After greeting all the other new parents with their children and hearing about how they all love my husband (he is an awesome dude, if I say so myself!), I handed out the one-handed bubbles and the placemats, and we went to the car. I should have told the other new parents that the reason I bought the bubbles was because if your child freaks out about the car seat, the bubbles work well as a distraction. Boy was I glad we had the bubbles!
At home, the first thing we did was greet Meshugunah. Our shih tzu "Shug" is a very sweet black and white fifteen pound mop of love. She desperately wanted to meet the newest member of our pack. Izzy was terrified. We sat with him on the sofa while he stared at this creature on the rug, careful to keep his feet as far away from it as possible, while Edward hugged Shug and petted Shug and showed Izzy how lovable she is.
After about fifteen long minutes of this, he noticed blocks to stack and then a bin full of plastic superheros and matchbox cars. Carefully avoiding the dog, but no longer panicked, he took handfuls of toys up to the sofa until he had amassed his own stash which he enjoyed playing with for much of the day, on and off.
Next stop was the kitchen where Mama (me) had put on a pot of rice and the slow cooker was full of pinto beans. He ate at the kitchen table with beautiful manners, a napkin on his lap, holding his spoon well -- he was not at all interested in being fed. Still, all day long, as much as possible, I made eye contact with him whenever I could, especially while eating. He tried sweet potatoes. He can count -- I gave him three meatballs, but he asked for four! He tried a cut up grape tomato. He tried ketchup and maple syrup, separately. He ignored cucumber. He had some of Papa's salad including the red onion, and he seemed to really like the radish. He poured out the "sauce" from the beans and rice onto another plate with help and encouragement from me. I don't know how I understood that he wanted to do this, but I did.
Traveling with Papa, he had baggies of gluten free organic cheerio-type cereal, and he would often go into "his" backpack and retrieve a bag of these and carry these around. I explained several times that he could keep the closed bag in his pocket or he could eat them in the kitchen. He knows not to eat them in the living room. He repeated what I said about "dans la cuisine". (I am speaking in French and English even though he speaks neither - he speaks Lingala and babbles away as if we can understand him. We nod and try to decipher whatever it is he said.)
After snacks, I gave him a bath and changed his clothes. He splashed and was very happy in the tub. He isn't afraid of getting water in his eyes at all. Eddie said, "what a great swimmer he will be!" He put on pants, but realized he was too warm, and he took me over to his closet, opened the pants drawer himself, and I helped him take off his pants and put on shorts. I taught him that instead of leaning on the furniture to take his pants on and off, he can lean on me. Later when I helped him into his pajamas, he did lean on me!
We have a few phrases -- ca va (French for "it goes", as in, "how's it going?"). Ca va bien (it goes well), and ca va mieux (it goes better). He says a few other things that we can understand, a Lingala word for toilet, and the sound "my" which is important and accompanies fidgeting and searching, but I have no idea what it means.
Outside we took a walk to the soccer field where we met the bird man Jim who has huge parrots on his shoulder and another bird in a cage. Eddie got to pet and hold the big birds. Then Izzy climbed into my arms and stayed there, resting his head on my face for long periods of time until we came home again. He is not light! Definitely over twenty pounds. Hopefully almost thirty!
Then Papa decided to have some alone time with Eddie outside, and as soon as he left, Izzy got agitated, stopped eating, went to the book that Papa had probably read to him a million times and threw it on the floor and stomped on it. I tried to explain in every language imaginable that Papa will come back, but I knew that he needed more reassurance than that. So we went out again.
We easily found Papa and Eddie playing ball in the park. Izzy made it clear that he had to join in, and he did. The baseball game became a soccer game (with Izzy's new soccer ball), and they all had a blast together. Izzy has a great sense of humor, and sometimes instead of kicking the ball, when he finally got it, he would just sit on it and laugh!
After more beans and rice than I've ever seen anyone eat, he went to play in the family bed, and when Eddie came in, he said, "come on up, Eddie!" Eddie immediately hopped onto the bed and then did a bellyflop and Izzy copied him exactly. Eventually Israel went to sleep on Papa's shoulder in the family bed. It was five thirty. What a glorious day! I did four loads of laundry, and Eddie and I have been finding homes for all the amazing artifacts and sculptures and masks that Scott brought home. Eddie hung up a few things with his own hammer and nails as a surprise - wow!
Time to walk the dog and clean the rest of the kitchen. I put Eddie to sleep after reading <
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