Circles

Alex / / Uncategorized

Tia indicated to me recently (shortly before I should leave for work) that “Time’s a wasting..”, which she indicated by drawing and redrawing a circle like the turning of hands on a clock with her finger. Moments later she was still lying in bed, examining her finger as she slowly drew it counter-clockwise and alternately clockwise in the air. She asked me on one clock-draw “Is it clockwise from this side and that? Is this clockwise or counter-clockwise to you?” I answered “That’s counter-clockwise to me.” She said “..oh.” I added: “However, crazy is crazy from this side and that.”

Things and WILD THINGS

Alex / / Mago Elf Liam

He scoots around a lot, handles and examines every object he can get in hand, and also tastes and examines with his mouth. His kisses are bites or suction cup grips on your face. He grabs noses and teeth and puts his fingers in both. Family and friends tell me he’s mild and happy.

He often hyperventilates and grins and flaps his arms wildly when he sees me after he hasn’t for a while. He smiles back broadly at me if I can get his attention (he’s usually examining something near or distant).

He’s particularly interested in handles, levers, and the like.

He’s very interested in other babies his size and will greet them with a coo or high call.

Tia says he was oohing and aahing at Christmas decorations in a store.

As he was crawling on my chest a recent morning (the 14th actually) I said “I love you [Mago].” He looked at me and replied in a low, rhasping, demonic voice: “HHRRRRAAAAAAAAAARR!” I think this came from my making that sound for the monsters in the book WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE a few days before then.

He speaks sign language for “light” a lot while gazing at lights.

His first tooth (on his lower jaw in the front) came in about a week ago.

He pays close attention to unusual sounds and often laughs at sudden funny ones, and gestures too.

He sits up on his own.

Ambition

Alex / / Mago Elf Liam

Two days ago he was at the foot of the treadmill in one corner of the basement room, and Tia was at the computer at the other corner, and as Tia tells it he scooted with a look of great determination across to her.

(Take that, determinism! Determine this!)

He started scooting .. ? two weeks ago?

This morning he was kissing his mommy.

Gallery 6B and Exploring Mythology

Alex / / Mago Elf Liam, Pictures

[This is posted long after its written date and inserted here]

Following is something I wrote for an essay contest my dad sent out to his children. The prize for it was his white Chevy Blazer which he replaced with some newer and hence dandier SUV, a KIA Sorento (I think). You read that right. The whole premise of writing this, then, was completely mad. But I played a harp to the madness.

This piece is mythology – fiction which is/should be true; I’ve made it true somewhat. It is accompanied by photographs of Mago which inspired it. He’s six months old in these. I add comments after.

We always stop to look at wildlife and impressive displays of nature. We go to wilder areas in our city to find these. But we also go far beyond our city into wild and rugged terrain.

My boy especially likes ducks. He would try to eat any duck alive if he could get one in hand, and I wonder if they would know it’s because he loves them. Instead he claws at the upholstery of our Chevy Blazer and eats the little bits of it he digs out. He’s eaten grass, dirt, twigs and bugs from all of the wilderness we’ve explored. We’ve seen snakes, lizards, all kinds of birds, marsupials, jack rabbits, goats, sheep, deer, mustangs, coyotes, and moose.

If there’s not room anywhere else, I cram people into the trailer with the horses. They can get injured back there when the horses kick out of nervousness or when we take a bad turn, but that doesn’t always happen. On the horses we ride much more quickly into remote, wild places. Everything we take traveling has been a present to us – our horses, our blazer, our camp gear, our hiking and navigating equipment. Life is unfair to everyone except me.

This made my dad weepy and several commented that they loved it. Unfortunately it didn’t win the contest – I was informed that it contributed to world literature, but that my brother’s far more succinct, to the point, and amusing entry won. His was two sentences: “Ahem. White boy, gimme dat car dammit!”

Mago and Me

Alex / / Alex, Mago Elf Liam

Yesterday I played with him saying: “A-bug-a-bug-a-bug-a-bug-a-bug-a-BOO!” – each time the BOO! being a higher pitch, and he would laugh.

Last night I came to him sleeping and whispered “You’re a good boy.” He awakened, looked me in the eyes, smiled, and went back to sleep.

Conversations (#2)

Alex / / Tia

Recently Tia made delicious chicken Tacos. When we ate, Tia found a hair from her head in her taco.

Tia: “It’s a prize! That’s why they call it a kids meal!.. .. really, I just miss my mom’s cooking, so I had to put it in.”

Moments later: “What can we get Marvin for his birthday from ShopKo that he’ll want?”
Me: “Love, acceptance, and success.”
Tia: “How about a little wicker basket?”

From this sequence she concluded that “I’m being funny today.”

Later in the evening she addressed baby in his dirty diaper as “Party pants”.

First email

Alex / / Mago Elf Liam

Dear Daddy,
4d4f dsaaaaaaaaasbs5,qa
aqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqquhdhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrxscccccccccccchhhhhhnmmfgcncygfafadfthhhsxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssw3qasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssddddddddddt66343e

Love,
[Mago Elf Liam]

Recent things, Naming, Funny Babble 2

Alex / / Mago Elf Liam, Religion

Erm.. haven’t kept up on the lad in writing.

Some maybe almost month, or so, ago his mother presented him a Mother Goose book to begin reading to him, and he made an exultant sound and dance when he saw Mother Goose on the cover. Babies know. Stories for babies are primaeval.

In recent weeks (or so?) he was laughing at Tia’s oldest sister and stepmother, when they babysat – I envy not having witnessed, and wonder if my sister didn’t when I was the first to make her first baby (the first grandchild) laugh. .. that seems somehow like a very monumental accomplishment now that I think of it; except that I didn’t do anything, I only came to her crib, and she laughed and smiled at me. ..very much like my boy, now that I think on it.

I’ve since seen him laugh with his aunt, whom I dare say has a gift for invoking delight in babies and children (I think my wife has the same gift relating to her neices and nephews). He openly pealed and giggled, repeatedly, the two of them just looking at each other. It made me laugh hard watching, and he’s since done this for me occasionally when I make a dog bark, or at other random times, but it’s worn off.. I think I must need to just be inventive, because nothing has worked for a while. But he smiles at me, and his mother, all the time, which is wonderful.

Two sundays ago I named him under the authority of the Priesthood, which is an ordinance in the LDS church, and then blessed him under the direction of the Spirit. The words and ideas of the blessing came with great certainty. The whole of the blessing was to incline the baby to live a life that will lead him back to his Heavenly Father from whom he recently came, bless him with gifts of faith, hope, and charity for the course, and to return with a wife and all his family. That is God’s plan for each of us, and God’s Spirit has witnessed it to me. I wrote soon after of the timeless sensation in the blessing:

I felt a strong connection back to Heavenly Father in giving this (which I am very grateful for), to a place where time stands still, yet thoughts of the future proceed in such certainty as causing by the very thoughts the events to occur; as if traveling forward in time.

Last morning (I’m posting this past midnight), he awakened us by saying:

Mimba

Followed by –

Boo? Gweh?

Late tonight I woke him up (a breach of decency) because I felt bad coming home so late and not seeing him today. After I cuddled him a while (he was mildly bothered and sleepy but cuddly) he began complaining, and said

I wa ma ma!

Which sounded stunningly like “I want my mom”, if that isn’t what it was.