A request after dinner

Oliver gets out of his chair and asks (we've been working on getting him to ask for things nicely)



'May I listen to some music please?'



- Sure. What would you like to hear?



'The horn. Miles Davis, Sketch...es of Spaiiin'.






I'm not sure if it's the connection to Spain (he's fixated on that country on his placemat of world flags and his anthem-playing soccer ball) or a fascination with the image of 'the man with the trumpet', but Oliver seems to be developing an interest in jazz. And Mozart horn concertos.

He's also started requesting 'beelabaa', which Mimi initially compared to scat singing but which now seems to be his word for jazz, specifically jazz featuring lots of insistent tsss-tsst cymbal work. Miles In The Sky currently fulfills this need.

A request at dinnertime

Oliver, blowing on hot macaroni to cool it down:

'Steam, go away!'

New mode of transport

It was snowing heavily this morning, so we decided not to drive to daycare and to take the bus and streetcar instead, although we considered taking what Oliver called a 'taxi crab'.

Desk job

Oliver must have heard me say something like 'It was pretty quiet at work today' a few times, because at the end of the day he often spontaneously says 'I did nothing at my office today' (even if he does tell us who and what he played with).

Meta

Oliver on video: (looking outside) The streetlight is off! It's dark!

Oliver watching video: No, it's not dark, Oliver!

Phrasebook

glacias
A Spanish expression of gratitude.

Random notes on Alternadad

I plan to write a review of Alternadad by Neal Pollack, but for now I'm just going to make some notes of passages I want to mention in the review:

'When I have Elijah in the car, I tend to listen to college radio so I can expose him to bands whose music I don't know'.
(Is that really why any parent would do that?)

While watching Sesame Street:
'Always remember, son, that Baby Bear sucks'.
'Ba-bee Ba Suh!'
(Never too early to get your kids started on superficial, toxic bitchiness, I suppose)

'We are not going to be those people who stop going to rock shows just because we have a kid'
(more his view than his wife's)

More lexicon entries

silvral
A greyish-white colour.

umblerra
A thing that keeps you dry when it's raining.