Pobresito Ojito

After an early morning where I was quite frustrated with Aeli for insisting that 4-6am was a very good time to get up and play, we finally got him back to sleep, and then he woke up with a shiner.

A mosquito bit him right next to the eye.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to be bothered.

Flower Songs and Hamper Games

This song might be about Aeli...


This is definitely about Aeli:

Lovin' Life

Remember when Aeli looked like this?
Me neither.
They just get BIG right before your eyes. Sometimes I come back from a couple of hours away (acrobatic yoga/Thai massage class yesterday!) and I swear he's grown in my absence.

I'm feeling crummy today, but we've been having a great time lately.

Aeli loves this giant monkey. I usually make it speak to him in Spanish or French and he gives Aeli besos. So when A plays with him on his own, sometimes it looks like they're makin' out.

Clockwise from top left: Ales and the mirror, Emmett and Aeli, Aeli insisting he does.not.like avocado, Emmett, Kristy, and Aeli, Ales proud of himself for spitting up, A and Dad doing bobsled practice in the mirror, When he scooted himself under the futon, Lookin Dorkilicious in his cutoff shorts and collared shirt, Amazed by E.

Most important notes from the past week
1. New friends! (See above.)
2. A is scooting like crazy.
3. A has now done 4 nights in his crib! We all wake up less often, albeit earlier in the morning, and Stefin and I can actually cuddle again! (Gross, I know.)
4. The mirror is SUCH a great toy. (See below.)

Snoots the Ham

We have probably about 25 nicknames for Aeli that we regularly use.

When he's army-crawl + downward-dog-ing across the floor: Scoots.

When he's whining because he just threw something on the floor and he wants it back; Or he rolls over on the changing table and pees while he's belly-down, then cries like I'm the meanest mom ever when I roll him back over-- in those moments, he's Snoots.

He's been Snoots a lot the past 48 hours.

It starts with him tumbling around at 4 in the morning, because now that he can almost-crawl, he doesn't just roll, he gets up on his hands and knees, eyes still closed, and then, since he just can't seem to get comfy enough to fall back asleep while milling about on all fours, he rolls around, crawls into the wall, or kicks or butts Stefin or me in the face.

The true transition to the crib is upon us.

Another charming thing he's been doing sometimes lately is spitting up a little bit- and then just swallowing it. Like, "It's cool mom, I've got it under control."

Here's a glimpse of some stuff we've been doing:

I Spy: The RoadtoCollege mural I've been working on at KIPP, delicious food from our garden and farmer's market, this cute kid we stumbled upon...

Hey Lemme Help!

Thanks, Ales. (When I look at that it somehow looks like "Ah-less." It sounds like ale. Like beer. I tried spelling it like his name minus the i plus an s, and then it looked even weirder: Aels? Here we go again.)


Also, have you heard about this new Netflix for baby clothes? Awesome.

Songs for Aeli (and other blessings, prayers, and well wishes)

When Aeli was born and we were inundated with requests from friends and families to get Aeli gifts, we decided that with our incredible group of friends and family members, we'd issue a general request for songs, blessings, prayers, and well wishes to set him off into his new life. It cannot be mentioned enough that our collective friends and family represent a formidable supergroup of hyper talented superheroes whose range of talents and sensibilities in this world are unmatched in any timespace dimension known in the universe.

Suffice it to say that our friends delivered...and continue to more and more every day. Aeli's first days in this world were filled not just with Mom and Dad, but with Grandma and Grandpa Craven and Tia Tara, too. As soon as Tara and Gramps left, Auntie Erin was soon to follow; and shortly behind the Craven clan's departure, followed Dad's friends and family en masse. To be exact, when Aeli was less than two weeks old, a group of sixteen from New York,Virginia, California, and D.C. converged on New Orleans for New Years 2011 to envelop Aeli in warmth, song, and silliness. This series of visits left behind paintings, notes, a hand-made glow-in-the-dark mobile, and a box of letters for Aeli, hand-written and hand-enveloped for him to read and open at various milestones throughout his lifetime.

Then, shortly after their departure, Aeli received a gift via email. Dad's best friend from high school, Nic, and his ladyfriend, Diondra, wrote, recorded, and edited this gorgeous song for Aeli entitled "Moon". It moved our hearts and made both of us cry (and Aeli gawk in wonder).

Nic & Diondra New Years in New Orleans

"Moon" by Dio & Nic

A week after the big group departed, Mom's two college ladies-en-mischief arrived for an extended stay. Auntie Caitlin and Auntie Nicole (Auntie Coley) facilitated Mom & Aeli's coming out of the house. For a week, they ran amok in New Orleans's cutest cafes and boutiques, acclimating Aeli to his true identity of public celebrity/Gerberbino/thunder thigh captain/flirtalicious/grocery store charmer. (It was also Mom's transformation from public burlesque persona to public breasts-out-to-feed-in-a-restaurant persona.)

At the end of the week, Auntie Coley whipped out her ukulele to serenade Aeli a song she wrote for him while on cross-country train. Mom recently recorded "Aeli's Song" live with Auntie Coley at a reunion of college chums on Lake Quinault in the Olympic Rain Forest. Auntie Coley took the liberty to add two more verses to the song in tribute of Aeli's first 6 months of reverse-mulleted life. Mom cries every time at the third-to-last verse.

"Aeli's Song" by Auntie Coley

Aeli and Nicole at The Bullocks

Other friends wrote beautiful blessings, prayers, and books for Aeli. Many thanks to all who have and continue to buoy Aeli's bumbling, tumbling, and rumbling growth into our incredible little dude. We're a lucky family. He's a lucky boy.

The Work of Not Working

One minute Aeli's in the middle of the blanket covered mat in the center of the room, and the next he's underneath his crib jamming on the (silent) keyboard. And he's not even actually crawling yet! I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for never being able to sit down again.

Meanwhile, taking care of my little scooter is an incredibly full-time (and fulfilling) job. I was eating my bread-and-cheese lunch in line at the post-office the other day when I thought to myself, And I'm not even working! I don't know how we managed the second half of last year. I'm proud of us, anyway.

Last Saturday at the farmer's market, we obtained a twenty-five-pound box of tomatoes for $8. A couple of juicy hours later we had:
about 12 pints of tomato sauce, some chili, and a pan of tomato paste I used the next day to make tomato-okra-barley stew. Yum! Now, our house is again tomato-neutral.

We've also been hanging out at KIPP a lot lately. Stefin started teaching again yesterday, so he's had a lot of work to do, and I've been helping out by adding to their wall decor with a mural. Aeli's been providing lots of emotional support.
It's great, though, being home. At one point in my life I would have thought it almost anti-feminist, but I am loving my time focused on my baby. My partner and house and personal projects get the next most attention, and I am a thousand times less stressed than when I was still teaching. I even suggested we have folks over for dinner during the week (a proposition I would not have made during the last school year)! I know I will go back to working in some capacity in the coming months, but for now, this is so wonderful. I couldn't ask for much more.

Makin' Moves!

Traveling, and Aeli's First Foods

Aeli likes carrots.

He also likes: not sitting in his carseat for hours at a time. Who'd blame him?

We got back late Monday night from travels that began the last week of May. In this time we visited:
Tel Aviv, Batyam, and Jerusalem, my good friend Catharine from France who just happened to be in Georgia, Rita in North Carolina, Hannah and Sha and Adam and crew in Charlottesville and along the Rappahanock River, VA, Stefin's family and some friends in Washington DC, the home and show of a professional dolphin trainer, and Bobby Flay's burger place, in Atlanta, The Bullock's Homestead on Orcas Island, Moran State Park, The EMP, Gasworks Park, and Lake Quinault in the Olympic National Forest.

Aeli entertaining the masses in Virginia.

Making dinner and pitting cherries (that we picked!) at Hannah's house.

One of Aeli's first five boat rides.
(The orange dye of the life vest made it look like he'd been eating Cheetos.)

The boys at Gasworks.

We were efficient.

These places were amazing. The people were even better. The unfun parts were listening to Aeli scREAm to get out of his carseat on the day we did the longest drive stretching it even further grace a one 30-minute wrong turn. Fun parts included: Aeli swimming in 5 out of 6 of our Eastern road-trip states, in rivers and lakes and streams, cooking and playing with friends, camping with family, a custard-off in which Stefin was the only participant but we were all willing recipients, hiking with Aeli in the backpack, Stefin and I getting to meet some of each other's best friends in the whole world, and, as Erin put it, "anytime we were singing."

Aeli swimming in South Carolina, just minutes before we got out and that huge thunderstorm you can see behind us rolled in.

It was really hard for me to drive away from Lake Quinault, where so many of my best friends were standing around, not really doing anything anymore but not ready to leave, hugging and joking and drawing in the dust on Tim's car. There are moments where it just seems stupid to live across the country from so many people I love.

The homies at Quinault.

Maybe if the weather had sucked it wouldn't have been so sad to leave. It.Was.GORGEOUS.

We're back in New Orleans now, and the weather's not as deadly as I anticipated. We're into the season of daily thunderstorms. So every afternoon between one and three there is a huge downpour, and then it's cool(er) as we move on into evening.

It's nice to be back in this place that we've had so many adventures in all together. Stefin and I are going to try to see The Blow tonight, and Aeli is going to continue to try to eat everything he possibly can. Except peas. He seems to share my sentiment about those (the cooked kind). Also: it looks like we get to move into the apartment we so want to be ours! We'll be neighbors with the old roomies, and hopefully be able to host our wedding/reception in our own courtyard! Plus, Aeli can go cut a rug on Frenchmen St. whenever he so pleases!

One last bit of random: Made this chocolate tart recipe the other night. The part I sequestered to keep for ourselves- I couldn't even wait for long enough to get the ganache topping onto it. Yum!