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   Tuesday, January 27, 2004 10:25 PM posted by Oscar   It's been snowing and sleeting and icing for the past few days. The sky hasn't gotten any lighter than a grayish putty color. My eyes crave some light...there's no getting around it...it's just depressing. If it weren't for tea, pomegranates, pancakes and movies, I know we would go crazy. And to add insult to injury, this was a powdery snow (if I were eskimo, I would have a very precise word for this, or so we're told). No snowman, snowbunny, snowpulpo, or snowrobot. We went out yesterday and drew some animals in the snow and I shoveled for a while. Since then we've been cooped up inside. Oscar pulled the curtains down on the second floor today, because he wanted to stand on the windowsills and watch the snow. Here's a view from our third floor window. Despite this, Oscar has been in a good mood. He has discovered flamenco music and loves it. How could he not? It's as dramatic and emotionally intense as he is. I've been reading a new translation of Don Quixote--the best novel ever written, I think. Those characters are as nuanced and complex as any that have followed. And living as we have been for the past months without TV and news for entertainment, I think that maybe our lives are not so different--we are pretty disconnected from "reality," left to our own devices to let the narratives we've been given run rampant. To live without clinging to the news and daily tragedies that are so integrated into American culture and thinking, is to live outside of the realm of small talk. A dream world. But I wonder which of us is Quixote and which is Sancho Panza...Christian says I'm Quixote, the dreamer... Sancho IS always more concerned about where his next meal is coming from--so I guess that's settled. We're psychologically preparing ourselves for our trip to Spain--we've been watching a constant stream of Spanish movies, speaking, reading and studying Spanish as much as possible. There is so much Spanish culture and language in this house right now that I wonder whether Oscar knows where he is (actually, the US is the fifth largest Spanish speaking country, so maybe that's not so strange). He's napping now. I can see it's already starting to get dark. I've got another community meeting tonight for the "task force," so I'll be venturing out. I've become a micro-activist. I'm fighting all of my "chivalrous" battles within a few blocks of where we live... There's so much crazy political and economic stuff going on in our neighborhood right now. In a few years there is no telling how it will all pan out. Sunday, January 25, 2004 4:22 AM posted by Oscar   Since so many of my postings here are upbeat, I feel compelled to tell the other side of the story... It's been cold--really cold--for weeks. This has put a serious damper on our outings and activities and everyone has been suffering from cabin fever. Yesterday, I couldn't take it any more and suggested that we go to the Museum of Natural History for a few hours even though it was horribly and bitterly cold outside. Unfortunately in the past two weeks, Oscar has developed this very strange condition. He loves the anticipation of going somewhere, but can't deal with the actually process of being transported to a destination. So he gets very excited about taking the metro or a taxi to a museum or a movie, but the minute we are in the metro or a taxi, he starts screaming, because he wants to be at the place where we are going. There's no reasoning with him about this or distracting him, he is adamant and unrelenting and wants to be transported immediately to the place he is thinking about. So yesterday was a complete blowout. I didn't have any caffeine in my system, so I was running a little rough to start out with. He was a terror in the Metro on the way down, refusing to sit down, yelling and causing a general ruckus. He was fine once we got to the museum--we took him to see the gem and mineral exhibit that I had just seen with my Dad and Elizabeth a few weeks ago. It is such a nice exhibit with lots of shiny, sparkly things to look at and touch. But "Godzilla" returned for the cab ride home (the first cabbie actually made us get out, because he couldn't stand the screaming!). The second cab driver tried to keep him entertained with bird noises and distractions (we were trying too, but at this point we were no match for Oscar's powerful mental disorganization). There's clearly some sort of cognitive/developmental issue going on that is eluding us and we haven't come up with a reliable way of dealing with it (other than taking the bus or walking places, which strangely doesn't seem to bother him). Next time he does it, I have vowed to "turn right around and go home" as parents seem to always say! But as with most of these things, he'll probably just grow out of it on his own and our crazy schemes won't make much of a difference. Another strange thing that he is doing is that when he doesn't get his way, he starts ranting on several different topics: poopoo, robots, elephants, aguilas (eagles), platanos (bananas), manzanas (apples), yum-yum in general, etc. This all sounds very strange and disturbing to anyone other than Christian and I. When we got home, I laid down the law a bit, expressed my displeasure with the day's events, and in turn Oscar expressed some serious displeasure with the new world order. I asked him to stop and listen--repeatedly and then some more. Eventually, after quite a bender he did and he said "I'm sorry taxi," "I'm sorry metro," "I'm sorry mama," "I'm sorry papi," and strangely "I'm sorry elephant." Then all three of us took a nap, albeit a short one, as Oscar woke himself up ranting and pooping in his pants. Ah, to be two years old. He refused to eat, whined and yelled some more, and Christian--in an act of desperation--put him to bed at 7:30 (two hours before his usual bedtime). It was one of those (thankfully infrequent) days when I really felt like I may not be cut out for this job. He slept like a log all night and today he was his usual happy self again. I think he is really still an untamed force of nature. So beautiful and mysterious--and most of the time relatively predictable. Christian and I are the superstitious villagers. We come up with elaborate rituals and incantations to keep our little god happy, but every once in a while I think he needs to gather up all of his energy and show us just how powerful he is. Sometimes he does this in a totally delightful way, dancing and laughing like a maniac. Other times he shows us the other extreme--all-encompassing tyrannical destructive energy. Maybe he just gets tired of trying to please us all of the time--we are gods to him, too. So in the hopes of putting all that behind us, Christian made pancakes for breakfast (one of the "little things" on his seasonal depression coping list). Oscar and I went in the front yard and played in the snow flurries. We had a nice time. Mary Kate dropped by in the afternoon. and then Oscar played on his own quite a bit and watched Pistas de Blue (Blues Clues). I decided to simplify his life a bit by taking away a large number of his toys and books. I think the clutter makes him more frantic, because he likes to keep track of where everything is at a given moment. I'll just rotate them in a little at a time from now on. And now he's fast asleep with gator and bunny and roo. I wonder what he dreams about... Monday, January 19, 2004 8:40 PM posted by Oscar   Another long hiatus... I've been working too much. We've had lots of visits the past two months. My mom and Nancy. Dad and Elizabeth. Mark and Dana. And Oscar has been changing so much. I looked back over the Blog for the last six months or so and it occured to me that I left out some of the most important events. I guess this reflects how much we are enjoying the small, everyday moments. But I've decided to go back and add some photos from family visits, trips and weddings--before they get lost on my hard-drive forever. Most recently, Oscar got to spend time with my Mom and Nancy when they visited back in November. The weather was very nice. Nancy brought Oscar a stuffed horse that makes galloping noises when you squeeze its ear. He loves it and just goes crazy bouncing on it like a maniac. Oscar loves it when people visit, so much extra attention. After Mark and Dana left, Oscar renamed two of his duckies Mark and Dana (he already has two frogs named Harry and Deepak--so labeled after Deepak's birthday in December). Last week when Dad and Elizabeth were here, it was insanely cold. But we still managed to get out with trips to the zoo, National Gallery and Natural History Museum (Christian likes the mammal exhibit, I like the rocks, and Oscar likes the big elephant in the rotunda). Latest developments: Concept of Family Oscar definitely understands the concept of family now. We'll often be out and he'll do a check to make sure that mama, papi and baby are together. He organizeds his animals into Mama, Papi and baby. We sing the song... "I'm a chickadee and I live in a tree with my mama chickadee and my papi chickadee and we're a family, a fam-i-leeeee...." Language He's keeping Spanish and English much more separate now. He understands that there are at least two words for any given object or phenomenon and he changes his pronunciation and rhythm when he's speaking one language or the other. He's even picking up different accents in Spanish. Some words like "manzana" he says like a Castillian (man-tha-na), others like pollito he says like a Argentinian (po-gee-to), and he says ai-yai-yai in puro Mexicano--I think he picked it up from Cien Mexicanos Dijeron (the Mexican Family Feud, which we used to let him watch back before we gave up TV). Social Life He's really interested in the other people in his life and talks and asks about them all the time. He likes to call people to say hello and incorporates them into his play. We show him pictures of family and friends and he can name everyone, even people he hasn't seen in a long, long time. Whenever he sees a picture of Christian's Uncle Pat he calls him Tio Gator (or Tio Ackee). He loves his music class and talks about the other kids quite a bit. Obsessions In his quest to understand the world, Oscar seems to go from obsession to obsession--horses, birds, robots, dinosaurs, Totoro, Nemo, buddha, eagles (so many here in DC that I never noticed), circles, rectangles, triangles, stars, trucks, birthdays, chanukka, tractors, trains, planes, sushi, snowflakes, elephants, hippos, snowmen/women/bunnies, squirrels, tofuheads... I think that learning about things this way is part of our cultural and aesthetic indoctrination. So many of these things are used as symbols that repeat over and over. And some are just quirky things that Christian and I are interested in that he views through the lens of a two year old and reinterprets. We can always tell what he's most interested in at the moment, because when relieves himself he'll call it a "robot-poop." "dinosaur-poop," etc. Pop Culture We've been taking Oscar to every movie that we can. Last night we went to see Teacher's Pet. This movie was interesting from a design/artistic perspective, but left much to be desired storywise. Getting there was quite an ordeal, because we went to Union Station to see the movie, only to find out that the paper was wrong and it wasn't playing there. Oscar looked so dejected when I told him that that there was no movie that we decided to hightail it all the way across town on the Metro to where it was playing at Mazza Gallery. On the way, Oscar threw a major tantrum, which we later realized was caused by an overly full bladder. He doesn't really tell us when he has to go, he just gets increasingly irrational and frantic. His favorite movies are still My Neighbor Totoro and Finding Nemo (which he watches in Spanish). He also likes the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies from Fantasia. All I have to do is utter a few words of dialog from My Neighbor Totoro and he catches the reference right away. Sometimes he makes references himself or re-enacts his favorite parts. Holidays/Celebrations We had a string of birthday parties this fall and ever since, Oscar has been obsessed with birthdays. But he's under the mistaken impression that all of these parties are for HIS birthday. Ah, Christmas--I was too busy this year. Call me the Grinch, but it seems like an unhealthy American fetish designed to stimulate the economy. I just wasn't brought up with this (my parents were too practical and too Jewish, I suppose) so it's one of many cultural things that I just don't get. As hard as I tried to play down the holidays this year, Oscar became enthalled by all of the wintery bliss--snowmen, snowflakes, presents, lights, trees, trains, cookies... I managed to keep Santa away from him for the most part (though we did go to see "Elf," which was a sweet movie)--and I hereby vow never to lie to him about the existence of Santa. What's the point? As myths go, it seems pretty simplistic--surely there are better ones out there. Religious I am not, but I prefer the real Christmas story: mother, baby, manger, well-wishers: seems like the whole message is that kids don't come into the world with anything and they don't need much to make a difference. Yes, the contradictory messages of consumerism and Christmas bother me.They bothered Oscar too, because as we watched the beloved Snoopy Christmas Special, he cried and screamed whenever a commercial came on. It was then that I realized that he has never really seen any commercial TV--and he hasn't yet developed that strange mental mechanism that allows us to suspend the narrative and go to a quiet place for three minutes while the commericials remind us that it is time to buy lots of stuff. But we did celebrate our own way. This year I made latkes and we opened our presents early, one day at a time in a Hanukka mode. We lit candles, Oscar tried to blow them out, still thinking it was his birthday. We sang a g-rated version of the Adam Sandler song and on Christmas day went to the Kennedy Center to see Keter Betts, sing "que bonita bandera," and then went to Chinatown Express for noodles soups and dumplings (handmade by the guy in the window)--it was a very nice, low-key day. Music He sings constantly. He makes up his own songs ("Like "Doo, doo, how are you," which is at least as good as some pop songs) and sings along to songs even if he hasn't heard them before. He still loves Manu Chao ("oh, oh, let me be, oh, oh, set me free!") and Jose Luis Orozco. He seems inexplicably drawn to Mexican political songs about Cesar Chavez, Benito Juarez and Cinco de Mayo. We're learning a lot from him. Potty Trained He's a big boy now. Totally potty-trained except at night. He even pees standing up now ("Like Papi," he says. Of course I'm jealous). I made him some special pants with iron-on Ernie patches. He's already outgrown them, but he still calls all of his big boy pants "Ernie pants." All of our hard work has paid off!