The Kid Has Arrived

The holidays have come and gone. Despite all of my grumblings, I ended up having a perfectly lovely time, as always. The biggest treat was that Matt’s company shuts down between Xmas and New Year’s (gotta love the film industry), so we had him home with us for days on end (hence the lack of updates because if it comes to choosing between real life and blogging, I’m going to go with real life every time). Today is his first day back at work since Dec 22, and the house feels awfully quiet without him. At one point this morning, Milo got up from his spot on the living room floor (where he’d been happily and deeply involved in stuffing wooden blocks underneath the bookshelf) and started wandering around. He went in to the bathroom, then into my bedroom. I could hear him climb onto my bed and start laughing. After a few seconds though, he came out into the living room and over to where I was sitting on the couch. “Dada?” he asked. Awwwww.

We spent a few days down in Silver Spring, MD at my in-laws’. My awesome brother in law, Rory, flew into town from LA a day later. Milo was pretty much in hog heaven all week. He would greet Nana with a big smile and a joyous “Nana!!!!” each morning, running up to her for a hug. He’d wait anxiously for Oxjo to wake up a little while later so he could pull on his beard. Uncle Rory (a professional jazz musician/composer) would oblige with impromptu piano medleys of all Milo’s favorite hits - Itsy Bitsy Spider, Comin’ Around the Mountain, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, If You’re Happy…etc.

As predicted, Milo ignored all of the trappings of Christmas. See all of those presents laid out on the ground on Christmas morning? Nary a glance from the boy (seen here pantless because he’d taken a dive into Uncle Rory’s coffee and spilled it all over himself).

He refused to have anything to do with unwrapping gifts although he did take some interest in one of the bows.

Later, he also enjoyed playing in the box that Daddy’s wok came in. Here he stands, a prince surveying his dominion and the spoils of war.

Once we unwrapped the gifts for him, he did enjoy playing with the new toys, like these blocks…

…which were immediately brought over to the couch and shoved underneath. What, how else would you play with blocks? Everyone knows that blocks are for shoving into small spaces, duh.

I know I grumbled pretty hard about adults giving gifts to each other, but I would be remiss if I didn’t admit to getting some incredibly nice, thoughtful gifts. I have to give an especially big shout out to my mom and Matt for their gifts. My mom got me a beautiful, large jewelry box, which is something I’ve needed for years, and Matt got me two tickets to see Jeff Mangum at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music, a theater in my neighborhood) in a few weeks. I had tried to get tickets for that show, but it sold out almost immediately, and the tickets are going for $300+ on craigslist. I couldn’t be more excited!