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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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
2:59 AM posted by Oscar
Oscar's last week of school. He's really coming into his own these days and school has been going really well. Lately he sometimes inadvertantly calls me Caterina. He told me that she is the Sun and he is the Moon and that they love each other. All of a sudden, he seems to have lots of girl admirers. He hangs out with a group of older girls: Carmen, Carmen and Candela. He lets them hold him and kiss him and hold his hand and carry him around and baby him. Today we met another older girl who has adopted him at school. Her name is Clara and we just figured out today that she is half-American and speaks English perfectly. Neither one of them had any idea that the other spoke English and they were completely shocked.
It's crazy how many people we now know through him. This place really feels like home now. The school is such a tight-knit little community and I think that he has finally managed to break into the "Spanish mafia" and become one of them. He is speaking amazingly well. No one would guess that he isn't Spanish by the way he talks, though they would by the way he acts. He's not nearly as stoic as the other kids. He's still quite the clown.
I have also broken into the Spanish mafia at my school as well... It just takes time to figure out how things work here. This year was quite the learning experience for us all. It seems like a bizarro world at times. The more my American expectations get eroded, the easier it is to get things done. It also helps a lot to know people who are in the same boat. My classes and exams are over now. The level of difficulty in a few of my classes was unbelievably high--beyond anything that I've ever encountered. We'll see how I do... In one of my classes, only a third of the students passed the exam the first semester (and one of them was me--just barely). And this seems to be the norm. We'll see how it goes...
Christian is still plugging away on this work visa. It's been one thing after another and now I think all he has to do is wait for approval (probably 3 or 4 months) and eventually go back to the US to apply for the visa in person.
He just got home from his gig...
Ah, and one last anecdote. Oscar was giving me a hard time about something and I told him that I wouldn't let him watch his Muzzy DVD if he didn't do X. He said, "That doesn't make sense." I insisted that it did indeed make sense. I said, "Muzzy is for boys who listen to their mothers." He disagreed and said, "No mama, you are wrong, Muzzy doesn't have anything to do with that. Muzzy is for boys who are interested in learning different languages like French and German and Italian. Mama, don't you understand? IT'S A D-V-D FOR TEACHING PEOPLE TO TALK IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES." He said the last line very slowly and deliberately as if he were talking to an idiot. I'm afraid the Cytron lawyer genes may be manifesting themselves...
Friday, June 09, 2006
2:03 AM posted by Anonymous
I can't believe it has been so long since I posted in Oscar's blog! It must be because I have been busy being such a good papi every day, I hope.
The past few weeks have been good for Oscar. He really seems to be coming in to his own. He went on a day-long field trip last week to the zoo. Then they had a birthday party for his classmate Alicia at (of all places) McDonalds. He loved it. A couple of days later there was another b-day party, this time for two classmates, Guillermo and Pablo. Oscar had a lot of fun picking out their presents (Magnetic puppet theater/Helicopter/Forklift truck) and going to the parties. It is funny to think of his social life, but he really has one now.
 The other day I was asking if he had a girlfiend and he said "Yes, Caterina. And also Isabel. And I have a boyfriend too, Joseph. I like everybody! Except Michael ... he hits" Michael (pronounced Mee-cha-el) is apparently the class bully. He is pretty big for his age and the other day we saw him riding a bike--without training wheels!
OK, Oscar has been obsessed with two things lately, so I have to mention them both.
First is a dinosaur "leap pad" module that Maureen got for him. It has these little cards that you can put in it and tells you lots of facts about 15 different dinosuars. Oscar has been studying them diligently and every day asks me "who am I today, guess!" I have to ask if he is a meat eater or plant eater and figure out which dinosaur he is. Then he stays in character the rest of the day, and prefers to be addressed as "Euplocephalus" or whatever. When he eats his breakfast he pretends to be eating whatever that dinosaur eats, etc. One of his favorites is a spiny-headed one called Stygimoloch. He has been drawing some pretty nice renditions of the dinosaurs from his book. The other day he drew a very nice T. Rex, and I had him write "T. Rex," spelling it out for him. He wrote "T. Rex" by himself the next time he drew a picture of one. I was impressed. Then the next day I walk into his room, look at the easel, and it is Stygimoloch up there. It really looked like him! More incredible still was that Oscar had written "Stygimoloch" beside the drawing. I went and asked Megan if she knew what Oscar had drawn and written. We were both shocked. The first word the boy writes all by himself, other than his name, is Stygimoloch? Tonight he drew another one and labeled it correctly, copying from another page. Can't help but think this is going to be interesting.
Second is Muzzy. Muzzy is a DVD for learning foreign languages, an animated series for kids. It started coming out as a supplement with El Pais a couple of weeks ago., and we started buying it, also with out usual sunday Kiosko purchases of the "Cuentos infantiles." It is in English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Oscar likes to listen to it in all the languages. It is pretty good. The German is funny. Oscar likes French and Italian. He has also been drawing Muzzy and other characters from the show. Tonight he also drew the logo for the BBC! Ha...
Have to see if Megan can post that Stygimoloch drawing. By the way, he was a plant eater from North America. His name means "demon from the river Styx." He stood about 5 feet tall and had 6 horns on his thick head. He was a member of the Pachycephalosaurus family.
We are are busy planning our summer vacation. Megan is doing her final exams this week and next. Oscar has 2 more weeks of school. Then a week off and 2 weeks of camp! (The camp will be at Nuestra Señora de la Paloma too). I am working on getting a violin teacher for him. He might start lessons next month. I am still pretty busy playing and teaching a bit of bass. It is getting HOT in madrid (95 deg) and we are thinking about breaking down and buying an AC this year!
well, that is all for now, friends and family. much love
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