The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.   Archives << current   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...

oscar's life   Friday, February 21, 2003 7:09 PM posted by Anonymous   Well I made it back from SF the other day. Reunited and it feels so good!! I really missed Megan and Oscar, it was the first time we had been separated for more than a few hours, really. When I came through the front door it was so good to see his face and he was just smiling like crazy. I don't know, maybe he thought I was gone for good! He seems bigger and older now, after only a week! He is saying a few different things and doing more (like dancing and putting his birds in the nest). Being so far away and having a lot of time on my hands made me appreciate a lot of things about my life, and our life together as a family. It's good to get out of your daily routines so that you can see them from a different vantage point. I am very thankful to be home with my little bobos (number 1 and number 2). Even if it looks like frozen tundra outside, it is warm in here. Thursday, February 20, 2003 4:55 AM posted by Oscar   Christian finally got home this morning. He and Oscar had a joyful reunion and then took a nap. Later, we took Oscar out for a walk to Adams Morgan. Christian put him in the backpack, which we haven't used for a long time, because Oscar always behaves a little strangely in it. As you can see from the photo, today was no exception. The entire time we were walking with him he kept his head cocked completely to one side. I think he couldn't stand the thought that he was missing potential schmooze time by being trapped behind Christian's head. I just can't say it enough, Oscar truly marches to the beat of his own drummer. We had lunch at the Diner and then walked around some more. It's still really snowy and slushy, with four foot high piles of snow along the sidewalks. We both stepped into puddles up to our knees a couple of times. People were looking at Oscar like there was something terribly wrong with him (because of the head thing). When Oscar woke up from his second nap we put on Celia Cruz. He started cha-cha-chaing and cha-cha-chaed headlong right into the wall and knocked himself down. He cried for a few minutes, sat in his furry dog chair, and then got back up and carried on with his cha-cha-chas. He's definitely got a good sense of rhythm, I can't wait to take him to some outdoor concerts this summer. Monday, February 17, 2003 7:46 PM posted by Oscar   It has been an interesting couple of days... Last week was total chaos all over again--terror alerts, planes and helicopters circling constantly overhead, duct tape and plastic sales were way up... It really threw everyone in DC right back into a panic. I've been abstaining from watching the news, so I tried my best not to get too caught up in and manipulated by the whole thing, but it was hard to avoid. Big Brother told us not to worry, but to be prepared and alert--like deer in headlights, I suppose. We didn't run out and buy duct tape and plastic (with all the home improvement, I'm sure we have some around somewhere...). But I did actually feel worried about taking Oscar to the Jewish Community Center for his swimming lesson (which is only five blocks north of the White House and is supposedly a potential target)--how ridiculous is that? And we did have to talk/think more seriously about what we would do if the worst happened. It felt terrible to be forced to have to think this way. Christian went to San Francisco on Friday to go to a wedding (Julio Sanchez's wedding). I have to admit, part of me got caught up in the hysteria and really didn't want him to go. Then the snow started falling. And it snowed for over two days straight--over two feet. It's been so quiet--all of the city noises that you learn to tune out are gone and it feels so peaceful. Only the occasional sound of a snow shovel scraping a sidewalk. Strangely, all of the hysteria about the terror alert immediately dissipated and everyone fell under the spell of the snow. So Oscar and I have been completely homebound together for the past two days--we've been eating, napping, playing, watching DVDs, taking baths... It's really been nice to have him to myself for all of this time. He's started dancing more. We were watching Fantasia and he was running and spinning around throwing his hands up in the air and doing a sort of running-in-place type of ballet dance. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't gravitate toward the performing arts in some way. He's truly a natural (and god knows he doesn't get that from me or Xian). This morning he said Triqui (as in Que Cocina Triqui?, a book that he has in Spanish--What's Cookie Monster Cooking?) and baa, baa, baa (we were reading about sheep). He's been eating udon noodles, edamame, dumplings, avocados, pears, apples, rice and beans, mangoes with sticky rice. I've really had to dip into the freezer and canned goods. Christian is stuck in San Francisco for a few extra days. He was supposed to come home this morning, but it looks like the soonest he'll make it is Wednesday. I can tell that he and Oscar really miss each other. Last night Oscar was calling out and looking around for him. When he heard Christian talking to him on the phone he said "dada!"--which he usually doesn't do, because he really take our constant presence for granted. Today Christian is going for a long walk in Golden Gate Park to see the ocean. It really feels like he is a million miles away. My big trip out for today will be to try to make it two blocks to the Metro station to buy a newspaper and some magazines... Monday, February 10, 2003 6:05 AM posted by Oscar   We had another swimming lesson today--this time I got in the water with Oscar. He really enjoyed it and is starting to kick and use his arms a little. He seems a lot more expressive, fearless and outgoing than the other kids his age. He got so excited he just started yelling--in a very happy way. I think he was saying "agua." He's sleeping so much better--he's not cranky or tempermental at all anymore. I think we were just running him ragged by letting him stay up too late and skip naps. Now he entertains himself for hours, coming up with games, trying to dismantle whatever order we've managed to impose... He's been very affectionate these days. After he has been playing for a while he'll come over and lay his head on one of us and give us a hug. He still hasn't quite figured out how to give kisses, though he enjoys receiving them. Sunday, February 09, 2003 5:22 AM posted by Anonymous   Time for a quick blog entry! I am tired and sickly so this may not make much sense but here goes. Oscar has developed some attachments lately. He always goes to sleep with his little bunny and his gator. When he wakes up every morning, or from his naps, he is usually holding them, one in each hand. Hopefully we can add a photo of that since it is so emblematic. Today he really got excited when it was time for his bath. He practically ran down the hall (naked of course) and then tried to climb into the tub himself. He's been climbing the furniture and getting up on things more. Then when I went and got his rubber duckie, he very clearly said "duckie" perfectly and was very proud of it too. He kept on saying it. He likes it when we sing to him, he rocks back and forth and kind of dances. We sing the song "masticar" from the Barrio Sesamo video and he even tries to sing along. He really recognizes things and remembers where they come from. He likes to spin around in circles when he's dancing. That's it for now! Tuesday, February 04, 2003 6:37 PM posted by Oscar   A few of Oscar's favorite things: his yellow triangle rubber duckie calder mobiles taking a bath pomegranate seeds mangoes playing "where's Oscar," "little peanut" and "dopi,dopi,dopi" constructing and deconstructing with blocks song and dance routines getting random strangers to pay attention to him riding the subway walking in circles Denyce Graves, Manu Chao, and the Dixie Chicks Elmo's World Sunday, February 02, 2003 1:31 AM posted by Oscar   We went to Arlington to hang out with Mary Kate today. We went to Eden Center to eat at a Vietnamese place--Oscar had some pho. He's really into noodles and dumplings these days. He had a lot of fun seeing Mary Kate and her housemates. He still loves being around lots of people, especially when he's the center of attention. He's been talking more. Recent words: Oscar, uh-oh, hola, duckie, good job, mama, dada, that. And he clearly understands commands like: get the pooh-bear, traeme el osito pooh, ven, dejalo, bring me the duckie, etc. We also had a major breakthrough in the last week or so with Oscar's naps and sleeping. We can finally just put him in his crib and he will settle down and fall asleep on his own. It was getting harder and harder to get him to sleep. We would come up with an elaborate ritual that would work for a while, but then he would figure it out and manage to stay awake, getting more and more frenetic (we called him monkey-boy, because he would literally bounce off the walks screeching and laughing). I was talking to Lala about it and she said I should just put him down and let him "cry it out" and see what happens. Of course I thought she was crazy and that it wouldn't work. For the first day that we tried it, he cried for about 15 minutes and then eventually fell asleep (sometimes while standing up). The next day, nothing--no crying, no monkey antics--he just rolled over and went to sleep on his own. Christian and I were shocked--it was like we had exorcised a demon! Since then he's been fine--hardly any crying, no waking up at night. I feel like we have reclaimed about 5 hours of free time for ourselves. I'm still not sure why it worked. It's almost as if we liberated him from needing to cry out. As long as he knew we were going to come in and check on him and pick him up when he cried, he felt obligated to keep up his end of the bargain. He's an enigma....