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, November 23, 2003
11:36 PM posted by Oscar
 Yesterday was Oscar's birthday. We got an early start. Oscar ate breakfast and then opened his present from me. A bundle of "magic nuts and seeds" wrapped up in a leaf and tied with an iris leaf.  This is a reference to his favorite movie at the moment, My Neighbor Totoro. It's a Japanese animated film about two little girls whose mother has tuberculosis. They move to the country with their father and then discover all kinds of beautiful thing in nature, including three "totoros"--ranging in size from little bitty to great big. And also "dust bunnies" or "soot spirits" (which later turn up in another of his films, Spirited Away). And most of all "catbus" or "autobus-meow" as Oscar calls it. This is a bus that is also a cat. His eyes are headlights and the seats are alive and furry--unbelievably imaginative. Of course, only children can see these this world within the world, all based near a giant camphor tree.
Friday night we took him to see Winged Migration. He really seemed to get into it and sat through an hour and a half of nothing more than footage of birds flying--probably more than most American adrenaline junkies could handle! This movie really was amazing, just seeing how worldly birds are and the hardships they face making these epic journeys. It made me realize how limited the human experience really is. Seeing what these birds are able to do sure makes going to Spain for a year seem a lot less scary! Last week we went to see Brother Bear--ick, over-sentimental, trite, and questionable moral lessons, and most of all terrible music by Phil Collins. But what are you going to do--there's just not much of cinematic value out there for two-year olds. Still Oscar seems like a natural film buff, so we try to take him to see anything that won't irrevocably scar him or too seriously insult his intelligence. But I digress...
On with his birthday... after breakfast we went down to the Air and Space Museum. I'll admit that this is only the second time I have gone. The first time was many years ago when Christian's family was in town and I dragged them to a pathetic "Barbie in Space" diarama with about five dolls in stewardess outfits. Let me first say that this museum is a national disgrace. The informational aspects of of the museum haven't changed since the seventies and early eighties, so anomolies like Skylab get more play than you would ever imagine. For this reason, it is also very interesting, you can extrapolate a lot about our country by examining what it doesn't show. The place really comes across as a big advertisment for the militarization of technology. There is very little educational value here, but plenty to buy (a huge gift shop and a McDonalds inside the museum).
 Now that I've unloaded my political baggage, I'll admit that Oscar loved the place better than almost anywhere we've ever gone and cried huge pools of tears when we had to leave. He is so obsessed with planes right now that (aside from Totoro) it's one of the only things he can really talk about. He just ran around pointing and yelling "avion, avion" over and over. He's also very fixated on the moon right now, so I think he enjoy seeing the little videos (many of which I think must be the basis for those natural science spoofs on the Simpsons) . We'll probably be going there quite a bit this winter, since it's right on our metro line and is a good indoor space to run around in and make a ruckus without causing major problems.
 After we managed to calm him down upon leaving the museum ("aye, mama, papi, avion avion!!"), we went to Teaism for lunch. Oscar ate tofu and watched the fish. Then we headed home. Oscar napped. Then we watched the Finding Nemo dvd--while eating sushi, sorry fishies--that Bett gave him for his birthday. He loved it (and we did too). Then off to bed. The earth went around the sun twice and Oscar is now two years old!
Today we did our usual Sunday thing. We walked down to Dupont Circle. Went to the farmer's market, bought some apples and other stuff for Thanksgiving dinner. Hung out in the circle... Oscar found a big stick and rode it around the park like caballito (horse) for almost an hour chasing squirrels and blowing on dandelion fuzz. Ate again (!) at Teaism. Tofu and ochazuke. Oscar had a bit of a tantrum, recovered and carried on. Then we walked home through Adams Morgan. Sang "al tambor" and "los pollitos." He's taking his afternoon nap now. New words: granada (pomegranate), playa (beach), buho (owl), snow, "where are you?", tea, deer...
Saturday, November 22, 2003
9:17 PM posted by Oscar
REVISIONIST POST (1-19-2004):
A photo of Oscar on his birthday with his neighbor Jasmine.
Friday, November 21, 2003
9:28 PM posted by Oscar
We've been celebrating Oscar's birthday for the past two days. Yesterday, Mary Kate and Harry came over for dinner and we had a cake with two candles. Ever since Parker's birthday party, Oscar has been very interested in the whole concept of birthdays. I'm starting to feel a little guilty for not having a party for him, but things have just been too hectic lately with work and the house. It seems more important to just enjoy the day-to-day things. We finally finished getting the cabinets up in the kitchen, which was a major ordeal. Everything is gradually coming together with our plans to go to Madrid next year... We're just trying to make as much money as possible between now and then.
A few weeks ago we were talking to another mom at the park and she said that her son really went through a developmental metamorphosis right at his second birthday. I can really see that now with Oscar he is now talking like crazy in English and in Spanish. He's not just repeating and imitating, he's starting to come up with his own expressions and idiosyncratic sayings. His latest is "sucia agua" (dirty water). He says this whenever something is dirty, icky, or just less than ideal. I have no idea where he got this from. He's saying it in the wrong sequence--it should be "agua sucia," not "sucia agua." But it seems to capture a certain mood and phenomenon very well and we use it now, too.
Oscar's music class is helping him get used to more structured activities. He is really starting to get into it and participate more. He loves his teacher and the other kids in the class. His favorite songs are Ring Around the Rosey and the Chocolate song. He is remarkably uninhibited and socially unencumbered--most other kids his age seem much more reserved and cautious. He just runs around dancing and singing, even if he doesn't know the words. No one can understand anything that he is saying, but we're getting about fifty percent now. He doesn't seem too intent on assigning meaning to his utterances. Harry likened him to a postmodern singer who expresses herself without "language" through the full range of sounds and tones. This seems to freak some people out!
Saturday, November 08, 2003
9:16 PM posted by Oscar
  This is a quick one... I've been putting up some photos.... Halloween came and went. Oscar dressed as a pig (thanks for the costume, Bett!), Christian and I dressed in our standby costumes--reindeer and gorilla. Champ even came up and hung out with us on the stoop, while we gave out candy and spooked out the little kids. Oscar got to eat a piece of chocolate. He seemed to enjoy it a lot more than last year--the masks didn't scare him and he liked all of the attention from the kids (even though they all thought he was a girl).
Parker turned four and we went to his birthday party. It was fun to see all of the four-year-olds. They were so civilized compared to Oscar. They sang the Happy Birthday song about 50 times and sat at the table to eat ice cream and cake (with napkins on their laps--these kids had serious manners). Oscar, on the other hand was running around like a maniac and got his first taste of junk food. He ate an obscene amount of cheese balls and got sticky orange fingers and a big rash. 
Oscar has also developed a real thing for Mary Kate. He loves seeing her and asks about her whenever the phone or doorbell rings, hoping she's coming to visit. It's very sweet. We met her and Patrick last weekend for brunch and then hung out a bit in Dupont Circle. She's trying desperately to indoctrinate him into "gatorhood." It's hilarious, because everytime that she and Christian watch Gator games, they go crazy with all of the "go gators" business. Oscar always gets all worked up and then starts yelling "bunny, bunny." Because his two favorite stuffed animals are his gator and bunny, he honestly can't think of one without the other...
 
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