My 15-month-old son is really into music. But despite my best efforts to indoctrinate him with Ramones and the Clash, New Order and the Cure, R.E.M. and Sonic Youth, he insists on being his own person with his own particular preferences. The nerve!
His musical palate right now is situated somewhere between Burning Man and an episode of “Scandal.” I don’t know how that’s going to shake out as he grows up, but in this very moment, his taste rocks.
Here are some of his favorite jams:
Don’t You Worry Bout a Thing • Stevie Wonder
Tell Me Something Good • Chaka Khan and Rufus
Take It As It Comes • J. Roddy Walston & the Business
i • Kendrick Lamar
Alright Alright Alright • Mungo Jerry
Lovely Day • Bill Withers
Janglin • Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Friend of the Devil • Grateful Dead
I Love You and Buddha Too • Mason Jennings
6AM • Fitz and the Tantrums
That last one is no surprise, as E is up at 6 a.m. EVERY DAMN DAY.
My son, Everest, shares a name with a movie, Everest, that will be released this Friday.
So it’s funny when I hear TV commercials boom, “The ultimate challenge is about to begin: EVEREST.” Sometimes I find myself looking at my own wild Everest, nodding along, like, “Yes! This voiceover guy is talking about my life.”
That’s why I took some of the movie marketing and mashed it up with my child. The results make me wish every baby came with movie taglines.
It wasn’t so long ago when I would place you on your tummy and coax you to roll over. And now you’re running.
It’s so bittersweet. I love how quick you move, how much you learn every day, your fierce and wild independence. Yet the faster you walk, the more I feel you pulling away from me. You’re becoming a little man already, and it stretches my heart out like salt water taffy.
Most everybody tried to warn me. “Enjoy it!” they said. “It goes by so quick!” Even perfect strangers said, “You’ll miss this when it’s gone!” I hated those people. But I was delirious from a lack of sleep, my body was sticky with spit up, and I often felt like I was stuck at the bottom of a long well with a purple eggplant. A purple eggplant that screams.
If I’d realized that someday you’d stop falling asleep on my chest, I’d have relished those long, lazy afternoon naps. If I’d known how you’d leap from infant to pre-toddler, I might have appreciated those early newborn days a little more. I still wouldn’t have enjoyed the colic, but overall I might have cried a little less.
Anyway, now you are one. But it won’t be long before you are two. And then 22. And then I will die, because ACK! Too soon. I can’t handle it.
Likes:
Frankie the Fox. Oh my god, do you love Frankie the Fox. In fact, one evening as I put you in your crib, your eyes searched the mattress, your breath quickened and you started to panic, right up until you saw Frankie in the corner. I thought, “This is foreshadowing,” and that very night your dad bought a backup Frankie for us to keep in reserves.
You also love playing outside. Your family. Lemon and Kung Pao Kitten. Duplos. Swings. Bruno Mars and Daniel Tiger. And books — it makes me proud to see how much you enjoy turning the pages to see what happens next.
Favorite foods:
Watermelon. Kiwi. Mango. Banana pancakes. Homemade oatmeal “cookies.” Peanut butter. Sweet corn on the cob.
Dislikes:
Bubble bath. Swim class. Diaper changes, which are like trying to pull the skin back on a snake after he’s already shed it.
You also weren’t crazy about your birthday cake, which made me happy. That’s your last taste of sugar until you turn 18. I hope you enjoyed it.
Today when I heard about the Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage, I tried to memorize the morning. The mug of French roast coffee. Michael Franti singing on my iPhone. My husband on the couch, reading sports headlines. A scroll of news on my computer. My 11-month-old son crawling on the floor, building a tower of soft blocks. It was so normal, so everyday.
And yet, it was extraordinary.
I wanted to imprint it all on my brain so someday, when my son asks about the historic day all Americans received the right to marry, I could tell him every detail: The pale haze that diffused the sunshine. The humidity that hung thick in the air. The whirr of a lawnmower. How history was just a moment after breakfast, when everything was the same and different all at once, and a cup of coffee was suddenly underscored with great importance, and I was joyful.
Then I realized my son might never ask me about this day at all — because he will have no reason to. He will grow up in a country where people just get married. No qualifier.
This is all he will ever know: That people love and are loved.
– Add one woman, fragile with fear and grief, and send her up in a plane
– Combine with one tender-hearted skydiving instructor who offers to skip the skydive and ride the plane down instead
– Jump anyway. Jump with this man, even when your hands shake and your stomach is in your throat. Make one skydive, and then make another, and make hundreds more after that. And when the instructor asks you on a date, say yes. Yes! You’ve already trusted him with your life.
– Drizzle with chocolate.
Warm Sugar Cookie
– White mocha hot chocolate
– Hazelnut syrup (1 pump tall, 2 grande, 3 venti)
– Vanilla syrup (1 pump tall, 2 grande, 3 venti)
– Sprinkle raw sugar on top
– Add the winter day on the steps of Immaculata Church, warming your hands on a thermos and watching the sun rise over Mt. Adams.
– Add strawberry, orange, mango and very berry juice to the first line
– Fill with lemonade to top
– Spend days chattering with monkeys, rowing the Amazon and drinking rum on a sugar plantation. Fall asleep in a thatched rainforest hut, smeared with deet, bodies tangled like jungle vines
– Add ice and shake!
Stormy Days Tea
– Earl Grey tea semi dry misto
– 2 pumps vanilla syrup
– 2 pumps of caramel syrup
– Add one skydiving accident
– A move across the country
– One stolen car
– Your mother’s death
– Fertility issues
– Miscarriage
– Illness
– Moving. Three more times.
– Cling to each other because the world feels too vicious and sad to navigate alone.
Anniversary Cake Frappuccino
– Vanilla soy frappuccino
– 2 pumps hazelnut
– Add 1 beautiful, boisterous baby
– Toss in 2 teeth cutting baby’s gums
– A broken dryer and a clogged kitchen sink
– Burn the pancakes and forget to make the coffee
– Call the babysitter
– Drive away giggling because the dishes can wait and the laundry will air dry, but this is your anniversary day
– Go to the movies and hold hands for two hours, as though you just met
