Author grimholtz

Last night I finished Embassytown. It was not very good. I kept waiting for it to end. I think I’ll try another John Steinbeck novel next, The Grapes of Wrath, after finishing East of Eden earlier this year. Of Mice and Men is one of his that I’ve read probably three times.

Even in very early photos of Elliot, you can see him sticking out his tongue when he is happy. Here we are doing it together!

Reading the Old MacDonald book to Elliot the other night, Elliot said “see? see?” when we turned to page horse page. He wants to visit Kai and Maddy.

I said, “Kai? You want to see Kai?”

Elliot: “K”

Karolina also mashed fresh peaches for his yogurt breakfast.

Pretzels dipped in peanut butter, another favorite but we don’t mix that with sardines !

Max came back from Aspen today. We told him that we bought a yacht before showing him this.

He’s been away 2 or 3 weeks, the longest I can remember in quite some time. Elliot was very happy to see him. They immediately

The next day….

Yesterday, Elliot got a NEW Buzz Lightyear — this one has wings and it’s more articulated than the OLD Buzz Lightyear that he got for his birthday in April.. Along with him came a big talking Woody, too. He loves these toys, especially Buzz, and won’t put them down for more than a few minutes. He pretends Buzz can fly and makes phroom, zoom noises.

This morning he did not want to get out of the car for pre-school because he was not allowed to take Buzz with him.

When Karolina picked him up, Elliot was dancing under a balloon structure the school erected for the kids “graduating” to kindergarten. He wouldn’t move away from the balloons without crying.

Bains & Blowing Kisses

Today we hiked Roxborough again, but without Max since he’s in Aspen.

Elliott wanted to play “Bains!” chase a lot during the hike. He would say “Bains?” (not brains, but bains), then tap me or point to me, sometimes golding uo his arms imitating my zombie impression. So i started chasing.

Then he pointed at both of us and said “Bains!”, so that both of us would do “Bains!”

He loves being chased. The giggling and laughter…!

That went on for a while, until he got the idea that he would chase us. How can one communicate that without words? Elliot held his hands up like a zombie said “Bains!” and then blew us kisses! (as in goodbye! Go!) — kissing his hand then throwing the kiss at us. Imdidnt understand at first, but Karolina immediately knew that he wanted to chase us.

We ran and laughed. It made my heart melt.

Elliott’s Cut

Elliot got a small cut on the top of thumb a few weeks ago. It happened when Max, Elliot, and I were at Chatsfield Reservoir and that is how i know it’s been a while; Max has been in Aspen for 2-3 weeks. Anyway, Elliot fell while walking and got a small cut. He still has a small, little mark on his thumb, not even a scab.

He holds this out to me or Karolina every couple of days, and says “uh, uh”, waiting for us to kiss it. Erin said he even does this with her while he’s at school or babysitting.

We will be kissing his thumb when he is 25 😀

Milkee

Elliot took the milk bottle off the night stand and gave it to Karolina. Then he pointed at the bed, demanding to be fed.

How To Say Yes Without Saying Yes

Although Elliot doesn’t speak many words yet, he understands most everything. One of the words he refuses to utter is YES, even though he is capable of saying “No!” repeatedly and vehemently. He also knows how to pronounce ‘Y” because he calls the Lada “YAYA”!

Erin says that at school he says “K”, as in “Ok” when she asks him a question. I heard him say that today.

He often answers me with a soft, gentle “mmhm, mhmm” or nods his head.

“Do you want fish ice?”

“mmhm, mhmm”

(Even though he calls it PHI, not fish)

Update: day after i wrote the above, Erin said Elliott said “yes” when sh asked him if he wanted to see her cat. First time! He’s still not saying it to me today

Today he was sitting in the high chair at the kitchen table. Pointing outside he said, “Mama! Help me!” while trying in vain to get out of the chair. This was his first full, coherent sentence!

He uses sign language, too, mainly just the sign for “more” while saying “Mo…Mo” ( not pronounced like Moe but a soft O). He used to use the sign for milk and others, but I did not enforce them because I did not know them. Now I wish I did.

Elliot loves when I imitate a screaming monkey. When he wants to watch them on YouTube, he puts his hands near his armpits and then points at the screen. If you want me to imitate a money, he does the same thing but points at me.

Naked Astronaut with Laser Sword

It was pouring rain today. Elliot dressed up as the boy in the beginning of the film It and played next to the large drain down the street — just like the boy in the film. He still loves to play with water, especially rainwater flowing by the curb. He confuses rain with brains, sometimes calls rain “bains“.

The best part about the Corona Virus lock down is that I got to be with Elliot and Max so much.

Since about early April, I had a schedule seeing Elliot: in the morning between 6:30 – 7:00 I would take him from him crib to Karolina to drink his milk bottle. Then we’d have breakfast together. He’d leave around 8:30 to be with Erin.

Erin brings him back around 12:30 – 1:00. I would see him briefly before his 2 hour nap.

So I’d go about 4 hours without seeing him. Before April, for 1/2 of March, I saw him all the time since Erin was not yet babysitting, yet we were all at home because of the Corona virus threat.

Yesterday was the first time I didn’t see him for 12 hours, and I really felt it. He went to 1/2 day of day care — which he started last week — but then Erin took him until 5:30 or so. Karolina picked him up and I didn’t get to see him until about 6:30. And I hadn’t seen him in the morning since I overslept.

Maybe this seems ridiculous. As I type it, I know it does. But not seeing him for so long after such a pattern of months does hurt.

Thursday was Max’s last day of 5th Grade. He missed Friday’s at-home Havern Hustle because he went to Gaga’s in Aspen. There was a drive-by “goodbye” at the school. We went as a family.

The newsletter said Max has had school at home for 11 weeks. That would put it around March 9 that he started, which seems right. He had Spring Break and then never went back to school after that. So he’s been home at least 12 weeks.

It took some getting used to. For the first half or maybe a little more, Max was really good. We had a video conference with his teachers, and they reported good things about Max.

But that changed for the last few weeks. He became distracted by toys in his room. He would roll out of bad 20-30 minutes before school started because he’d been up most of the night. He had to be coaxed into dressing. Brushing his teeth in the mornings? Usually didn’t happen. He stayed up very late most nights, wandering the house, trying to find a screen to use, or maybe just flipping through books in his bed (not sure exactly what he did most nights). Sometimes he’d find a device to use all night until Karolina and I became very diligent about locking them or sleeping with them, but even then I think we probably missed some.

For the last week and a half, we moved him to the basement because of wifi connectivity problems in his room. We should have done that sooner. I was working there, too, and he had fewer distractions.

I still wonder how effective those 11-12 weeks were. How much learning was there?

Anyway, the best part was that we saw each other every day nearly non-stop for 12 weeks! I loved being that close to him. Karolina made a point to go to Chatsfield Reservoir or Roxborough State Park with the boys almost every day. I went with them alone, sometimes, too, and other times with Karolina.

Ms. Fish retired.