Category Uncategorized

Phoenix, Arizona. Elliot LOVES this place and the rattlesnake. We went twice.

After driving many hours he says, “I wish G-d made the earth smaller so the road was shorter.”

And I just thought that was the cutest thing…

We pull onto Bill and Dora’s street. It’s dark, but Elliot still sees the towering palm trees in the neighbors yard. He laughs and laughs and can’t believe that palm trees grow in the desert (so far he’s only seen palm trees in Jamaica).

I love his sense of wonder.

Moab to Phoenix. We stopped at Wilson’s Arch and climbed it. Elliot sat in my lap and asked for a pizza kitten story. Hole in the Rock trading post. Elliot got a rattlesnake mug there that reminded him of the cat mug. Newspaper rock. Edge of the Cedars state park with Indian ruins. Elliot got an Indian knife there. Kayenta Burger King with the code talkers exhibit. Bill and Dora house. Bill already asleep.

11/21/2024 Thursday. Colorado to Utah to Arizona to New Mexico. Today we drove to the Cisco, Utah ghost town, Arches National Park, then stayed in Moab. Elliot got his whip here. Ate at Pasta Jay’s for pizza.

11/22/2024 Friday. Moab to Phoenix. We stopped at Wilson’s Arch and climbed it. Elliot sat in my lap and asked for a pizza kitten story. We both absolutely loved this time together. Hole in the Rock trading post. Elliot got a rattlesnake mug there that reminded him of my cat mug. Newspaper rock. Edge of the Cedars Utah state park with Indian ruins. Elliot got a very cool flint Indian knife there. Kayenta Burger King in Kayenta, Arizona with the Navajo code talkers exhibit. Slept at Bill and Dora house. Bill already asleep when we arrived

11/23/2024 Saturday. Pioneer Living History Museum and Pioneer Telephone Museum, somewhat of a disappointment because it was empty. We did have a nice walk through the desert and saw a lizard. Early Thanksgiving lunch with Bill and Dora’s family (two sons, their wives, grandkids, and their spouses). Slept at Bill and Dora house.

11/23/2024 Saturday. Dinner at Rustler’s Rooste. Elliot’s first time eating rattlesnake. He loved the slide at the restaurant, the longhorn cow outside, and the live music band. Slept at Bill and Dora house 3rd and last night. He loved this place so much we went a 2n time.

11/24/2024 Sunday. 10:00 AM Jeep tour in Wickenburg, Arizona near Vulture Mine and Vulture City. The jeep took us to the “Box Canyon”. Afterwards, we went to Vulture Gold Mine at Vulture City where I went with my father. Drove to Tombstone and stayed there (went to Tombstone with my father, too, and in fact all of these places!)

11/25/2024 Monday. Tombstone, Arizona. OK Corral gunfight. Horse-drawn coach ride. Lunch at a saloon. At night, a ghost tour of Tombstone that wasn’t really about ghosts. Stayed overnight in Tombstone again.

11/26/2024 Tuesday. 1st grade parent/teacher conference over Zoom in the hotel room with Elliot’s teachers and Karolina. Boot Hill graveyard. Boothill cemetery. Tombstone gallows. Drive to Winslow. Eat dinner and sleep there.

11/27/2024 Wednesday. Hopi and Navajo Indian Reservations. Waiting at the Polacca Post Office for our guide to take us to Walpi. Due to snow and wind, he advised not to go. We then waited at the Hopi Cultural Center for our next guide to take us to Blue Canyon and other Hopi sites. She never showed up – had a death in her family and kept postponing, then canceled. Elliot bought a mink skin here that he loves. We explored a Hopi water spring on our own and two Hopi men came and told us to leave, that the place was sacred. Went to Homolovi State Park on the way back to Winslow. Spoke to the ranger a long time. Elliot bought some “Weed-Eater Garden Rocks” that he absolutely adores. Ate pasta dinner at Captain Tony’s Pizza which also had video games and pool like an old-style pizza parlor.

11/28/2024 Thursday. Thanksgiving at Meteor Crater, Arizona! Hike around Diablo Canyon looking for the Apache Death Cave. Explored an abandoned RV, gas station, rest stop. Finally found the Apache Death Cave after a great hike. Near dark and I couldn’t find a safe way down. Didn’t go in this time and Elliot was vey upset. But we went back the next day and explored it. Also went back to Homolovi State Park so Elliot could get more of the “weed-eater” rocks.

11/29/2024 Friday. Apache Death Cave again. This time we went in it and explored. There was a room with small entrance we did not go into. Also did not go all the way back, but we did explore a lot. Drove to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Slept in Albuquerque.

11/30/2024 Saturday. Drove from Albuquerque, New Mexico to home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Total mileage of trip: 2860 miles!

Here’s a 4-page comic I made age 11. For 40 years I’ve wondered why I kept this kind of stuff. The other day I figured it out and realized it was worth it. I showed it to Elliot, and he immediately started making a continuation of it (page 5, 6, etc) as well as his own comics with different superheros like Acid Man and Spike Man. Egg Warrior. Magnetic Man’s nemesis, Devil Dog (I did that one)

My winter coat from 1976 or 1977 (age 6 or 7). My school lunch box from 1977 (age 7). Elliot took both to school. On the right is Elliot’s lunch box and his backpack is above with a black Meow Wolf pin.

Nov 12, 2024 – Elliot age 6

Good morning. I just wanted to give you a brief update in Judaics and let you know that it is a pleasure teaching Elliot in first grade. We have been hard at work learning about the days of creation. In conjunction with this unit, we also learned about light, clouds, trees/plants, and the solar system. I am excited for him to complete this unit so that he can share his book and knowledge with you. We have also started learning some songs in Hebrew thanking G-d for various things and continue to have daily tefillah.

Best,

Rebekah
—
Rebekah Kochavi
1st Grade Teacher
Denver Jewish Day School
2450 South Wabash Street
Denver, Colorado 80231

My reply:

Thank you, Rebekah! I am so very grateful that he enjoys it with you.

Please let me know when the book goes home so we can make sure that both of his parents see it.
if there are any songs or anything else we can do at home, let me know! We still sing the one you taught him last year at this time — the creation song to the tune of “This Old Man, He Played…”

Eric

Elliot had Tova’s 7th birthday party at a skating rink today. I went skating with him – the first time for me in probably 42 years (age 12). It was a blast! and I remembered how to skate pretty well! It was SOOO MUCH FUN! I used to go so often as a kid.

The final song they played was YMCA but otherwise all the music was modern. I skated to YMCA so many times as a kid, doing the letters with my arms. They even played the Hokey Pokey, and Elliot and I did it together.

It was nostalgic and tremendous fun for both of us. We agreed we’ll definitely come back. I can still remember going, the songs they played, the arcade and pinball machines I played, the food I ate, the birthday parties celebrated there. I had some of mine at a place very much like Skate City, but they had disco balls hanging from the ceiling and the skating floor was wood.

Ironically, I’ve had a reminder to go to Skate City every Saturday morning in my phone for 3 years. I get reminded to go every Saturday, but we end up going to Shabbat services instead usually. So I’ve been meaning to go for a long time.

I uploaded a video to YouTube. When YMCA started playing, I was excited and told Elliot I knew the song. On the video you can hear Elliot screaming to his friend Gabe, “MY DAD KNOWS THIS SONG!!!” It’s so cute. He really cared about my experience and was excited to tell his friend about it!

https://youtu.be/2Vn6h-BJl6M

He’s 6 1/2 now. It’s been a while since I sang to him in bed. But I started “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” yesterday. I need to sing “Puff the Magic Dragon” next, which I’d forgotten about. Elliot use to love how I inserted him into the song: “Little Baby Elliot loved to play with Puff…” instead of “Little Jackie Paper”

Anyway, I sang Row Your Boat last night. He’s old enough now to ask about “Life is but a dream”.

“What does it mean?” he asked.

“That life is a dream. Remember the other song you like? ‘life could be a dream… life could be a dream (Sh-boom).’ Don’t take yourself too seriously. Maybe you are dreaming me.”

“But this is real?” he asked.

Now I don’t want to confuse him or cause him to break from reality, so I said yes, and left it there for now..

I can’t wait to sing Puff to him again when he wakes up, even though it’s our old bedtime song, I can’t wait for that. Let me think of some lyrics.

Little baby Elliot loved to play with Puff. He brought him toys and games and things and lots of fun stuff.

One day Puff got angry. He wouldn’t play with anymore. He flew away with a great big roar and went down to the store.

There he bought some marbles. He wanted to play a new game. He brought them back to Elliot and they played all day and night.

Need more…

“When I was 3 years old I heard scary noises. And then after that something nibbled my bed. My cats will be fine, but they’re not answering. I tried to talk to them but nobody answered. I saw lightbulb people.”

“What are lightbulb people?” I asked.

“You know at the end of the Sledgehammer [the music video]. Kind of like that.”

I tried to repeat this story back to him, to make sure I got it right, but he interrupted very quickly she told me to stop.

A little while later he told me that he’s not scared of the ghost story podcast we were listening to; he’s scared of his own story.

And he was very scared.

We were listening to Jim Harold’s Campfire episode 681 from Halloween 2024: “A Demon Story” when Elliot wanted to tell me his story.

For 3 and a half years, I’ve shared Elliot with Karolina, only seeing him 50% of the time. You think I’d be used to it by now.

We just spent 5 days together with Elliot out of school for Simchat Torah. So we were with each other non-stop. And now he’s gone. I’m not used to it. I miss him. I miss his brightness and curiosity and gentleness. His kindness and consideration. His compassion when I stepped in cat poop in the bathroom.

His questions about radiation and viruses and fireworks and the Holocaust and nuclear bombs, guns, and knives, the questions about the Wild West, playing drums and bass together, sitting on the swinging chair in the backyard (the furniture tent is now “dirty”).

Playing marbles together.

Building a spinning frisbee disc toy together from CrunchLabs.

Coding together, with elliot drawing the sprites and changing the values in the code to make thousands of them.

Going on the haunted hayride together.

Reading my Louis L’Amoir book to him “daddy, I understand it. It’s a kids book.” It’s not a kids book but he’s smart.

And more

This is from August 28, 2024, a little more than a month ago. Elliot was on a crow bar craze (we ended up buying two of them, one from an antique store in Leadville and another new from Amazon)

Elliot really wants to try flounder or fluke fish when I told him my mother used to cook it for me all the time as a kid. H-Mart has them but live they are $33/pound and the fish are 3 pounds each! Here is one we almost bought.

Route 109 outside of La Junta. We saw maybe a half dozen of them on the move.

1st grade

And also Tabby McTat!

In the last two weeks, Elliot has tried more new foods than ever before:

1. Falafel at Jerusalem Restaurant in Denver
2. Chicken Tikka Masala in Pubelo, coming back from the Tarantula Festival
3. Creamy Chicken Ramen (Japanese) in Colorado Springs, just before visiting the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

He liked them all!

This is the same child who, for the last 3 1/2 years, has only eaten unflavored salmon (and other fish like mahi mahi or cod), eggs, tofu or chicken tenders, Mac and cheese, bell peppers, cucumbers, apples, bananas, pickles, strawberries, grapes, and previously carrots. That’s it, that’s been his entire diet while he’s been with me. And not for a lack of trying.

Elliot at age 6 started drum lessons again recently, this time with Avi Halzel at DJDS. He had a 9-10 month break. We had our first jam together! I recorded a short video. Due to the long break between lessons, he’s lost some ability (I know how that goes). He’s playing the bass drum here, too, but it’s not easy to hear.