juma joke

Juma: Where's the law school?
Sarah: Back there on that street.
Juma: Law school? singing La la la la la!

question

Juma: Are ears part of your face?

Happy Birthday, Justin

Okay, so I was a slacker and I'm posting this a few days late. But I did wish him a Happy Birthday in person on his birthday. Since we were both in class all day, we didn't do much more than sing happy birthday and have As You Like It (one of Justin's favorite desserts). Then he rushed off to teach a class. Such is the life of a double-student family.

But things are looking up--classes are over! I just have to take five finals now.

bob

"Spongebob gots rectangle pants, Dad, not square ones. They should call him SpongeBob RectanglePants!"

--Juma, shooting the bull as we walked along a pier on the Long Island Sound today. Hearing a seagull got him thinking about perhaps one of the strangest cartoons on television.

As you can see, Juma does have a point. While Bob seems to be a square, his pants are clearly rectangular:

Happy Easter!

Juma woke up a little grumpy, but when Justin told him the Easter Bunny had been here, he perked up quite a bit. After Juma's usual stripping down to go to the bathroom, it was time to pick out some clothes to put on for his Easter egg hunt. He decided on pajamas, because that's what you have to wear for Easter and Christmas. So he put on a different set of pajamas than what he wore to bed, and went about finding eggs.

Unfortunately, the Easter Bunny thought he was still two, and the eggs were a little to easy to find. So I hid some again, a little harder, and Juma had some more fun scouting them out.

Tonight we're having dinner at a friend's house, an (east) Indian women I know from work. So we'll be having Indian food for Easter dinner. Which seems to fit us anyway.

Ithaca, NY

I just spent a busy couple days in Ithaca, NY meeting with some people at Cornell University about my summer work in Zanzibar. I drove out there Thursday afternoon--five hours alone--and drove back Friday afternoon--five more hours, alone, in the rain. To keep awake I listened to books on tape (Harvest for Hope and Race Matters).

Justin held the fort back in New Haven, watching Juma for two straight days. I called home Friday morning to say hello, and Justin put Juma on the phone.

Juma: Hello.
Sarah: Hi, Juma. How are you?
Juma: Good.
Sarah: What are you going to do today with Baba?
Juma: I dunno.
Sarah: There's no school today. What are you going to do?
Juma: impatiently I said hello.
Sarah: I know. I wanted to talk to you about your day.
Juma: bored Mom? I just want to watch TV.

I called back later, not interrupting his precious TV time, and we had a more lively conversation.

This morning we received a Easter package in the mail from G'pa and G'ma Beckham. Thanks! Good thing there wasn't much candy in it, because our apartment complex had a egg hunt this morning. Juma "found seven eggs. Did you know I got a pink egg? It was magic."

Where's Waldo--uh, I mean, Sarah?

See if you can find me in the crowd at this pro-immigration rally we attended in New Haven yesterday. Si se puede!

I can do it--but don't tell Mom

As Juma grows, he figures out how to do more and more things by himself. He hasn't quite figured out that if we find out he can do something himself, we won't do it for him anymore.

Stuff we forced him to do himself 'cause he wasn't showing any sign of learning himself:
Pick out and put on his underwear and pants.

Stuff he accidentally showed us he can do, so now we force him to do it:
Put on his shirt.
Put on his coat.
Climb in and out of his high chair.
Put on his socks and shoes.

Stuff he learned to do that suprised us:
Access the internet, navigate to a site, and start playing Elmo games.

Stuff he learned to do that we don't encourage:
Open the fridge, pull out a drink, and try to pour it himself.
Open the front door.
Open the back door.
Climb up on the counter.
Bring a chair across his room, climb up, and pull candy off a high shelf; share it with a friend.

smile

father-son

Lately Juma's been thinking about how he's like his dad. He's excited about being able to grow a beard just like Justin. (Juma also wants to include me in the fun, but I declined to switch my female-hood for a beard.)

He's also been wearing Justin's baseball caps. (Justin's hats are such a item in his life that most people are suprised to see him without one. My first memory of meeting Justin features a Michelin Man hat.)

Today, he pretended he was "Dad" and Justin was "Son."

Juma: Want to play football, Son?
Justin: Sure, Dad.
Juma: Let's clean up to make room, Son.
Justin: Okay.
Juma: You clean up by yourself, Son.
Justin: Oh, let's clean up together, Dad.

watching the game

Doesn't matter what sport or what league, whether it's the first game of the season or the championships; it's all about the father-son bond.

best friends

Juma has played with his friend, Eden, every since we met her and her family in August, 2003 when we moved here. To our dismay, our friends are moving away for a PhD program. I broached the subject of Juma's best friend moving away.

"But she's coming back, right?" he said happily. When I explained that she's moving away for good, he became very sad. I pulled him close and let him cry on my shoulder. I told him we'd be sure to invite Eden over to play as much as possible until we leave for Zanzibar in May.

When his other best friend, Zachary, moved away in December, Juma wasn't this upset. He was just as good as friends, but I don't think he realized then what it really meant for Zachary to move to Germany. He's just a few months older now, but it seems his emotions have matured some.

After our conversation, we invited Eden over to play. They decided to play "prince and princess."