Elijah's Take on the Prop 8 Battle in California

Actually, as you can see below, Elijah re-created an illustration from a new book he received entitled "Library Mouse."

I guess I'm just being, as Sarah puts it, squirrely.

Is Hanna-Barbera hiring?

Yes, it's been awhile since my last post, but with Sarah on the computer all the time trying to make a living, my screen time is way down. So far it's been a good summer (spring never appeared here -- we went from snow and 20 degrees to high humidity and temperatures in the 90s in about a 24-hour period).

The Memorial Day weekend was filled with fun family outings that, because of her new schedule, Sarah was able to partake in. The outdoor pool at our health club opened on Saturday with Elijah and I showing up with suits on and raring to go. Within an hour, not one, not two, but three very attractive bikini-clad young ladies walked up to us to say hello and give a hug to.....Elijah. Since I was old enough to be their father, I just smiled at them and insisted that Elijah respond in kind. For the record, two were from the child center and the third was a lifeguard at the indoor pool during the winter. With prompting, all three got a "hello" back from Elijah.

That was just the start of the "Isn't that Elijah" recognition game that played out over the entire weekend. At a hot air balloon rally that night someone else recognized Elijah from a gym class he took years ago. The next day at the park pool, he was greeted by a little girl who knew him from YMCA after-school care this past year. (A boy at the pool later that weekend also recognized him from "Y-Care.") On Sunday night, at an outdoor concert attended by thousands, he was spotted by a young lady who used to babysit him years ago. And what was Elijah's response to all of this attention? Unless prompted, he pretty much ignored everyone, but it made me feel good to see how many people knew, and more importantly, seemed to care, who he was.

One activity on our radar this summer is to get the little guy to ride his bike more. We've already made a long excursion on the trails near our home, and he continues to enjoy riding at the area we call "Goose Poop Park." (A lake in the middle of this park is home to a large contingent of Canada geese and, without using too much of your imagination, I think you can see why we call it what we do.)

At the park is one spot where a tree's root has caused the pathway to rise quite a bit. Elijah, wanting to warn people about this impending danger, created a sign that he attached to a Starbucks stirring stick and planted in the ground:

Whenever the little guy does something like this, I am both delighted and amazed by his attention to detail and how his mind works. Yet, just when I think he cannot top a previous effort, Elijah creates something, besides basketball goals and signs, that just floors me. Yesterday he did it again.

Months ago, when he was in a Winnie the Pooh phase, he asked (actually demanded with a plead of "I need...") for a variety of Pooh coloring pages to be downloaded from the computer. Since I haven't seen any of them for awhile, I thought he was done with them until I was the presented the following:

This is the Pooh page I downloaded...

This is how he colored it.....

As he told Sarah and me, Pooh was singing a song (note the microphone and the notes) because he was happy. Forgetting for a moment the story he created for the picture, what absolutely blew me away was the detail he filled in as background. From the pathway from "(R)abbits (H)ouse" to the "Hunny" pot on the ground, it was as if he created his own cartoon cell, a lost art these days with almost all cartoons being computer animation. But I'm not surprised -- it's in his genes. With his mom having worked for years in print journalism (a dying industry) why wouldn't he show a talent and affinity for creating something that, like the newspaper, has just about disappeared in today's society?

A Quick Break from Spring Break

Yes I know I promised to post more photos from our trip to Siesta Key along with details of the little guy's beach escapades, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. In the meantime here is some new artwork that is gracing our walls that was inspired by a trip to the Sarasota Aquarium.

Once we got there Elijah had little or no interest in seeing dolphins, giant squids, pelicans and blow fish, though a tank containing a real Nemo and Dori did get his attention; but the gift shop with its various "traffic signs" (i.e. manatee crossing, a picture of a shark with the words Dead End) pique his curiosity. That interest waned however until today when, in a burst of creativity, he recreated the shark sign and added to it a variety of crossings we should be on the lookout for when we take to the highway. I don't know about you but being stuck in tape or glue and getting blindsided by a quart of milk is not my idea a joy ride.

The Shin Bone's Connected to the.....

Taking his cue from a certain well-known former Governor, Elijah recently decided to write some notes to himself on parts of his body. Now I don't know if the reason for his anatomy cheat sheets was an upcoming exam on body parts in kindergarten or if he just wanted a reminder for himself but, as the old saying goes, it all came out in the wash.

iPhones, The Human GPS and Other Tales from the Heartland

The biggest news around here last week was Sarah's purchase of iPhones for us as a Valentine's Day gift. I know her gift was given to me because of love, but there is no doubt it is also part of Sarah's continuing effort to drag me, against my will, into the wireless age (an iPod was bought at her insistence after she saw me carrying around a Sony Walkman at our gym.) To those of you who already own an iphone, my awe at the many applications it is capable of would probably amuse you as much as it does Sarah. The ability to make a phone call, cruise the Internet, identify a song being played, get the weather or a street map of anywhere in the world, all on a device the size of your hand is amazing...and that's only a few of the applications that have already been installed by Apple. I have not yet begun to download!

Elijah continues to amaze me as much as the iPhone does. As a previous post noted, the child is indulged to no end. As further evidence of this I will take him at his request through a neighboring subdivision so he can view various basketball goals. What is amazing is that no matter how many cul-de-sacs and winding roads are in a development, he will always tell me the right way to turn and get me back to the main road. Garmin couldn't do it any better.

















His artwork continues to be a constant source of pleasure and amazement. Be it renditions of a couple of minor characters from Shrek 2 or a Pooh math lesson, his eye for detail is acute.











But nothing prepared us for a book he "wrote" detailing men losing and finding their "masts" ( as best as we can figure they are some sort of hat.) I would love to post the entire book, but Sarah would kill me, so I'll just give you a sample of what he wrote and drew regarding a barn:












This picture can't do justice to the detail of the barn, especially since the entire book is only an inch and a half by two inches. Everybody who has seen it (and believe me I have shown it to quite a few) are flabbergasted by his abilities.







Alas signs, like basketball goals, never seem to be too far from his mind. Yet every once in awhile he will draw a sign that truly captures a philosophy or idea that strikes a chord (an earlier posting showed his YIELD NEW THINKING sign.)









I couldn't have said it any better!

Indulgence 101

As any reader of this blog knows, Elijah's skills as an artist, as well as his fascination with traffic signs, have been well-documented over the past few years. Recently, due to both the arrival of his own signs (as mentioned in a previous post) and a rekindled interest in a couple of YouTube videos created for the Five Man Electrical Band's hit "Signs," our home has become an art gallery for every image seen on the two films.

One of my favorites is his interpretation of a "tree sign" depicted in one of the videos. I'm sure if our local nursery sold the seeds for such a sapling, we would have a grove of them in our backyard.

As if allowing this display wasn't enough spoiling of the child, Elijah's alphabet fascination also has made a comeback of sorts, and his letter renditions now grace our home office's walls. If you look closely you can make out all the letters and what they represent. (One hint: animal torsos are not his strong suit. Most if not all of them have a very compressed body shape that looks as though they have been on Jenny Craig for awhile.)

There are also a variety of hearts on the wall, which he created and cut out by himself. Thankfully they don't seem to detract from the mammoth undertaking of the "letter project" that appears on the same wall.

The part of this I find most amusing is that Sarah, who wouldn't allow certain pictures on the walls of our house as they seemed like clutter, not only has permitted this display, but actually embraces it. I guess to her way of thinking, anything is better than the wallpaper now up in the dining room.

The Answer My Friend is Blowin In the Wind...and the Willows

Ever since my first visit to Disneyland (so long ago the canoe trip in Frontierland was considered "state-of-the-art") my favorite ride there has been Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I always loved the quick turns and near disasters, and no, not because it reminded me of my own driving abilities. Yet, until Elijah's arrival I had never known the source and inspiration for this ride.

As a gift years ago, Elijah got a DVD of Wind and the Willows, and though the sound mix and animation of this version appears to have been done somewhere in the Outback, (it was done by a company in Australia) the little guy loves it nonetheless. And as for me, knowing the background story of Toad Hall and all of it's animal denizens, gave me not only a greater understanding of the ride, but a huge desire to share the joy of experiencing Toad's escapade with my son. (And yes, I know it will have to be at Disneyland as the Toad ride was closed in Orlando.)

So until we take that trip to childhood Mecca, which will be probably this year, Elijah will have to make do with a DVD, his imagination and the artistic ability to recreate the main characters:

I think Walt would have been proud.

Two Birds in the Hand.....

Using his artistic ability to interpret everyday objects is one of Elijah's many charms. When the moment moves him , he will create a picture based on some small phrase or object that most others wouldn't even take note of. Such an event occurred the other night when he climbed up on the bookcase in our den and got off the shelf two brass bird statues that have done nothing but collect dust for at least 10 years.

His fascination with these birds is not new. On numerous occasions over the past few years, he has insisted that "Daddy get the gold birds for Elijah" so he can place them in various areas around the house. Yesterday, however, when the request came, it was immediately followed by another query asking for markers and paper.

What follows is Elijah's Men as Birds masterpiece:

Alex, I'll take geography for $300

We just got back from visiting family (plus some friends and clients) in Los Angeles, where the temperature was in the 90s and the air was the same color as the hills -- brown. Although we did our usual driving all over town, we also spent more time at our "home base" (my sister's house) than we normally do, and that made this trip more relaxing. (There will be a more detailed post on this subject in a few days.)

On the flight out to L.A., Elijah, using the markers and the ream of paper we brought on board, drew many things. Most important to him was his map of "the United Stades of America" shown below:

If you can't quite make it out, the purple states are Texas and Colorado, and while I have no idea where he thinks the "State of News" is, I can tell him that it isn't a place to be right now.

Though you can't tell from this map, the amount of beachfront property available in Kansas is very limited. And in Elijah's world, that coast-to-coast flight from "York" to "Caforina" sure seems a lot easier. No matter, Elijah was extremely proud of his map, and, during our trip, needed to know where it was on a daily basis.

Our little guy's career as a cartographer continued when we got home, but this time it was global in nature...

Naturally, Washington plays a major role in world affairs and can't be ignored, but its placement is telling. Florida has to be on there, because that's where Mickey Mouse lives, and besides, without Florida, what would be the purpose of spring break? Mexico is where Mom's favorite drink (magaritas) comes from. And Kansas proudly sits right there on top of the world.

After all, there's no place like home.

Emotional Rescue

A byproduct of Elijah's autism is his occasional inability to understand emotions. If we are out somewhere and a child is crying, he will stare intently, smile and say, "Daddy, (s)he is upset." And he fully understands when we are angry; when either Sarah or I raise our voices, he knows he has crossed a certain line. (Admittedly, that line is a lot further out for me than for Sarah, which he also comprehends very well.)

As part of his therapy, he is being shown pictures of facial expressions and asked to convey what emotions are being expressed. Since he was toddler, there has been a poster up in his room with pictures of children showing wide ranges of emotions. He had commented on this poster before (and impersonated the different facial expressions shown) but the new emphasis on reading emotions has inspired Elijah to a series of artistic endeavors as shown below:













































Notice the reason for his pride....the medal on his chest!


But my absolute favorite is this one for obvious reasons:

There's no place like home

I always knew Elijah would love "The Wizard of Oz"; it was in his genes. (I had been Munchkin of the Day on a local radio show many, many years ago.) So I was excited to see that it was going to be playing uninterrupted on TCM this past holiday weekend. Yay, DVR!

Boy, was I right. He was riveted to the screen for the entire movie. He loved the music, the color of OZ and especially the main characters (the Wicked Witch didn't scare him, but the flying monkeys necessitated Daddy sharing the chair for hugs). When we went to the park that night for fireworks, the walk back to the car was punctuated by Elijah's singing of "We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of OZ. Because because because because because because because because" (at this point Daddy, for the peace of mind of anyone walking near us, informed Elijah that it was because of the wonderful things he does.)

His love of the film hasn't waned (like any child, he will watch something that he likes over and over again), and repeated viewings have caused his creative side to emerge. At the top of this post is the front of a card he did today. Below is the inside ...

This is one of many wonderful things he does!

This is just to say ...

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

-- William Carlos Williams

If you ever sat through a high school English lit class, you probably remember that poem. And if you went on to a liberal arts college, you probably did everything you could to forget it after an hourlong deconstruction of it. (Short version: Three stanzas, 12 lines, imagist, concrete picture, deeper meaning, unanswered questions, sensory language, domestic relations, nature of forgiveness. See? I've just saved you thousands of dollars in tuition.)

I plead guilty to being one of the millions who rolled their eyes every time a WCW poem came up in class. Who cares who ate the plums in the icebox? And honestly, does so much depend upon a red wheelbarrow, glazed with rain water, beside the white chickens?

At the time, I thought not.

Over the years, though, I came to appreciate Williams' poetry. I chalked this up to maturity, to the deeper appreciation of language and imagery that comes with age. No one, I thought, really cared much about poetry in his youth.

Then came Elijah. And once again, I am forced to reconsider what I always assumed about little boys.

Yes, he's rambunctious, and fidgety, and often downright squirrely. Then, out of the blue, he'll stun me with a surprisingly sophisticated drawing or a request for me to read him poetry or to put on the HBO "Classical Baby" poetry show.

Which is how I came to find these on the refrigerator door one morning:





Don't those plums just look delicious?

So sweet, and so cold.

Eric Clapton's nightmare

Perhaps inspired by Punk Rock legend Iggy Pop, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models or just dreaming about summer weather, Elijah drew this picture yesterday. When asked what it was, he replied in a matter-of-fact voice "naked man playing guitar."



Duh, Dad.

.....and Through it All, He Did it His Way.......

As we've mentioned in previous posts, Elijah is quite an artist. His teachers often praise his ability to draw and his fine motor skills. When he is coloring one of his beloved butterfly outlines he is meticulous to make sure nothing is outside the lines and each color combination is either new or has a meaning. (He used red, blue and yellow to represent Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from Alice in Wonderland).

This is an example of Elijah's work when he had free time at school. His "Shapes" has become one of his favorites, being dragged from room to room in our house.

His fascination with street signs is evident through our home, but this group includes, on the bottom right hand sign, a "no parking" attachment done freehand that I couldn't recreate even with a stencil.

But unfortunately along with his artistic ability comes an artistic temperament. Like any great artist, Elijah wants to create, not be TOLD what to draw. At a recent parent-teacher conference we were shown a variety of projects Elijah had done in school. Below is a sample of an art project he had no interest in, coloring in pumpkins. (There were a couple of these "efforts" shared with us.)

I'd much rather have this response from our little artist when things don't go right than taking a knife to his ear!

Artist in Residence

I've mentioned before that we live with a budding young artist. Since he's an only child, I really don't have anyone to compare him with developmentally, so I was a little skeptical when people who saw his drawings and handwriting, starting when he was 3, gushed over how advanced his fine-motor skills are and what a good eye for detail he had.

Then I saw his classmates' work on the walls at preschool and thought, well, yes, he is a bit advanced.

I'm still not sure he's the next Picasso, but since my duty as a mom is to proudly tout my child's achievements, I thought I'd post a few of his drawings here. Like I said in an earlier post, he is not a nature lover; therefore, these drawings are not replete with verdant landscapes. Think strip malls. Corporate logos. Cars and trucks. Basketball goals. And, of course, traffic signs -- some of which, if taken to heart, would cause chaos on the roadways of our nation ("Right lane MUST turn left" comes to mind.)

Here are a few of my favorites from the last six to eight months (from age 4 1/2 to a couple of months past his fifth birthday):


No, it wasn't anyone's birthday in particular. But why not have a festive greeting ready, just in case?


This one is a reproduction (isn't that a nicer word than "plagiarism"?) of the cover of one of his favorite books, which features a little boy who always manages to get into trouble. Elijah really seems to identify with poor, beleaguered David.


This is Jesse, from the "Toy Story" movies. He also draws a sharp-looking Prospector and an elaborate sheriff's office.


I don't really know what the story is behind this one. But he loves to draw happy houses!


I'm also clueless about this one. But I'm all for anything that involves a delivery of gifts!



His fascination with basketball goals, along with the pattern of the stitching on the balls themselves (as well as the pattern of all the lines on the court) is, thankfully, beginning to fade. His therapists have always referred to it as a "perseverative interest," which is therapy-speak for "autistic kid's obsession." (We preferred to think of it as "persistence"!)



No explanation needed.


Elijah is a big lover of hotels -- as long as we remain people of modest means and stay in non-suite places like this, where the beds are perfectly spaced for leaping back and forth.


Unlike me, Elijah is a big fan of live music. This is his rendering of a band that Jeff took him to see at a Fourth of July celebration at our city park. (Yes, that's a keyboard there on the left).



Mommy's coffee got spilled on this one. Please note that Mommy was NOT the one who spilled it.


This was inspired by the oh-so-cheesy YouTube video of the '60s song "Everywhere a Sign," or whatever it's called. You know, the one about how long-haired freaky people need not apply. (Can you tell I'm not a flower child?)


Last but not least, we have the world's happiest fish. This one has earned a place of honor on my computer at work for several reasons. At least we now have something smiling around that place.

I have more of these to impose on you at a later date (including some very happy butterflies), but I think I've probably pushed the limits on everyone's little-kid-drawing tolerance for now. And besides, I need to straighten up the house. Because for every one of the 10 or so drawings he completes every day, there are at least five or six false starts, each of which is tossed aside in disgust by our little perfectionist. If you do the math and then consider that several days often elapse between my housecleaning sweeps, you can just imagine the state of the house right now.

I try not to think about the toll his paper use is taking on the majestic old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. If any hard-core environmentalists are reading this, you'll just have to accept my apologies. But at least we keep the paper-recycling workers of the world gainfully employed.