Latest photos (kind of)

Atticus is a little sponge when it comes to verbal language. He is constantly imitating us. This evening, I said, "See?" to Robby to reinforce how right I was about something, & Atticus stood behind me and said, "See?"

Besides, his usual "baba," "mama," & "agua", he also says...

"up": Robby taught him this one

"po po": maternal grandmother

"bubble"

"scheisse": German for "shit"

"Chapu": our babysitter Liliana's son's nickname, which means grasshopper in Spanish

"dirty": for his diaper

Below is a picture of us at Robby's graduation. He hadn't officially finished his dissertation yet, so it was a pretty anti-climatic day for him. But he'll be uploading in the next day or two. Then the diploma will arrive in a few weeks. Then we'll be cutting our immensely long hair. My hair is so long that it drapes down to my butt and sometimes I tuck it into my pants by accident. I'll be very relieved to cut it short short.

He Grows Exponentially

Atticus has spent almost 10 days at my parents' house because Robby was gone last weekend for the ICA Conference & this weekend for a bachelor party. My, my, he has grown immensely from hanging out with his three older cousins (8, 5, & 3 years old).

Here are list of new things he can do now:

1. he can now peer over the breakfast table on tippy toes
2. he can say "po po" (title for mother's mother)
3. he can nod & shake head on command (in Chinese)
4. he comes down the stairs more quickly (backward on belly)
5. he likes to stick pointy things into electrical outlets and pull out plugs (all the clocks & lamps are unplugged now)
6. he takes hard things & bangs them into other hard things
7. he likes to feed himself using a spoon
8. he blinks when i blink at him
9. he really loves maya because she entertains him. mei mei can talk to him forever. she'd take his feet & pretend to smell them, then say, "ewww! stinky!" audra likes to watch him get his diaper changed because she wants to see if she has pooped. she likes to bathe next to him too.
10. he was clingy toward po po when i was gone over the weekdays.
11. all his teeth have come out, but he doesn't like to brush.
12. he has learned how to open a pen cap (already knows how to work the clicky pen)
13. he likes to draw with pencil.
14. he stands on empty boxes & climbs on stools.
15. he imitates animal noises that i read from a book ("whoo whoo, cheep cheep, mooooo, meow")
16. he says "ba ba" all the time. he misses robby. i think he is happiest when we're all together.
17. he has suddenly started preferring being held before he sleeps. oh oh. bad habit!
    

it's hard to capture his idiosyncrasies with a cameras. his fat little fingers just aren't as cute in a photograph.

Enjoying LA theater

Robby & I have been fortunate enough to find a wonderful babysitter who will watch Atticus as we explore LA theatre. Three weeks ago, we saw The Cripple of Inishmaan at our neighborhood Kirk Douglas Theatre. It was absolutely excellent, though the numerous bittersweet twists and turns in the plot left is feeling a little dizzy and unfulfilled.

Last weekend, we saw a modern adaptation of Moliere's Tartuffe, a hilariously bawdy play about a clever impostor who worms his way into a nobleman's family by acting devoutly religiously, gains the favor of the nobleman, & tricks the gullible sap into giving him the entire estate. We saw this funny play at our neighborhood theatre The Actor's Gang, which is run by actor & director Tim Robbins. It almost went bankrupt last year, but was miraculously saved (by generous donations?). The theatre sits at the corner of Washington Blvd. and Culver Blvd. in a small, beautifully renovated train station.

Yesterday, we returned to the Kirk Douglas Theatre to see Rodger Smith's Juan and John, a one-man, autobiographical story about a young boy's baseball obsession, his dealing with the 1965 violent altercation between San Francisco Giants' star pitcher Juan Marichal and Los Angeles Dodgers star catcher John Roseboro, and his childhood growing up in South Los Angeles during the Watts Riots and Vietnam War. He interviewed both baseball players and write this play using their words and his experiences. It was far more didactic that Robby would have liked. I found it too didactic in some places too, but it was very moving. Stories from the 1960s and '70s are particularly touching to me because I can't imagine the kind of turmoil Americans were going through then - civil rights movement, anti-war movement, Vietnam and napalm. That era presented many defining moments for America.

We have another play to attend at the Kirk Douglas next week. I love not knowing anything about the play before I see it. The experience of witnessing a story unfold with no knowledge of where it's going is such an exhilarating feeling.

Hello, Goodbye, Plane!

Yesterday afternoon, we fed Atticus in our backyard. He wandered around, pulling small oranges from the trees & trying to attach them back onto the branches. He meddled with some potted plants and fell over on some upturned creepy crawlies. He stuck his hand in dirt and waved to passing planes. & he tried to step on our neighbor's tomato plants.

Yay, summer!

He held Robby's iPhone up to his ear (like a boombox) and danced while it played Yo Gabba Gabba songs. We are starting to love Yo Gabba Gabba. Oh no!

Cripple of Inishmaan

Yesterday, Saturday, Robby, Atticus, and I attended the Espe Family Day Care parents' luncheon. Espe made a wonderful lunch for us & we sat at tables outside & familiarized ourselves with the babies' parents. Then Robby and I left Atticus with Lilia & went to see The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

It was a fantastically hilarious play about a small community of people on the island of Inishmaan, off the coast of Ireland, in the 1930s. A Hollywood director has come to Ireland to make a film about the Aran Islands. The people of Inishmaan are all eager to try for roles in this film (or, as they call it, "filim"), including Cripple Billy, the town cripple. He is an avid reader & starer of cows. The characters on the island are all characters: Eileen, Kate, Slippy Helen, Bartley, Babby Bobby, and Johnnie Pateen Mike. They are all horribly mean to each other, but the play is laugh-out-loud funny. We had a good time.

This Irish cast has been touring for 8 months. They're heading to San Francisco next.

During intermission, I was standing in the lobby when a pair of sunglasses dropped out of the back pocket of an older, well-dressed woman. I picked up her glasses & handed them to her just as she turned around. She looked mildly distressed. "Oh," she said. She wiped the lens & said, "They're brand new...Fendi...$350," she said under her breath with eyebrows raised.

Oi.

We always feel like foreigners when we attend theatre. The theatre-going population is always old and White, & Robby & I stick out like sore thumbs. We think that theatre is the best kept secret anywhere, & we can't figure out why younger people don't take advantage of it. We chalk up the absence of younger people to the cost of the tickets. It's really worth it though.

Our little performer

Last night was the first time Atticus was a conscious, proud, little performer. Po po was here was Uncle Cary & Joy, & Atticus performed his regular tricks and new ones at the dinner table:

1. He points to himself when someone asks, "Who's Atticus?" (He learned this one at day care.)
2. He kisses me on the lips, sometimes just leaning forward with his mouth open. (Began yesterday)
3. He started taking food from my mouth, like a bird. (Began yesterday)
4. He smiled at them & then shyly leaned against my arm.
5. He snapped his fingers. (He's been doing that for months)

We took him to the beach yesterday afternoon, & he was so frightened that he refused to put his feet on the sand. We even set down a towel to let him sit. When his foot touched the sand, he pulled it away quickly. A few times, he tried to stand, but he would hesitate in squatting position, then sit down again. Robby held him over the sand, & he'd hold his knees up so his feet wouldn't touch the sand. We're in trouble if he doesn't like sand because we're doing a beach trip this summer!

Back to our regular schedule tomorrow. Back to school for me. Two meetings at USC - one on Monday & one on Tuesday. This means I see less of Atticus. :(
We're all going to be a little sad before we become inured to the busy-ness.

Recent photo of Atticus

It has been awhile since I've posted a photo of the Boy. I fed him 20 min ago at 6:30am. He is now humming away in a his crib, occasionally saying "da da." I love picking him up, setting him on the ground, and watching him teeter over to our room, where he gingerly pushes the door open and peers over the bed for Robby.

He sometimes likes to make a pouty face & breathe loudly through his nose. This is his angry face. He looks like a villain from an old cheesy Chinese martial arts show. Bruce Lee does it sometimes too. It's a haughty, defiant expression. I think he learned it from me.