Photos of very limited interest

Here are some old family photos that are presented without much information (if you want to know more about a photo--and I can't imagine why you would--just ask).

Reinhart Lietzow and Family, circa 1892:

Wilhelmina Beck and daughters Clara, Willie, and Emma Lutzow:

Willie Lutzow, circa 1907:

Wilhelmina Beck and daughter Clara Lutzow:

Willie Lutzow with Emma Lutzow and Family:

Reinhart Lietzow, circa 1934:

Reinhart Lietzow:

Van Lutzow & Charlotte:

The Tungates and Lutzows:

The Tungates and Lutzows:

George Washington Tungate:

George Washington Tungate:

George Washinton Tungate & Child:

Charles Allen's home in West Falls:

Charles Allen's home in Buffalo (is this a different house?):

Stanley Allen:

Stanley and Charles Allen:

Charles Allen and Jack:

Verner Allen at work (looking cool in the black shirt):

Verner Allen at Laguna Beach, California, July 1936:

Marcella Tungate (Sally Allen) at Laguna Beach, California, July 1936:

Mayme Holmes:

My Childbirth Playlist

I've just been browsing through my ipod and I came across a playlist I put together about 2 and a half years ago for listening to during labor. I wanted as much control during this difficult period as I could manage. (Yes, it was part of my attempt to micro-manage the labor process.) I was afraid of giving birth. I get claustrophobic in hospitals and I wanted to feel I had control over something--if not over the pain or duration of labor or the location, then at least over the music in the room.

The playlist is 4 and a half hours long and I listened to it twice in the hospital. What lovely gems are on this playlist? Relaxing, soul-centering instrumentals with the sound of a bubbling stream in the background? Fuck that. I wanted to be amused and even distracted. I wanted to pretend I was not on the fifth floor of a hospital. My attitude was "get back to me when it's time to push." My playlist is a collection of songs that made/make me feel happy and comfortable. Nothing difficult, but not necessarily relaxing. Here's a small selection:

Licking Stick (James Brown)
In the Mouth of a Desert (Pavement)
Mambo No. 5 (Prez Prado)
Anadolu (Ozel Turkbas)
Bonnie and Clyde (Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte B)
Care of Cell 44 (the Zombies)
White & Nerdy ("Weird Al" Yankovic)
You Won't Be Merry on a North Sea Ferry (the Toy Dolls)
Old World (the Modern Lovers)
Through Being Cool (Devo)
Abraham (Chico Marx Orchestra)
I'm Gonna See You (that dog)
They'll Need a Crane (They Might Be Giants)
Best Friend (the English Beat)
Disorder (Joy Division)
Montana (John Linnell)
Skinny Legs and All (Joe Tex)
Cold Beverage (G. Love and Special Sauce)
I Should Be So Lucky (French and Saunders)
Give It To Me, Baby (Rick James)
Bathtime in Clerkenwell (the Real Tuesday Weld)

It's funny to see the songs I thought of as being reassuring. They did the trick, though.

What's the sad guy doin'?

A few days ago Simon got annoyed by something and decided he was sad. "Is Simon sad?" he asked me. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me around the backyard in a playful manner. He stopped and looked at me. "What's the sad guy doin'?" he asked, then we ran around the yard again.







In this last photo Simon is wearing a swim diaper on his head. He named the diaper Ellie and said it was a hat.

More Simon Says

9/6/09:
"'Se cayó'--Spanish for 'go boom.'"

9/7/09:
"Oven is hot."

"S is for Simon."

"Cars parked on the street."

"Another pinecone."

9/11/09:
"Birds have feathers and they fly in the blue sky."

9/12/09:
"Go for a walk with grabs?" (He wanted to go for a walk and be allowed to grab my breast. What?)

9/17/09:
"Go for a walk?" No one wanted to go for a walk, so Simon tried another tactic: "Go get Perrier?" He remembered that a few nights ago Michael took him for a walk to the corner store to buy some Perrier.

9/24/09:
"The dudes come out. All the dudes come out. Daddy say that." (I don't know what this means.)

10/6/09:
"Sir Topham Hatt has a penis?" (This came out of nowhere.)

10/10/09:
"Like a gas station of spider webs." (I don't know what he was talking about.)

10/21/09:
"The moon! There on the sky. Has a crescent."

10/27/09:
"Simon was crying in the living room, on the rug."

11/14/09:
Simon: "Mommy is friends with Simon and the toys?"
Mommy: "Did you just ask if Mommy was friends?"
Simon: "Yeah. Amigos with us?"
Mommy: "Of course. I love you so much."

11/21/09:
"Hard to say, ‘seashells by the seashore’?"

11/23/09:
"The city is too far away for the trees."

"How to make so many foods." (looking through a cookbook)

"Let’s put Thomas in here. That’s a good idea." (playing with trains)

11/29/09:
"Okay, we’re gonna go here.... Duck, you wanna play with me? You wanna play with me sometimes?.... Sorry, Percy, we don’t go there.... No, Emily, you cannot go here on the bridge. We do not help Lady to the bridge.... Simon can do it all by himself.... Goin’ to the countryside." (a snippet of his monologue while playing with his Thomas trains)

11/30/09:
"Need a towel for the cries." (He wanted to wipe his tears.)

"Aidan has to share with the other very nice cars."

12/5/09:
"Mater towed McQueen out of the cactus." (He was acting out a scene from Cars.)

12/12/09:
"Wanna snuggle with Mommy."

12/16/09:
"The penguin says, ‘You got a friend in me.’ He says that." (referring to Toy Story.)

12/18/09:
"Be careful, Mavis!" (playing with his trains)

12/21/09:
"Thank you for Christmas." (He said this to friends of mine who had given him a Christmas present.)

12/23/09:
"Leo has to get his baton back so he can conduct. The animals help pull Rocket out of the rocks. The bumble bee helps and the other bumble animals help." (describing a scene from Little Einsteins.)

1/1/10:
Simon’s version of the Thomas song:
2, they’re 4, they’re 6, they’re 8.
Something trucks, all in freight.
Red and brown and green,
They’re the really useful crew.
All with and round the bends,
It’s Thomas and his friends,
Bum, bum!

1/5/10:
"Two balms!" (Simon was excitedly holding up two tubes of lip balm.)

1/7/10:
"Nemo is Mommy’s son."

"Chugga chugga choo-choo!"

"Confitty and beyond!" (He was trying to say, "infinity and beyond.")

1/8/10:
"You wanna walk with us?"

1/9/10:
"Simon loves Mommy very much."

1/10/10:
"You wanna snuggle me?"

1/13/10:
"Mickey Mokes!" (He calls breasts "mokes," and he made a Disney joke.)

1/17/10:
"Hi, Michael. What are you doin’?" (pretending to talk to his dad on the phone)

1/19/10:
"Karen, Aidan, and Kevin." (I was just impressed by his mental use of commas and the "and" at the end.)

1/26/10:
"Hi, Bulstrode. You wanna go at Tweety’s house?" (playing with toys)

"You want more cheese? It’s delicious!"

1/27/10:
"Don’t hit like that. Just slow hit." (I had told him he couldn't hit, that he had to be gentle, and he translated this into his own language.)

1/28/10:
"I can’t believe the moke is a big, long balloon!" (He was looking at a balloon and making a breast joke.)

1/30/10:
(Singing) "The barracuda is very big… in life." (Huh?)

"I love you, moke."

2/15/10:
"The kids go, 'nuh, nuh, nuh,' then they go wipe, wipe, wipe, and then they go flush, flush, flush."

2/17/10:
"You wanna pretend Mommy has moke?"

"Are you reading a recipe book?"

2/18/10:
"It’s a fish. I have to find it. Oh, no! Where are you? We’re in the water. Goin’ in the dark! Oh, no!" (part of monologue during play)

2/21/10:
"Please, I want some water."

2/22/10:
"Mommy, find more toys with Mater’s flashlight."

3/2/10:
"...and put the ingredients in the oven." (part of monologue while playing)

3/5/10:
"Is Sully vanilla? Is Boo vanilla? What are these vanillas doing?"

"Are you at Monsters, Incorporated?"

What I've got stuck in my head

More Sentences

Summer Theater is over now, so I'm able to scrape together a few minutes for an update. Simon is 21 months old and loves to talk. He's good with words. Here are some more of my favorite sentences:

* "Sun is like a orange moon. Sun is like a orange stop sign."
* "Two guitars. Guitar has a hole. Like a chimney?"
* "The truck has a flashing blue light."
* "Green leaves and flowers in the alley."
* "Tapioca is puddin'."
* "Mommy cookin' broccoli and sardines." (sardines pronounced "sar-beens")
* "McQueen and Sally drive on a bridge...water, dry leaves, huge waterfall." (referring to a scene from the movie Cars.
* "Lady playin' the bagpipes." (a woman was playing the bagpipes in the park)
* "This way bicycle, man with a helmet."
* "What's the deal?"

Sometimes he speaks a bit Spanglishy. Here is the way he described playing with his friends at the park:
"Niños at the parque. Lucas and Eli and Cairo and Justin and Jake. Niños say 'Hi.'" Remember the sand? Remember the library in the other parque?"

He made up a song the other day while we were walking down the street. It went like this: "Trees and cars and trash cans and vans... and Hummers!"

There was a carnival at the park down the street two weekends ago. I had performances and couldn't go, so Michael took Simon one night and my dad took him the next night. The first night I asked Simon what he did at the carnival. He told me, "Big wheel up in the sky" (he saw a ferris wheel), "White balls" (He and Michael played a game that involved throwing white balls at targets), "Monkey" (Michael won an orange toy monkey in the ball toss game). Later, Simon named the monkey Kumlee. Where he got that name is a mystery to all of us. The next night, after Simon went to the carnival again with Papa, I asked him what he did. He told me, "Red bear turn around" (they rode a red bear on a bear ride that goes around in circles), "Bee up in the sky" (they went on a bee ride that goes around in circles and up and down), "Ride on a truck" (they went on a truck ride).

I'm starting to be surprised by all the stuff he knows. For example:

Me: "This plant has thorns. They're sharp. Ouch! Be careful."
Simon: "Like a cactus?"
Me: "Yeah! Who told you about cactuses?"
Simon: "Daddy."

Here's a hilarious pun/joke Simon made the other day. The key here is the way Simon pronounces the word "milk." He says "moke." There have been out-of-control fires in our general area and you could see huge plumes of smoke in the nearby hills. Simon and I had talked about the fire and smoke quite a bit. A few days ago we were out walking, and I pointed to the hills and said, "That's smoke." He looked at me, then pointed to my chest and said, "That's milk!" He cracked up.

Simon also loves making rhymes. "Mommy salami" is one of his favorites. "Penis neenis" is another (usually only said during diaper changes).

Oh, yeah--Simon decided to name my car a few days ago. He named it Fatty. I don't know where he got the name. I don't think he knows what it means. I think he just likes the sound of it. Anyway, my car is Fatty.

Sentences

Simon has been speaking in sentences for months now. Here's one of my favorite sentences: Simon was nursing, then nuzzled his lips against the side of my breast and said "Kiss milk." Here are some others from the last 2 or 3 months:

* "Donald Connor boom." (Donald O'Connor falls a lot in the "Make 'em Laugh" number from Singin' in the Rain)
* "Julie mommy." (he likes to say my name sometimes)
* "Mommy silver car." (Mommy's car is silver)
* "Daddy brown car, hot wheel." (Daddy's tires were very warm)
* "Careful shoes." (being careful in his new shoes)
* "Simon sit step." (sitting on a step)
* "Michael funny." (Daddy can be pretty funny)
* "Ready go car." (wanting to go in the car)
* "Out spoon boom." (some yogurt dripped off his spoon)
* "So many cars." (he says this all the time while watching cars drive by)
* "So many people." (he says this a lot when people are around)
* "Moon like circle." (sometimes the moon looks like a circle)
* "Man say 'woo!'" (we heard a man yelling "woo!")
* "People dancing" (I don't remember the context of this)

Here are the words to a song Simon was singing to himself the other day:
"Simon, Simon. Other babies. Doo doo doo doo doo."

Pictures of June

Moving On

Our new house is in a great neighborhood. We can walk to the park. We can walk to a donut shop (Simon has learned about "nummy donuts"). There are lots of couples with kids living nearby, and people are very friendly. Simon and I spend a lot of time walking around, so I've discovered some fun facts:

On the next street over there is a house inhabited by vegetable lovers. So much do they love fresh veggies and fruits they've given over their entire front yard and "sidewalk strip yard" (what else do you call that area of "yard" on the other side of the sidewalk?) to the growing of them. This thriving garden has artichokes, zucchini and other squash, kale, various cabbages, various tomatoes, 7 huge sunflowers, watermelons (some have sprawled over the curb into the street), and other stuff I can't identify yet. One evening as Simon and I walked by I saw a man emerge from the house, walk down to sidewalk strip, harvest some squash, and go back to the house. He was probably preparing to cook dinner. I guess his neighbors are on the honor system.

On the other side of the street is a house that is undergoing construction of some kind--I think the owners are adding on to it. This house is on the corner and is across from a small corner of the park. Behind this house is an alley, right before the intersecting street takes over. Along much of the brick wall in the alley are posted home-made signs of various neon colors. There have to be at least 30 signs. The messages are handwritten and bear some variant of this:

"This is the land of the free. Don't let them take away your freedom and privacy without a fight. The person at [next-door neighbor's address given] is a coward and a sicko! Why does he need 4 cameras--all aiming at you and your family?! This is terrorism! Fight back!"

The point seems to be that this person is taking photos of people (mainly children) playing at the park. I don't know, though. I saw one camera, but it was aimed at the back gate of the alley, clearly for security purposes. There was another one--very small--by the front gate. It was crowded between shrubs and trees, and I doubt it could take decent pictures of people at the park. I'm still looking into this. Either way, the writer of the signs went a little overboard, I think. And it has to be the person who lives at the house on the other side of the alley wall, the house across the street from the vegetable lovers. I'm thinking the wall is his (or her) property, which is why no one has removed the crazy signs. The front yard of this house is interesting. It's mostly full of different kinds of cactus. There are some bougainvillea too. The ground is covered in white rocks. Basically, everything that grows in the yard has nasty, vicious thorns. Odd.

On another street some joker drew a really lame cartoon penis in wet cement some time back. On a street perpendicular to that, someone wrote "Only love can conquer hate" in wet cement.

A few days ago, walking to the liquor store a couple blocks away, I heard a teenage girl screaming to someone on her cell phone, "There are naked pictures of my sister on people's phones! Don't play dumb with me!" I was sad to miss the end of that conversation.

Long Time No Post

How can life become more hectic? I thought life would calm down once Simon got a little older. I'm so naive! I remember congratulating myself on having such an easy baby because Simon was so peaceful and quiet when he was 2 days old! The wake-up call came to me on his third day. My optimism surprises me. Where does it come from? It's nice to know it's still there somewhere. Still, as can be seen in my lack of blog posts, my life is getting busier. With Simon running around, I barely have time to turn on my computer (except for work) these days. In fact, I'm stealing a few moment to rite this while Simon is nursing--yes, I'm typing this with my left hand. Yes, Simon is still nursing.

We sold our house. Escrow closed 4 days ago. We are renting a nice house less than 5 miles away from our old house. It's smaller, but has a nice yard and is just a few blocks away from a park. Simon loves to be outside, especially looking at cars driving by. "Outside" is his favorite word lately. He yells it whenever he's inside. He wants to be outside all day and all night. We go for long walks. Well, usually Simon wants to be carried, which is super fun for my weary arms. He walks a little bit, then wants "up!" And he won't sit in his stroller. He hates being strapped down, I guess.

Simon loves cars. "More cars!" he yells about 300 times a day. We go out to the street and watch the cars. "Many cars!" he yells. "So many cars!" He then catalogs them: "blue truck," "silver car," "black car," and so on. There can never be enough cars for him.

More later...

Water

Here are some videos of Simon playing with a sprinkler at Nonna and Papa's from last weekend. The sound is funky because a piece of scotch tape got stuck over the camera's microphone and I didn't realize it until later.

The List of Words

This is really something only a mother cares about, but I'm that mother and tant pis pour toi!

Words Simon says (well, all I can remember right now):

bath, duck, dog, no, down, up, on, nose, ball, book, cat, key, man, boy, girl, baby, bye-bye, mommy, daddy, egg, pear, belt, clock, car, shoe, fan, music, milk, breast, knee, toe, towel, bra, train, mole, eye, mouse, water, bean, bread, more, pen, papa, nonna, Esthela, John, pillow, grandma, can, spoon, bowl, boat, boom, cookie, arm, comb, bunny, funny, pig, dart, goal, go, gummy, apple, juice, blanket, night-night, Rose, Kanga, Roo, Pooh, Mickey, Minnie, Thomas, Nemo, Po, Laa-Laa, Dipsy, Tinky Winky, Noo-Noo, Jackie, Ron, Simon, Elmo, bubble, Spot, Ollie, turtle, shirt, cup, broccoli, Gonzo, macaroni, monkey, yoyo, fish, vacuum, camera, grass, bluebell, booboo, light, phone, Hector, ravioli, yummy, ant, tummy, chest, pan (Spanish for "bread"), pasa (Spanish for "raisin"), yay, whee, door, Amy, banana, hello, cow

I know there are some more, but it's hard to think of them.

Another Story

I've got a better story now. Okay, not so much a story as little "snapshots" of non-horrible things...

One day last week I tried to get Simon to take his second nap, but he wasn't interested. I gave up and started to cook dinner. I held Simon most of the time, but put him down to chop veggies and stuff. I was mostly done--just had to boil the water for the pasta--when Simon tugged at me and said "nah-nah." Huh? He kept saying it and pointing toward the hallway. Finally, I realized he was saying "night-night"--he wanted to take his nap. So we took it.

Simon is saying more and more words (I've counted over 50 words he uses on a regular basis) and saying them better and better every day. Three days ago he couldn't say his name at all well--"ehmah" or something like that. Today I said to him, "Can you say Simon?" He smiled and said "Shymuhn." He's working on the "s" sound these days, which comes out as "sh." He normally calls Esthela "Dah," but today, for the first time, he said "Shtela." He's very proud of his accomplishments, too.

A few days ago Simon grabbed Michael's horchata drink from a Mexican take-out place and put the straw in his mouth. I thought he was just playing with it, but I noticed it seemed like he was drinking. After a while he dribbled some of the white horchata out of his mouth. Yep, he was drinking. I thought you had to teach toddlers how to use a straw. Simon figured it out on his own, seemingly without much effort.

Super Fun Happy Love Time

Let me tell you a story about a woman whose in-laws are being sued for a very large amount of money after defaulting on a commercial property lease. Well, it turns out that her husband, as co-signer of the lease, is also being sued for this very large amount of money. And since her husband is the only party with assets, he is the one who is going to have to pay the very large amount of money. Even though he had nothing to do with the property and only co-signed on the lease as a favor to his pleading, promising, "nothing will go wrong" guaranteeing mother. She needed the property for her business and couldn't get it without someone else's good credit. And then her business failed due to gross incompetence and irrational behavior (she may have purchased some "magic beans" for half a million dollars--that would not surprise me). Deeply in debt and without a business, she still had an expensive lease she couldn't get out of. And so now her son, for being stupid enough to lend his name to one of his mother's crazy schemes, is seriously fucked.

Actually, that story is no good. Let me tell you another. Hmm... I'll get back to you.

The Update

Simon is just racing down the developmental highway these days. It's hard to keep up with all his new words and concepts and abilities.

Here are just some of the newer words he says: Towel ("dow"), Shoe ("zhoo"), Bean ("bee"), Keys ("ghee"), Fan ("ban" or "van"), Boom, Mole ("moh"), Water ("wah wah"), Bra ("bwah")

The other night Simon took the Singing in the Rain DVD off the shelf and put it on top of our portable CD player (which, by the way, is always playing the Rutles). He looked at me with a meaningful expression. He wanted me to play the disc, thinking it was music. I had taken the disc out of the case so he couldn't destroy it, but he knows that such cases usually hold discs and that those discs can play music. So I put the disc in the DVD player and skipped to the "Moses Supposes" dance sequence. At first Simon was skeptical, but then he saw the tap dancing and really liked it. "That's Gene Kelly," I told him (Donald O'Connor will come later, I guess). We watched that number several times. Simon stomped his feet really fast like he was tap dancing. Very cute. He was excited and proud. "Where's Gene Kelly," I asked, and he pointed at the tv screen. If you ask him, "Can you tap dance?" he'll stomp his feet for you.

The House

Being the financial geniuses that we are, Michael and I are trying to sell our house. You know, to take advantage of the booming real estate market. No? Okay, just because we want to live somewhere else. As wonderful as our house is, we have kinda grown to hate it. We went through so much hassle to fix the house up that we always feel annoyed here. Also, we want to find a more toddler-friendly place, closer to parks, sidewalks, and other little kids. We don't have to move; we just want to.

That said, what a pain in the ass it is to clean up and clear out every weekend for the Open House. It's really hard (impossible) to keep the house clean when Simon's around, so every Friday we race around making everything spotless (because just clean doesn't cut it), then we head over to my parents' house to spend a night or two. We've done this for three weekends so far. My parents have helped us "stage" our house to look its best. During the week we don't touch certain things, like the dining room table and the elaborate place settings on top of it. There are a lot of "off limits" areas, actually. We don't use the breakfast nook table either--it's all decorated ("staged") and we don't want to mess it up and start over again. Oh, yeah--and about half our stuff is packed away in a storage facility.

The house looks great. Closets, cupboards, bookshelves, etc. are organized and pleasingly arranged. We have flowers in many rooms. It's nice to live here now! Well, except for the hassle of the Open Houses. When we leave for the weekend we take certain valuables with us--cameras, laptops, jewelry, financial documents, etc. We also lug some stuff up to the attic--the highchair, an electric fan, an air purifier, a curtain rod and curtains. Then, when we come back home Sunday night, we have to lug these things back down. Blah, blah, blah.

We have a few people who are interested in the house, and a husband and wife who will probably make an offer soon. That's good. I don't want to live like this for much longer. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a house I'd rather live in. I've just been looking at Internet listings, but what I've seen isn't all that great.

Simon is handling all of this really well. He has fun at my parents' house--he loves to play with Nonna and Papa! And he's learned a lot about cleaning from watching us scrub and wipe and polish. He likes to take a paper towel (or baby wipe) and run around the house "cleaning" surfaces--floors, tables, walls, furniture. It's very cute.

Kitty & Dog

Simon really likes this video:



And, for some reason, he also likes this one:

Words & Such

Simon has a lot of words, but only a few sounds. It gets confusing. "Bah" can mean "ball," "bye," "phone," or "Buddha" (there's a statue of Buddha in a neighbor's yard). "Mah" can mean "more," "mommy," "milk," "mush" (from the book Goodnight Moon), "moon," or "man." "Gah" can mean "clock," "car," "cat," or "can" (as in "trash can"). "Dah" can mean "dog," "Esthela" (the babysitter), "daddy," or "duck." He's starting to add nuances to his pronunciations, though. More and more often he says "mama" and "dada" to call Michael and me. "Moon" is often "moo" and not just "mah." "Man" is often "maa" (same vowel sound as in "bad").

He's added a new sound recently: "beh" (the same vowel sound as in "bed"). This sound means "bear," "belt," or "pear."

He's also started (just barely) communicating two ideas in one "sentence." Earlier today he was holding a phone and looking outside to the street. He looked at me and said, "bah, gah," which means "phone, car." He was holding the phone and looking at cars driving by.

What else? He calls my father "bah bah" (for "papa") and he calls his cousin Aidan "ay!" (the exclamation point is intentional; he gets so excited when he plays with him.)

Rainy Days

It's been cold and rainy for nearly a week. Simon's got a mild cold, just a runny nose so far, but he still wants to run around and dance. He also wants to spend a lot of time outside. Yesterday it rained fairly steadily throughout the day, so he didn't get to go outside much. At 9:30 in the evening Simon walked over to his Baby Bjorn carrier which was in a heap at the foot of the couch. He picked it up by one of the straps and held onto to me with his other hand. He walked me to the front door and tapped the carrier against it. He looked up at me with hopeful eyes. He wanted to go for a walk in his carrier. It was so sweet and so sad. It was super cold out, so I had to say no.

Simon's newest word is "car," or as he says, "gah." When do babies start putting the ends on words? Simon's main words:

Moh (more)
Bah (ball)
Dah (dog)
Duh (duck)
Gah (car)
Moo (moon)
Bah bah (bye-bye)
Bee bee (belly button)
No
Dada
Mama
Baby

He says other words now and then--like "mow" (mouse)--but these are the ones he uses the most.

The sun is starting to come out. Maybe it'll be warm enough (and dry enough) for Simon to play outside.

Dancing to the Rutles