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Quinn was kicked out of his dorm at UC Boulder because of the Corona virus. He’s staying with us and storing some thing in our garage.

For the last two nights, Max, Quinn, and I watched the original Halloween movie.

At the end of the first night, we closed the laptop and started heading upstairs to bed. Max told me to first make sure the front door was locked as he went to the kitchen for some water. I walked to the front door, peeked out and said “OH MY GOD! THERE’S SOMEONE OUT THERE!” Max freaked out until Quinn told him I was only joking.

I guess I feel bad about it now because tonight, after the 2nd half of the movie, we watched some more Eric Andre skits with Quinn. For almost every skit Max asked, “Is that real?” So I realize that he isn’t yet understanding the kind of humor I was attempting with the door.

This afternoon, we went to the “backcountry” of Highlands Ranch without Karolina. Quinn liked the scenery, but there was too much snow and I could not carry Elliot very long. So we went to Chatsfield Reservoir where Max and Elliot played in the ice water and sand for a long time.

Then, after the dishwasher repairman left, the three of us played Minecraft together for a couple of hours in the still-unfinished basement.

Next we built two really good snowmen. One was a cyclops who Max named Silodon or something like that. I thought it sounds like Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat. The smaller snowman was shooting the larger one with an orange plastic gun. We had red & green cake dye for blood and color. Elliot kept taking the gun from the snowman, shooting us with it.

Then a great snowball fight without Elliot. Chinle bit Quinn on the butt, thinking he was attacking Max. So Chinle went upstairs. For a while Elliot was copying what he saw me do earlier: put water into a bowl from the downspout and pour it onto the snowman.

Elliot said a few new words this weekend:

• fie for fire (we had our first fire in the backyard the other day). Two days later it was fiya.
• no for snow
• food

With the corona virus raging & Max’s first day of “video school” at home (he had yesterday off), he said to me: “This is the last glass of water I’ll have at age 11.”

I am reading The Hobbit to him, first time, with a very nice illustrated edition I bought for bim. He is reading one of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books to me.

It’s a challenge to get Max out of doors. He wants to be inside, while Elliot is the complete opposite & will cry without end until we take him outside, regardless off the temperature.

I have told Max many times how age 11 was one of my favorites, perhaps my most favorite, even though it was the summer i was bullied and my best friend, Brad Cohen, moved away and i never saw him again. So many wonderful things happened that year as i was awakened to rock music, music not influenced by my parents, but by my brother and my friends.

Elliot loves fish and water. He sees a small, evaporating pool of water, points and says “Fi! Fi!” then insists on spending the next 20 or 30 minutes throwing rocks into it. Today we saw a larger pool in a drainage ditch and the underwater plant was a Fi! Fi!

The other day we went Chatsfield Reservoir with Max. It was empty of people, and they both loved it. Elliot threw sand into the water, while Max built a sand castle. We admired two geese who got so close we could have touched them. That was after we’d spent 60 minutes or more back at our old haunt, the pond at Trailmark, playing at the playground but mostly throwing things into the water… Elliott’s favorite thing to do.

Elliot is such an independent spirit. For example, today we’d been outside over two hours around the playground (and a man fressed in Scottish clothing played the bagpipes). I wanted to go home, so I started walking that direction, encouraging Elliot to join me. He only said “Bye!”, waved, and ran with the unsteady feet of a 23-month-old the other way. That was after we’d spent 20-30 minutes circling the dog park so that Elliot could find a way in after he realized i wouldn’t open the gate for him.

Also it was the first night we used the firepit in the backyard!

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Yesterday I explained to Max how we skipped 2:00 AM to get onto Daylight Savings Time. Last night, after reading 30 minutes of The Hobbit to him, he asked “Will we skip 2:00 every night now?”

Forest people

Elliot points to the sun and moon and says “moo.” Both sun and moon are the moon now.

He just said “down” for the first time to go down the outside deck stairs (715 Mueller Drive). Karolina said she’s been working on that word with him.

Just before his nightly bath, after getting undressed, Elliot loves to run and hide in our closet then pee on the floor. Last night he said “pee pee” for the first time afterwards. It’s such a tiny amount of pee that it’s like the single breath of a goldfish.

Bet class at the Garden Preschool and Early Learning Center. Elliot & Olivia had to be separated at nap time because they wouldn’t stop talking to each other in baby talk!

First word: ball (but says “bee” or “ba” now)

Speech therapist came last Friday. Two days later he was saying “GOING” and pointing at the front door to go outside. He LOVES to go outside.

This morning he said “SHARK” for the first time, while holding a toy shark.

FI (“phee”) for fish

Of course, “boa” (for boat) which he’s said for a while.

Feb 26, 2020: and now “Da” for dog and “B” for bird as of a few days ago.

last month I finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It was a book I’d wanted to read for years. It is a great book. Another Michael White recommendation. Now I’m reading Lonesome Dove, also recommended by him, after watching “Midsommar” ( Karolina LOVED that one ) and “Mandy”, all Michael White recommendations.

When Elliot wants me to do something, like take him out on the back deck in the snow or give him some food, he bangs on my leg then turns and walks to the do ok r or refrigerator or whatever it is he wants. If I don’t follow him, he comes back, bangs on my leg, and repeats the whole process until I follow him. Then he talks his baby talk to me, pointing, until I figure out what he wants and give it to him.

It’s so adorable and amazingly effective!

Today is was playing in the running stream of melting snow in the street. He was fascinated with dropping twigs or leaves or anything that floats into the stream and watching it new carried away. I remember doing the same thing in Cherry Hill, although I must have been older.

Elliot LOVES to play this with me at home. He jumps on me at the end, when I’m on the ground. In this video, I can see he wants to do that with Ms. Cindy, too, but doesn’t. I also put the video of this on YouTube. https://youtu.be/AiDEMbTV_Lk

I was holding Elliot while he cried. Suzy said to him, “what do you want?” He very clearly said, “Mama”. The first time he spoke exactly what he wanted, although Karolina said he recently said “Chocolate!”, too. And he certainly points and nods or shakes his head, but this was different for me. This was clear and unequivocal.

I handed him to Karolina, and he immediately stopped crying.

Later Max & Karolina mentioned that Elliot had said “Suzy” earlier tonight. It sounded like “Sushi” but was clear. I wish I’d heard it.

The other night, in Max’s tent bed before sleep, Max was reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” to me. We read most week nights for 20 minutes. After 21 minutes, I told Max that he could stop.

“I don’t want to. Not yet. “

We read another 5 minutes.

I’ve been waiting for this moment.

Afterwards, I continued reading “The Sandman” comics to him. We are now on #8.

Tonight we watched Planet of the Apes TV series, “The Legacy” from Oct 11, 1974 (when I was four years old). The best part was:

We were lying down in Max’s tent bed in his room on Mueller Drive. Max’s head was on my shoulder. Elliot was lying on my chest and stomach — he’s still small enough for his whole body to lie on me!

Just lying there together, watching in peace, was wonderful. The only thing missing was Karolina.

The three of us watched together. Elliot had no idea what was going on; he probably didn’t understand most of what was said, but I’m sure the apes were novel.

Max seemed to enjoy it. We’re watching the entire 1974 TV series again; last Max saw it was a couple of years ago.

Old computer props from the 70s or 60s? According to Starring the Computer, these are real panels from an IBM AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central built in the 1950s and used as props in the 70s since they were obsolete in ’63 or ’64.

I picked up Elliot at day care yesterday. I peered into the classroom window to watch him without his knowledge. The teachers saw me but knew what I was doing, so they did not tell Elliot.

All the children were sitting in a circle around Erin. Erin was reading to them.

Elliot stood up and went to the other side of the room. He was the only child who left the circle.

He pulled a book from a shelf, put it on a toddler table, and sat in a little toddler chair at the toddler table. He opened the book and turned the pages slowly, one by one, looking at the pictures.

I entered the room. He didn’t see or hear me until I was just a couple feet away. Then he was all smiles and started to come around the table to me. I reached out and picked him up over the table, hugging him. He layed his head on my shoulder.

Then I took the book he’d been looking at, flipped it around and we looked at it together. On one page there was an elephant going down a playground slide. Elliot got very excited, pointing and talking baby talk. It was clear he recognized the slide. Then he started laughing, maybe realizing how silly it is for an animal to go down a slide?

It was a beautiful moment for me!