Monthly Archives: May 2007

Okay, maybe “berry” wasn’t his very first word.

Okay, I think I’ll be qualifying Enzo’s utterace of berry as his first noun, as opposed to his first word, and maybe even only first one that I’ve heard… or noticed.

Being the wiggler that he is, Enzo requires a certain amount of holding and wants to see whatever it is I’m doing at the moment, especially when I’m cooking. He loves this. And I get the sense that he does this at his mom’s house too, because last week he started reaching out toward the stove and whispering: hot. And then pulling back, as if he’s been instructed to stay away from the stove because it’s hot.

So, at the very least Enzo has been saying hot for some time prior to the berry episode.

Driving: Smoking Section songs

Funny. I drove to work today, and as I usually do I picked up a pair of passengers at the BART station to carpool with.

As any of you who do the Casual Carpool thing probably know, there aren’t really any rules about what to play on the car stereo during the ride, though the default seems to be NPR. These days I can’t stand NPR, so when I’m by myself I listen to KPFA; but when I have passengers on their way to work, I philosophically feel that it’s not my job or right to fill their heads up with news or opinion of any stripe. (I wish all drivers felt this way. Especially the ones who listen to AM talk radio. Yikes.) So I like to play music instead. Let them get mad at the news on their own time. I’d rather help them start their day neutrally and peacefully with some good music.

(It’s obvious that I’m over-thinking this. I think I’m turning into Kramer from Seinfeld. If I’m not careful I’ll start cooking up ways to provide my passengers with hot espresso and Le Monde.)

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Enzo’s First Word

I think we may have a winner. If you don’t count the word “Hi,” which he uses to greet everyone and everything all the time, I believe Enzo’s first recognizable noun, used correctly and in context, is berry.

I’ve been giving Enzo sliced strawberries in the morning lately, and he enthusiastically devours every bite. He notices now when I take the container out of the fridge, and gets very excited about this. At the same time, some of his most-used phonemes lately have been in the “bree? bui? ba? maiee?” range (as Jacki so precisely noted), which gets him close. But this morning, it all came together: after I placed his strawberry breakfast on his high-chair tray, he picked up a slice and held it up to me, and announced: Beyee?

Actually, Uncle Drew was the first to make this call, last night at dinner. At the time, I sort of passed it off as a coincidental syllable (there were strawberries on the table, and Enzo was very chatty at the time). I should know better, seeing as how E and Drew have their special thing. But this morning’s sample had a nice, lab-conditional clarity about it.

Berry!

Message of Love, Bimbo’s, 5/12/07

So Message of Love is playing at Bimbo’s this Saturday night. I believe a few tickets are available at TicketWeb, though they won’t be for long. We’ll be opening for Tainted Love, who has this amazing ability to sell out two consecutive nights at the large venue every damn time they book there.

Playing at Bimbo’s is always fun, but I hate the fact that I can’t load out while the main act is onstage, as this means my options are to a) leave immediately after we play, b) load my gear into my car and leave it parked on the street while I enjoy a beer or two with my friends, or c) stay at the club until the bloody end. The last time I opted for c, I didn’t get out of there until after 2AM, which is waaaaaaaay too late for an East Bay dad in his early 40s. Option b sucks because I can’t enjoy anything when I’m paranoid about my gear sitting in the back of my car on a city street. So I pretty much have to go with option a, which is why I don’t put too much effort into promoting shows like this. Really, I do enjoy these things; I’d just rather see you when I’m not in a hurry to get out of there.

So: Message of Love. Tainted Love. This Saturday. Bimbo’s. Get tickets early. Or, don’t. (How’s that for enthusiasm?)

UPDATE: Some pictures from the show.