From Debby O
Hi, Aviva. I read the entire blog from top to bottom, and loved every bit of it. I must say, your "cover boy" is gorgeous! And your contributors (i.e., sons) are very witty, funny, and just a bit smart-alecky. They are also well-traveled and brilliant. I wonder where they could possibly have gotten those qualities.
Here are some further updates about the cover boy (official conflict of interest disclosure: my son Emmett, aka Sticky). This week (at 10 and a half months) he made some very sudden and amazing leaps in development. Every day, something new. He called me "mama" for the first time and has continued doing so. He really seems to understand that that is my name. Just yesterday, Emmett starting saying a "p" sound to mean "up." I thought it was a coincidence, but he did it unmistakeably and in context again today. He has also begun clapping, holding an object in each hand and banging them together, and cruising along furniture (holding on and walking the length of things). On a couple of occasions, he has even let go and stood suspended in mid-air for several seconds, but he seems to have no awareness that he is standing on his own, and is a little startled by the unusually hard fall onto his tush and/or the fuss that adults around him make.
Other big news, "Little Lord Fontlaroy" [someone will correct my spelling; it's Aviva's nickname] usually eats by opening his mouth and waiting for people to put (massive amounts of) food in it. No amount of coaxing has induced him to use or develop the fine motor skills to lift food or spoon and put it into his mouth. "Thank God, he doesn't have to." (If you are unfamiliar with that joke, you obviously don't know Jehiel Orenstein.) Finally this week, Emmett ate one cheerio and two bites of green bean on his own, so it appears that I won't have to re-enroll in college and go to the dining halls to make sure that L.L.F. doesn't starve.
Taking after his uncle Rafy, Emmett is very interested in light and lighting fixtures. When I come into his room each morning, I always greet him and then turn on the light. He now looks up at the fixture before I flip the switch, and it delights him every time that I can do the "vayehi or" trick.
One last thing: he literally grew out of all his 12-month-old clothes overnight. I had to let him walk around yesterday getting a breeze because I couldn't snap up any of his one-sies around the polkas. Craig is going shopping for some clothes tomorrow and will mail them done to us here. (He is still making a movie in Northern California and will be back home in L.A. on the third week of August.) BTW--Today is the proud papa's birthday. He turns 42 [fill in your own gematria or aging joke here]. I'm sure he would love to get some friendly birthday e-mails (crweisz@mac.com).
Well, that's more than you wanted to know. I promise not to deluge you with chochmas from now on. It really was quite an amazing amount of change for one week, and I thought I would share it with the whole clan.
Love,
Debby [aka Ema; Ma; Mama]