The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.
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If you want to add something to Oscar's baby-blog, send an email to megan@alpha60.com and we can set it up so you can post...
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Sunday, December 29, 2002
8:16 PM posted by Oscar
Lisa came to visit yesterday. We went to Adams Morgan and had dunch at Chez Antoine. Antoine (the owner's 3 year old son) was there. He was running around and acting like a wild child--entertaining Oscar with his antics. It seems like all three-year old boys love to run, slide, and throw themselves on the floor in a heap. Parker was doing the same thing a few weeks ago.
We came home and Oscar played with Rita (Lisa's dog) and Lisa. He's very into playing hide and seek now. He'll walk around the corner, stay there for a minute and then poke his head around to make sure we've noticed that he's gone. By the time they were leaving he had worn himself out and was laying on Rita's dogbed. Our first floor is slowly becoming less baby-hostile. We've gotten a lot of work done on the woodwork, but there are still piles of wood laying around and lots of dangerous things to get into. Now that we're hanging out downstairs more, I feel liberated from the TV (which is on the second floor)--it will be nice when we can turn him loose in the house--but we can't do this until he is a bit more self-reliant and not so bent on his own destruction.
A few days ago we went to the mall at Pentagon City. We went to Best Buy (I really loathe that place) and Oscar saw the wall of HDTVs. He had a real Maggie-Simpson-moment and walked--almost as if in a trance--toward the TVs, arms out-stretched, and went right up to one and started licking it.
It takes a lot more effort in the winter to take Oscar to the park and get him around other kids. I'm looking forward to Spring. We'd really like to figure out some kind of daycare/nanny-share situation one or two days a week, so we can reclaim some semblance of a life and so he can get to socialize a bit more.
Thursday, December 26, 2002
6:37 AM posted by Anonymous
Hi Blog,
Happy boxing day! Well, day after Xmas. We had a nice day at home today. It felt like a home. Lots of good cooking and some cleaning, and a good time with family to end the day. Megan already described all the stuff we made. It was fun and tasty. I would like to do more cooking like that. Shannon brought her famous flan, which was delicious. And some of Patrick's favorite wine a 1995 Lebanese that was delicious and perfectly paired with the pork. We had a nice fire going by the end of the night, and Oscar was walking up and down the length of the house, holding his red crayola marker. Wish we could be closer to more family at times like this. But with just the 4 (5) of us, it was nice and relaxing. We did get to talk with Mom, Dad, Grandmother, Abuelo, and Aunt Kathy today on the telephone. Shannon and Patrick announced their big decision to move down to FL in a few months. We are happy for them but we will miss them! I completely understand all the reasons they may want to get out of DC or just make a change. I think it will be good for them both. Now we'll have someplace to stay when we come visit!
Oh, almost forgot. The doorbell rang today. I went to see who it was and it was our neighbor Garvey with a present for Oscar. We were all surprised.Very nice of the Young family to think of him. We are lucky to have neighbors like these. Oscar opened it--it was a toy car that makes all kinds of noises and goes back and forth. He was mesmerized by it! We've go to remember to thank them.
6:16 AM posted by Oscar
It's Oscar's second Christmas. It snowed a little this morning--just enough to be picturesque. Christian and I made dinner for Shannon and Patrick (and their dog, Oliver)--pork in a pomegranate sauce, watercress salad, garbanzos with spinach and breadcrumbs, a cabrales spread, and pa amb tomaquet. We just got a really great Spanish cookbook by Penelope Casas. Oscar had great fun playing all day and eating pomegranates (he loves them to the point that it is almost unhealthy--he may be a little compulsive, guess we know where he gets that from...). We made a fire and listened to the Vince Guaraldi Peanuts Christmas.
It's funny last night we watched the end of "It's a Wonderful Life"... Last year when I watched it I was in such an ecstatic, infatuated mood that--for the first time--I watched it and really unabashedly loved it. This year, I was right back to my postmodern, ironic self--scoffing at all the schmaltziness! My favorite line in the movie is when one of the upper-crusty WASPs calls the commoners "garlic eaters." Sign me up for membership in that caste!
Other good news: Oscar has pooped in the potty four days in a row! On her last visit, Mom gave me some old books on child-rearing from the 40s that belonged to her friend Nancy's mom. She thought I might get a kick out reading about how different the attitudes toward child-rearing were. I've actually followed a lot of the advice that they had on potty training and it is really working. Oscar really likes it--we read to him and sing songs. I think people were just a lot more disciplined about how they raised kids back then. They also seemed more interested in making kids self-sufficient and independent. After all, most babies in that generation were potty trained by age two. Now lots of kids don't get trained until age 4. I really want to avoid having an intellectual discussion with a fully articulate Oscar about why he needs to use the potty!
Friday, December 20, 2002
6:16 PM posted by Oscar
For the past few days Oscar has started putting his head on my lap and giving me hugs. It's really sweet. This past week I stopped breastfeeding him (he just seemed to be losing interest)--I guess he misses the physical contact. It's nice to see him chose be close to us, even when he doesn't have to...
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
11:42 PM posted by Oscar
We sure do miss the San Miguel sun! It's been a frozen wasteland here ever since we've been back. I feel like I'm back in St. Louis! Today, there was an ice storm in the morning and its been drizzling cold rain all afternoon. It's such an effort to go out. Since we walk pretty much everywhere, we have to get so bundled up that we can barely move. At some point Oscar always gets tired of his stroller, so one of us has to carry him. Usually by the end of an excursion, the stroller is loaded up with groceries and other stuff and Oscar is sleeping in one of our arms.
Yesterday we took him to the doctor and he had gained two pounds in one month. He got a whole bunch of shots and had his blood drawn, which was very traumatic for all of us, though he bounced back quickly.
Oscar is running all over the place now. He's walking, climbing the stairs, eating like a maniac, and crashing for a two to three hour nap every day. He's saying bye-bye, hola, uh-uh (instead of uh-oh), that, and baba reliably. He's also said gato, cat, buddha, and a few other words in context, but only when he feels like it. He has really discovered books. He grabs one at a time and brings it over to one of us to read. His favorites seem to be Buenas Noches Luna, The Runaway Bunny, En el Campo, Piglet, A Pooh Book with a squeaky toy.
My current favorite is a really, really surreal Teletubbies book that I think came from my mom's friend Marsha. The "plot" goes something like this: there's a pink cloud inside, one of the Teletubbies is eating tubby custard. the cloud causes the tubby custard to spill, a big machine called a no-no tries to suck up both the cloud and the tubby custard. It gets sick and throws all of it back up and it reforms as a pink tubby custard cloud. The teletubbies love each other very much and have a group hug. I think it's good that there's no clear moral to the story and that it leaves quite a few loose ends.... Maybe this seemingly bad children's literature will prepare him for Pynchon novels and French New Wave film later in life.
Thursday, December 05, 2002
7:49 PM posted by Oscar
  We're back from Mexico. It was a great trip--fiestas, mariachis, birthdays, presents, beautiful weather and scenery... I think the whole experience really kickstarted Oscar's already burgeoning perspective on the world. He learned to say "hola," got to swim in a hot springs with waterfalls, got bitten by a bee, met lots of interesting people, and--best of all--got to spend lots of quality time with his grandparents, Bett and Dixon. We're going to write more and add photos soon.
 Yesterday we had a nice day lounging around the house and recuperating. In the afternoon, we all got bundled up (it's a very cold 32 degrees here!) and walked over to Adams Morgan. On the way over, we ran into one of Oscar's friends from the park--Isabelle. We all ended up going over to the Diner to watch their Tuesday afternoon kids movie. Actually, Isabelle watched the movie and Oscar watched her watch the movie. They shared some crackers and bananas and had a nice time pointing at each other (luckily, Oscar doesn't seem to have been too traumatized by the bee experience).
Today it snowed and we all got bundled up and went to play in the yard. Christian shoveled our walk while Oscar and I watched all of the neighborhood kids have a snowball fight across 13th Street.
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