out of the blue

Juma yesterday:

"You know rock and roll? It means to shake your body."

magnificent thunderstorm

In the wee hours of the morning, we were awoken by the most magnificent thunderstorm I have ever heard. The thunder crashed and boomed with such force, intensity, and duration that I twice peeked through the windowblinds to check if the neighboring building was on fire. (It wasn't.)

Remarkably, Juma slept peacefully through it all.

wading on a hot day

Juma joins me for a wade in a fountain downtown

1-10

Last night when I went to go check on Juma before going to bed, I heard him mumbling something in his sleep. When I got closer I heard,

"five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten."

I guess all that SAT preparation we've been giving him is starting to pay off. Next step: algebra.

shake it up

Juma and friend Javin play homemade shakers at a drumming festival downtown

kids are weird

Juma has come up with some very strange games in the last few days.

The first has him yelling something like "Shainaaaaaaaaaaaah!" at the top of his lungs while he runs full speed through the house with his baby stroller. He then makes a grunting, groaning noise and falls to the ground while flailing his limbs in an epileptic fury.

The second game involves a colander and plastic easter eggs. He loads up the colander with the eggs like a lacrosse stick. He then yells,

"Hotcha ready?"

"Okay!" answering his own strange question.

"HOTCHAAA!" he screams while hurling the plastic eggs around the room as his parents dive for cover.

first fish

Juma caught his first fish yesterday.

Well, that's not entirely correct. I was the one who split the worm in half with my fingernail, squished its slimy, gooey body onto the hook, cast it into the river and handed the pole to Juma. He then reeled it in and caught a six-inch perch on his very first try. I then stuck my fingers in its mouth and removed the hook. I guess I'd call myself the guide; Juma never even got his hands dirty, he just did the fun stuff.

We then said goodbye to our new friend and let him go back to his family in the river. It was fun to see how excited Juma was to catch a fish.

Next time, though, he's getting worm guts on his fingers too.

big boy bed

Juma's almost three, but he's never figured out how to climb out (or fall out) of his crib, so we've kept the crib as his bed this long. That way he can't climb out of bed in the middle of the night and get into trouble. But yesterday we acquired a toddler bed ("big boy bed" in toddler language) from someone who's moved out, so we thought we'd try it out.

Juma really likes it--"It's red and yellow and green and blue and blue!" And most importantly, he stayed in it all night long.

He was still sleeping when I left for work, so I peeked in at him sleeping there, his little body on that little bed...precious.

happy father's day, everyone

I've had a great Father's day.

Sarah prepared breakfast in bed and Juma delivered it to me without spilling a drop. I got a silly card from both of them. We then went to an Episcopal Church down the street to hear a friend play the organ and sing (he's studying organ performance here at Yale). After that we went to a barbeque for lunch, spent the afternoon downtown at a festival of arts and ideas, and went to another barbeque for dinner (mmmmmmm, lots of meat).

To our dads and granddads--Happy Father's Day! We love you.

videos

I put up a few more videos of your favorite grandson/nephew/cousin/little dude. Click here to see him in a fountain and shaking some maracas to the beat--well, sort of to the beat. (Sarah filmed these ones.)

finally

It's taken almost two years, but I think we have finally found a good Mexican restaurant. Everyone breathe a sigh of relief with me. Ahhhhhhhh, so good.

campus

This is where the Yale Graduate School is housed. The History department is on the second floor. Irreverent students (like me) refer to the building as the "lego rocket ship."



This is the main library on campus. It is designed to resemble a cathedral both inside and out.

I'll add a few more photos of campus later. You're going to love the gym, trust me.

can I, please?

Conversations with Juma:

Juma: I want a tennis ball.
Sarah: Well, I can't find a tennis ball. Here's a hockey ball. You can use that.
Juma: Oh, can I pretend it's a tennis ball? Pleeeeease?
Sarah: Yeah, you can.
Juma: [sincerely] Oh, thank you. Thank you to telling me I can pretend a tennis ball!

[later] Juma: My bum hurts. I need to rest my bum. Okay?

Juma and his very good friend, Zachary

warning: semi-naughty word in post

[very impressive burp]

Juma: I farted in my mouth!

typical conversation while Sarah's away at work

Juma: I just went to smell the garbage.

Justin: Was it gross?

Juma: Yeah.

Justin: What did it smell like.

Juma: Um....garbage.

Justin: Oh.

shameless plea for pity

I think I broke my right index finger playing basketball Wednesday night. It's very big, very blue and very painful.

I jammed it at the beginning of the first game and then kept playing. Of course, a few minutes later I stuck my hand out again to block a bullet pass and that was it. Since my Mom's 3,000 miles away, I'll have to settle for some good Internet vibes from ya'll.

Juma's scared of my finger.

a very well-loved Buzz

i did it.

I am officially a Connecticut resident.

I went down and got my CT driver's license today. Sarah has had hers for a while, but I had a hard time giving up my California license. Yes, I still had a CA license--even though I haven't really lived there since the day after my high school graduation. Nothing against Utah, but, well, I really like my home state.

Preachers should try to work the DMV into their description of what awaits sinners in the fiery pits of hell. Imagine enduring a two-hour line while being serenaded by a squeaky child singing "Three Blind Mice" at the top of her lungs over and over and over and over....

ladybug eggs?

As Juma and I were exploring in our courtyard, we discovered (what I'm pretty sure are) ladybug eggs. I snapped pictures of the eggs, then got a picture after some of them hatched. In the second picture, the upper left larva have left, but there are little dark brown larva in the lower set of eggs. Can you see them?

two more videos

I put up a couple more videos of Juma from last week. Click here to see them.

wet, wet, wet

Humidity sucks.

Could you say no to this face?

Yeah, neither can we. This is going to be one very spoiled kid....

neighborhood party

We spent a great Saturday at a park by the river. We started out the day with some ultimate frisby and then noticed people setting up a barbeque. We went over to check it out and found out it was a party being thrown by a local business to say thanks to the community.

So we ate burgers, hotdogs, fruit and chips. Juma jumped in a bounce house, got a dolphin painted on his face and had an all around great time.

Sarah went home at around one o'clock to get some work done for her job. Juma and I stayed at the park and played for another five hours. We watched people playing an intense game of whiffle ball (yes, surprisingly it can get intense), played basketball, football, soccer, baseball, hunted for bugs, played by the river and chilled in the shade. Great day. And since it's summer there's still hours and hours of daylight left!

Oh, can't forget to mention the b-ball playoff game tonight--should be a good one. I hope Shaq and Wade get shut down.

silly Juma

This morning when Juma didn't eat much breakfast, I asked him why he didn't eat more. He answered matter-of-factly:

But I'm full enough already!

After we went grocery shopping, I wanted to thank Juma for being well behaved.

Sarah: Thanks for not crying or whining at the store, Juma.
Juma: But I did whine!

which language next?

I'm almost resigned to the fact that my next language will be French.

Unfortunately, after living in Germany for two years, I've found that the anti-French bias has rubbed off on me. Actually, thinking back, I have never, ever wanted to learn the language.

"Why learn a language you don't like," you ask? Well, a lot of scholarship on Africa is in French. French is a second language in much of West, Central and North Africa. It really would be valuable for my career and in my desire to be able to communicate with Africans all over the continent.

But then I think, "is it really possible to master a language you have a strong aversion to?" We'll see, I guess.

Any advice from you Francophiles? I need someone to persuade me that French is, in fact, a rich, beautiful language and not the nasal, stuffy, stuck-up language I hear.

pee on a tree

Just minutes after I snapped the picture below, Juma started dancing around in the ancient choreography recognized by parents everywhere as the "I really have to go, but I don't want to stop playing" dance.

Sarah took him over to a tree and pulled down his pants. Having no experience with the mechanics of the process (it really is more complicated than it looks), she was soon frustrated and called me to take over. I then helped Juma with his very first tree-watering.

Afterwards he smiled very big and said, "I wanna pee on 'nother tree!"

mad river, vermont

Sarah and Juma on a hike