Blogging My Life

Browsing around on MySpace in preparation for a lecture I’m going to give on social networking sites, I made the discovery that Oliver hardy (of Laurel and Hardy fame) was born Norvell Hardy, and later changed his name to Oliver in honor of his father (at least according to Wikipedia). I saw a tag for “Oliver Norvell Hardy” on someone’s MySpace profile. My son’s name, of course, is João Oliver Martins Norvell.

I’m not sure if passenger screening at airports really does much of anything to protect us from terrorism, but it sure is good for some laughs, as guards and police swing into action and press conferences are convened to explain why planes were emptied or diverted and airports thrown into chaos for things like a drop of bleach in a drinking water bottle. Today, we learn in the L.A. Times of possible new relaxation technique after an US-resident Iraqi national was arrested after producing a “rock, chewing gum and thin wire filament” from his rectum. He said they were to alleviate stress.
The scary part is that while he was being arrested on suspicion of having all or part of a bomb in his bum, his flight took off with his luggage still aboard.

Oh, and he’s walking! Took off Saturday night, October 7, one day shy of his eleventh month birthday. We were at the Maracá Ecological research station, sitting around the common room, when he started putting more than two or three steps together. He’s delighted with himself!

João Oliver debuted three new inventions in the past weeks. One is to bend over and check out the view of world upside down between his legs. He straightens up and laughs like crazy, but I don’t know if it’s from the view or from a head rush! Another, not so amusing is the reinvention of the wheel of the “fit”: arching, writhing, and throwing himself prostrate on the floor. Finally, yesterday he came up with a frighteningly realistic imitation of an obstructed airway, a wheezing, sucking sound, after which he proudly laughs and looks to our horrified faces for encouragement.

Did anyone else suspect that Big Love was going to end its season with a bigger bang than the Sopranos? Still: Tony Soprano: “She’s Dominican. Maybe.” Can’t wait for next year with both shows!

Today was my first day with a lot of playing with J.Oliver since he returned from Brazil. He has a lot of new vocalizations, including a back-of-the-throat trill that makes him sound like a flock of parakeets. He grabbed and held onto his feet for the first time that I’ve seen and made the first moves toward crawling: while sitting up again me, he struggled to lean forward and down onto the tummy-time posture he now tolerates and even enjoys for substantial periods of time. He spends most of the day with two or more fingers in his mouth and will pull mine in as well. Too early for real teething, I think, but maybe there’s some movement down in his gums. We usually swap them for a pacifier when possible. Less messy, I guess is the reason. He also really enjoyed a bit of up and down, lift and fall kind of play. Leda has told me that while in Brazil he was developing a taste for a little bit of rough-housing. He can’t roll himself over yet – the only “can possibly do” at four months milestone he hasn’t achieved.

Leda and J.O. arrived back in town this morning. Although I might not have picked João Oliver out of a line-up based on his filled-out face, to my pleasant surprise he really hadn’t grown than much or changed his habits and abilities either. He’s still the little baby that left six weeks ago.
Here he is with his Grandpa in the Brasília airport yesterday afternoon:


And here he is in Boa Vista with his adoring cousin Miguel (that Brazilian towel-head thing again – ??):



…who has already got him addicted to television, apparently. =0



I finished the master bath while Leda was gone, and, at my friend Laurie Graham’s incredible home shop with the milling machine, built some really spiffy little poplar wall brackets to hang the Yanomami spears and bow that have been packed up for two years now:



For Iliana, the “towel-head thing” explained 🙂 :