and The Runaway Bunny--the first of which, I have been lead to believe, will make me cry (I'll be reading it alone). Finally, I had to go to class so Amy bid Emilio adieu and she and I headed to the El and downtown. We said goodbye at her downtown stop and I headed on to my afternoon class. It was a great visit--the second time Amy has come to see us in Chicago--and we hope she and Gary and Daniel and Noah will come visit us sometime in the summer.

V-Day

We enjoyed 50 degree temperatures on Valentine's Day (by contrast, one day this next week the high is supposed to be 15 degrees), so we strapped young Emilio into the Baby Bjorn and he and his mom walked me to the El. After we said goodbye, I realized that I didn't have my wallet, so Mari had to loan me money for the subway ride. She gave me six dollars. I spent four going and coming, I gave one to my favorite subway musician, and I spent one on photocopies. While I was teaching, Mari and Emilio bought ingredients for spaghetti carbonara, which Mari made when I got home. Though it was the first time she'd made it, it tasted great and I had seconds. Earlier in the day, Mari had given me my Valentine's gifts--a card with home-made enhancements (a pop-up photo Lisa took of Mari, Emilio and me with the baby-sling An Tremble gave us), 3 DVDs (Sky Captain the World of Tomorrow, Fever Pitch, and The Long Engagement), and a Zanzibar clove-scented candle (clove turns out to be one of the few scents we both like). I gave Mari a wordless valentine card, a DVD (Emma), the "Love and Sex" edition of the Would-You-Rather books, and chocolate from our local chocolaterie, bon bon (http://www.bonbonchicago.com/). While we were eating dinner, we watched a recorded episode of our new, favorite TV series, Hustle (http://hustle.amctv.com/). It was, in short, a great day.

The El and the Belly

On Monday, Mari had a breakfast date with a teacher-friend and then went to see Transamerica at the movie theater in Evanston. Emilio and I were waiting for her in the lobby when the movie was over. It was the first time Emilio and I had gone out alone together. Even though it was twenty-something degrees out (and ten below that due to the wind chill), Emilio kept warm in his snow suit and the Baby Bjorn and slept soundly during most of the forty-five minute trip on foot and on the El. When the weather gets better, I look forward to more outings like this. After we left the theater, we walked through a wind tunnel to Potbelly. Several of the workers there know me and they were eager to meet Emilio. One of the managers, Andy had a son who was born two weeks before Emilio and last fall he gave us an extra battery-run chair-swing that he and his wife didn't need. He paid for Mari's lunch and encouraged us to wait for another of the managers, Wendy, whose shift started at 3 p.m.. We fed Emilio and introduced him to some of the other members of the wait staff and we were just changing him when Wendy came. Wendy, who is from El Salvador, has two kids and she has been excited as anyone about Mari's pregnancy and Emilio's birth. A couple of weeks ago, Wendy told me that she had a book she wanted to give us and when Andy called her to tell her we were waiting to meet her, she brought it. It's called Children Learn What They Value: Parenting to Inspire Values. Emilio was calm and observant the whole afternoon and he really seemed to enjoy checking out all the new sights and sounds. After he and Mari went home, I stayed and worked for a few hours on my laptop. Before I was leaving, Joe Henderson (who plays guitar and sings on Mondays and Wednesday nights) started his set and I bought a $10 copy of his new CD: "Just Got in the From the Country." Joe usually plays covers, but all the tunes on the CD are originals. I'm curious. Joe has also been following Emilio's progress in photos and story.

Clubbin'

Saturday was Jack's 40th birthday (give or take a year) and he invited us to join him and Julie and a bunch of his friends for a celebration of said event at the Goose Island Brewery on Clark Street near Wrigley Field. We gave the old man (that's him holding food in the photo at left) a snapshot of him and me when we were in a duet acting competition in high school, a copy of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and a subscription to Sports Illustrated. It was Emilio's first bar experience (that we know of) and before we went, we had some concerns about cigarette smoke, but the air was smoke free as advertised in the back room where we were seated. Jack's friends seemed eager for Emilio to wake up so that they could meet him, but as long as he was sleeping soundly in his car seat on the floor at the end of the table, we thought it best for him to continue doing so. See the slack position he has assumed in the photo? Would you believe he maintained that position all through the night, while we met folks, and the bar roared, and we ate dinner, the band set up behind us, and we moved his car seat on to the table to take this photo, and said goodbye and left a got a taxi and came home? Well, believe it. Apparently, it takes a much wilder bar than the Goose Island Brewery to get a rise out of this generation. While Emilio slept, I met Abby (on the right in the photo at right) and Sarah (on the left in the photo at right), who was sitting on my right at the table. Abby performed in Anna Karenina last fall with Jack (Maria and I were both impressed by her performance, though Abby had to remind me who she was when she introduced herself to us). She and Sarah have a band called "Salute Your Sweetheart" (you can sample their music at www.myspace.com/saluteyoursweetheart) and before we left they gave us a CD of their music, which I look forward to listening to soon.

The Kicker Turns 91

Today, Day 91, was Emilio's 14th Thursday in the world and while I was in class, Mari took the little potato to the Doc for a check-up. The results: Emilio is 24.5 inches tall (50th percentile), he weighs 13.3 pounds (30th percentile), and his head is 16 inches around (20th percentile). At his last check-up, his respective percentile scores were 55th, 50th and 40th. When Mari asked about the percentile drops, the Doc explained that for the more recent measurements he was using the latest, 2006 charts; for the earlier readings, he'd been using the 2000 charts. Anyway, the Doc say Emilio looks healthy and proportional. He cauterized his umbilical hernia (the outie belly button) and gave us a new prescription which should help with the snoring Emilio sometimes does when he first goes to sleep after eating. If the prescription works, we'll know that the snoring was acid-reflux related.
As you may be able to see in the photos at right, Emilio is capable at any moment of breaking into an intense kicking session, so we may be looking at a future River Dancer. If you're not watching him, he can go for several minutes without interruption. If you watch him, though, or encourage him, he's likely to stop and watch the encourager--a trait that will not help him much at high school track meets. What you can't see from these photos is that he is just starting to transition from fist-sucking to thumb-sucking. Sometimes I can calm him down by letting him use my stomach as a launching pad for brief flying sessions (my arms, his wings). And if I lift his hands with mine, he is able to straighen his legs out from a squatting position to a standing position. Eventually he gets tired of this, however.

Tagged

One of the advantages of sharing parenting responsibilities with someone whose circadian clock differs so completely from your own is that it becomes easier to handle feedings at awkward hours. When Mari, the family's early bird, heads nestward (usually at 10 p.m. and sometimes earlier), I am "on" until 3 or 4 a.m., which is no problem for me because I'm often up at those hours anyway (I've requested an afternoon teaching schedule this semester, so that helps). The 4 a.m.-5 a.m. hour is a no-man's land, but after 5 a.m. Mari is usually able to get going without too much trouble. During his night hours with me, Emilio spends a lot of sleeping time in his car seat/Barca Lounger, because it keeps him more-or-less upright and, therefore, helps with his acid reflux (although, he is doing a lot better now). We have also learned this week that when he pees, it helps if gravity keeps the accumulation in the southern valley regions without flooding the cradle plain, so to speak. We keep a receiving blanket under him to keep the moisture off the car seat, and as you can see from the photo at right, I have just learned that we need to start paying attention to where we position the blanket's tag.

Emilio's First Super Bowl

Jack and Julie watched the Super Bowl at our house this year (for Forty Memories of Super Bowl 40, see Ma Sports Blog), so I'm sure I'll remember it. It seems I only remember watching a Super Bowl if I've watched it with someone else. In 2000, we saw Super Bowl XXXIV (St. Louis 23, Tennessee 16) with Hillel. In 1996, we saw Super Bowl XXX with Jan and Linda DeAmicis (Cowboys 27, Pittsburgh 17--I would have rememberd that one anyway, of course). In 1993 and 1994, I watched Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII in the middle of the night with Jaime in Madrid (the Cowboys beat the Bills both times). In 1989, I saw Super Bowl XXIII with Aunt Hazel and Uncle Gilbert (San Francisco 20, Cincinatti 16). In 1981, I saw Super Bowl XV (Oakland 27, Philly 10) with the First Christian Church youth group at our house in Wichita Falls. In 1980, I saw Super Bowl XIV at the house of some of Mom and Dad's church friends (Eric and wife? He was a shot putter who hunted elk with a bow and arrow? I mowed their lawn?) in Wichita Falls (Pittsburgh 31, Los Angeles 19). And in 1976, I saw Super Bowl X (my first) with CYFers at First Christian Church in Fort Worth.

Twelve Weeks Ago on Thursday . . .

This past Thursday, February 2nd, marked twelve weeks since November 10th, which was for me the best day of 2005 (all you Time Capsule fans will not be surprised to learn). Thanks to our new cell phones, I have an unusually detailed account of the events of that morning, since I can see whom I called when. We did answer some calls using the phone in the hospital room, so the record is incomplete, but here is what I know: at 6:26 a.m., I call Mom and Dad from our home phone and leave a message on their answering machine—water has broken, we’re going to the hospital. At 6:53, Mari calls Jaime and Maria Rosa, gets no answer, leaves a message. At 6:55, she calls Gimena, Nacho answers, Mari’s uterus contracts, she passes the phone to me and I let Nacho know—everything’s fine, Mari’s water has broken, we’re going to the hospital, tell Jaime and Maria Rosa. At 8:36, I call Lisa from the hospital (no answer) and leave a message—we’re in the thick of it, let everybody know. At 8:42, I call Tom Moss to let him know I won’t be able to teach my classes that day. At 9:24, I call Madrid and tell Jaime that all is well, we’re in the thick of it, and we’ll let him know. At 11:30 Emilio arrives and at 11:34 I call Madrid. Emilio lets Maria Rosa know he's in the world and doing fine. At 12:35, I call Lisa and Emilio leaves a message on her answering machine. At 12:38 and 12:41, I try to contact Tom Moss and fail. At 12:43, I call Jerry and Cathy Graff and talk to Cathy for 2 minutes (Jerry's out). At 12:46, I try calling Jack, but fail and call Julie; we talk for 3 minutes. At 12:50, I call Gerardo and talk for 2 minutes. At 12:58, Mari talks to her Jaime and Maria Rosa for six minutes. At 1:05, Mari talks to la Abuela Ines for 2 minutes. At 1:07, she talks to Gimena for 3 minutes. At 1:10, I call Brian at work and leave a message. At 1:11, I leave a message on Brian’s answering machine at home. At 1:14, I finally get Lisa and give her a nineteen-minute version of the blow-by-blow. At 1:52, Jaime calls and talks for a minute. At 1:54, 331-5-319-9151 calls and talks for 3 minutes, and calls back at 2:18 to talk for another 2. At 3:14, Jack calls and leaves a message on my answering machine. I call Jack at 3:43 and tell him the news (6 minutes). At 4:59 and 5:13 I leave messages for Julie (she and Jack are on the way and need directions to the hospital). Soon thereafter, they are the first friends to meet Emilio. At 6:17, I call Mom’s cell and talk for 9 minutes (she and Dad and Grandmom have arrived at O’Hare). At 6:26, I call her again and talk for 9 more minutes. At 8:50, I call Mom’s cell and talk for nine minutes (they need final directions to Weiss Hospital). At 8:59, we talk again for 2 minutes. Soon thereafter Emilio meets Grandmother, Granddaddy, and Great-Grandmom, all of whom caught the first flight out of Texas. Less than 24 hours later, he'll meet his abuelo Jaime and his abuela Maria Rosa, who caught the first flight out of Spain.

Day 83: De Rodriguez

María José went to Evanston this morning, so Emilio and I are "de Rodriguez," as they say (in Spain, at least). Batch'in it. We're going to be doing a lot of this from March to June, when María José starts teaching again. So far, so good. Right now, while I'm posting this blog entry (after taking the documentary photo at right), Emilio is checking out his "internet" and we're both listening to the cool "Welcoming Children into the World" CD which Lisa and Melissa sent us last week ("My Little Potato" is playing right now). This week, Emilio has really started to enjoy interacting with the dangling, colorful, noise-making cloth creatures you see in the photo. María José has also observed that he has become fascinated by his own hands. When I have observed this, it has seemed to me that has been hatching diabolical plots. Last time I played this CD for Emilio, he was going to sleep and he woke with a start when Woody Guthrie started singing. After I had rocked him back in the direction of slumber, he woke with another start when Woody gave way to the next act.