Skip to main content

Adventures in baby-wrestling

To all passengers on the flight this morning, my apologies. The baby that
was screaming was mine. He was not crying because he was hurting, he was
crying because I wouldn't let him get down and crawl around up and down the
aisle while we were going through turbulence.

Holding Luke anywhere is becoming more and more like the greased pig contests
I have read about. I get a good grip, and he wriggles and squirms until he
gets free, or I get a better grip, or I get so fed up with wrestling with him
I put him down. Upon reaching the ground, often he will cry to have me pick
him up again. Mostly, however, he makes a beeline for the most dangerous
object in the room: the hard corners, the outlets, the markers, the knives and
forks, and so on.

We did have some toys for him to chew on in the airplane. However, the best
toys were clearly 1) the card telling us that we could pay 3 dollars for a
candy bar, 2) the wrapper from his sister's fruit leather, and 3) the plastic
beverage cup. When they came around and asked if we wanted something to drink,
I wanted orange juice but something made me say water. It's a good thing,
because as I took the water into my hand, Luke's hand reached out and went
into the water.

Of course, the best toys for babies are other people. Luke flirted shamelessly with our seatmate, the people behind us, the people in front of us, the flight attendants... My favorite was when he stood up on my lap facing the rear of the plane and popped up and down to play peek-a-boo with the people behind us.

The trip went well, especially considering that we left the house at 4:15 AM
eastern time (2:15 mountain time) and got to Telluride after 3 pm mountain
time. My favorite scene from the trip was Eleanor in the shopping cart,
asleep with her head on the lettuce. I used to watch the other parents
enviously, as they walked their sleeping children in their strollers. Not only
wouldn't Eleanor sleep in the stroller, she wouldn't even sit in the stroller,
she had to push. I think this was the first time she had fallen asleep during
the day for about 3 years.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...

Books I like: reality edition

Here are some more books from my childhood and later. I read a lot as a kid, and these books are the ones that stand out in my memory. I figure that if I can remember them 25 years after I read them, they must be pretty good. I'm calling this the "Reality Segment," not fantasy, not science fiction, not history, just real life. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin : This is probably my favorite children's book of all time. I read it in 3rd grade or so, then read it again to clear it up more. Then I read it in 6 th grade and finally understood what was going on during the second reading of the will. In more recent readings I've understood more about Sydelle Paulaski and the relationship between Dr. Denton and the lovely Angela. What a pleasure. Ellen Raskin has written many other good children's books (all quirky and surprising) but this is the jewel. Bruno and Boots books by Gordon Korman : As the FNDP (Friendly Neighborhood Developmental Psychologis...

Books I like: magic/science fiction

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was younger, so I was surprised when I was thinking about this list at how few books were on it. The other thing that is interesting is how many books I just remember a few details from, but not anything useful like a title or author. Half Magic and the whole series, by Edward Eager: My favorite is Knight's Castle, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I had ever read Ivanhoe... Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald: I'm not sure when it happened, but I now identify with the parents rather than the kids. The Seven Citadels by Geraldine Harris: I came back to the Jr. High library to check this out even after I moved on to the high school. Girl with the Silver Eyes by Wilo Davis Roberts: I always wondered what would happen if I had ESP and other "special" abilities. The OZ books, by L. Frank Baum: I read almost all of these (all the ones I could find in the library, rather). My favorite is Tik - To...