What's in a name?

I have been thinking lately about the incredibly difficult and painful process we went through in order to choose Zachary's name. We were so determined to choose something interesting, but not too weird, and not too popular. Zachary was number 33 on the Social Security Administration's most popular baby names for 2006. I thought that was low enough that it wouldn't be too common. Well, as we've seen, there is another Zachary in our swimming class, and last week I noticed that one of the babies in the class immediately before ours is also named Zachary. That's 3 out of 14 babies. Well, I tried to console myself by thinking that with so many Zacharys around, at least his name will be spelled correctly. I was wrong. Misspellings we have had of Zachary so far (and, I still love you all, but these did come from friends and family):

Zackery

Zachery

Zachariah

I was hoping to save Zachary from the curse of a difficult name to spell (or even to pronounce). I love my name, but it has rarely been spelled correctly over the years, even on official documents. That goes for my maiden name, too. Just tonight, my sandwich order came out under the name "Marida." I have never even heard of someone named Marida. My favorite misspellings of my name over the years are (loosely in order of frequency):

Merideth

Meridith

Merrideth

Marydith

Nedda

Yes, that last one is actually on the list. And it has happened several times, always on the telephone. I must speak really quickly, for my name to drop a syllable like that. However, people I have called in the past have received messages along the lines of "Nedda called."

Anyway, I was hoping we had chosen a name that was beyond all of these issues, but it appears we were wrong. And he'll always have to sit in the last row of the classroom, too.

Stand in the place where you are

I forgot to mention that earlier this week, Zachary reached another milestone - he's now self-supporting, at least in the most literal sense. Granted, we've got to position him correctly (standing him up in front of a table) - but once there, he can hold himself up more or less. We do need to keep a hand or leg around just in case, but it's still a milestone in my book.

He's always liked "standing" much more than tummy time (which we continue to offer for those worried that this might be impeding him crawling, walking, or taking up tap dancing), whether we're holding him up, supporting him on the floor or a table, he's in the jumperoo, or if he's kind of floating upright in the bjorn (or our stylish new ergo - more on that once I get to try it out). And he's often reached out - for shopping carts, whatever's in my hands while I'm holding him, etc. So I suppose it wasn't a huge leap for him to figure out to put his arms down on a table to help support himself. Granted, he's not actually pushing himself up yet, and still will tip one direction or the other after a bit if we don't keep an eye on him. Still, look at the little standing man!

The perfect Passover breakfast?

I find it somewhat amusing that it's during Passover that Zachary has experienced his first solid food, and it's firmly in the chametz camp. Yup, though our own favorite breakfast choice is off limits for us for the rest of the week, the ubiquitous Cheerio (or as our baby development newsletter tried to genericize, "O-shaped breakfast cereal") has now entered Zachary's diet, and he's a big fan. Meh gave him some yesterday, and this morning I offered him some more. He actually grabs them himself at times, but hasn't quite figured out how to get them into his mouth; I found two on his pajamas when he came out of the high chair after breakfast, and another at the bottom of the stairs that must've fallen out of another clothing fold later on. But the ones that I offer are happily devoured and chomped (gummed?), along with much happy talking, smiling, and waving hands.

I'm dreaming of a white Passover

The weather craziness continues, with more snow over the weekend. Just to check, we are currently in mid-spring, no?

Passover began on Saturday night, so Zachary got to experience his first seders. We'd expected with the late-ish (for him) start times that he'd likely be asleep, but he was having none of that. It doesn't help of course that it's staying bright later and later (well, when you can see the sun through the snow clouds). Anyway, he was incredibly happy and talkative at both seders. I think he just liked being able to look around the table and see all of these fun faces to interact/flirt with.

On the first night, friends J & S had us all over for a wonderful dinner (featuring J's world-famous brisket and salmon gefilte fish), and they had offered him plush seder plate and seder plate item toys. He loved them, continuing to grab one after another, chomping the grabbed item a bit, screeching happily, smiling, dropping the toy, and repeating with the next one within his grasping range. One of us would occasionally pick them up and the cycle began again. Eventually when Meh sensed he was finally getting drowsy, she snuck him back off to a bedroom and he did indeed sleep for a few hours, only waking up when we got ready to head home at nearly midnight!

He was just as happy for the second night seder, at friend I's parents' house. This time he actually slept much better and somewhat earlier, though mommy and daddy were exhausted and ready to pack it in by around 9:30 pm or so. But we were so glad to be able to introduce him to these traditions in positive and fun ways. He really seemed intrigued to hear a foreign language being spoken, and definitely loved all of the singing. (One of his favorite songs in the weeks leading up to Passover was Dayenu -- likely the combination of a peppy beat and repetitive lyrics? Anyway, he got really happy when he heard that one at the seders.)

When viruses attack

Zachary's weekend unhappiness turned out to likely be some kind of bug. His fever passed pretty quickly (well, after the multiple nights of being unhappy), turning into a rash that too is almost gone. Unfortunately, it looks like he's passed the virus on to mommy, so she was out of commission for the day yesterday, and is still recovering today. Something nasty has been going around, as I've seen coworkers and friends knocked out by this thing for multiple days.

Unbelievable, but it hailed and snowed yesterday. And it stuck. Climate change is such fun, who would think it would cause snow in the middle of April? According to reliable sources (the guy who delivered our final pre-Passover chametz pizza last night), this was the first time in 30+ years that it's snowed this late into spring. And the weekend forecast is for more snow; even as I type, I see some snow and freezing rain starting up again outside - nuts!

Back to the little man, there have been a few more Zachary advancements. First, his two bottom teeth appear to have finally possibly ever-so-slightly broken through. Still looks a bit too close to call, but there's definitely more white than pink there, and you can definitely feel them when he gums (or I guess at this point, bites!) a finger. And this morning, mommy was playing with him and he was actually holding himself up on our ottoman for like 15 minutes. Then he took a bit of a faceplant (I guess better to do those before the teeth come in?), but he was back at it when I tried a little later on. He isn't pulling himself up yet or anything, but definitely some progress towards mobility, and he seemed to be looking around in wonder at his slightly higher self-driven view of the world.

Fever in the morning

While Zachary's achievements and milestones continue to arrive nearly daily, the teeth remain elusive -- and the likely cause for late night wakeups. Last night was unfortunately similar to the night before, with nearly hourly crying - though miraculously the last time he got up, we were all able to get back to sleep until 9:30 am, woo hoo! And I'm not sure if this was a cause or effect, but this morning, Zachary was lethargic, listless, and warm - I took his temperature, saw that he was running a bit of a fever, gave him some motrin, and called the dcotor. Our practice is fabulously open on weekends and had an opening, so I brought him in. Either the motrin or getting out seemed to put the pep back into him; he was singing, talking, and cooing the whole drive to the doctor, and once more, he seemed to get healthier just walking in the front door.

We got another weighing out of the deal (updated on the right column of the blog); while he's only up 7 oz. since last time, he's definitely getting enough to eat, so I'm guessing he's taking a pause or focusing on mental growth at the moment. And the nurse confirmed that he was running a (now lower, but still above normal) temperature. The doctor, not one we'd seen before, was very nice, and she complimented his happiness -- I'd positioned him on the table facing the mirror, and he was laughing and talking to the cute boy in the reflection (all while repeatedly grabbing and basically shredding the exam table's paper cover) for much of the exam. All was good, the doctor suspects he's just fighting a bug. Zachary had a snack in the car before we headed off to pick up dinner for mommy.

I should mention that the word "ma" has entered his vocabulary, so you know that "Meh" likely isn't far behind, though I'm sure Meh would also accept "ma ma". Still "da da da" (yup, generally in threes) remains the favorite. And speaking of "da da da", today was almost another big breakthrough. As I said, we brought Meh dinner at work, but arrived a little early, so Zachary and I were hanging out in an office while mommy was still working. I was eating in between playing with him, and explained to him that the fish tasted yummiest with tartar sauce. He thought 'tartar' was another of the funniest words in the world, laughing every time I said it. And after a few times, he actually responded "da da", with what could have been the slightly hint of r's at the end of each. I tried to get him to say it again, but we were back to regular squeals and babble; the closest were a couple more "da da da" triples.

The Baby-Sitters Club

Zachary continues to demonstrate his place as an overachiver; who else do you know who has started babysitting at the age of 8 months? Friends D & D called us up earlier in the week asking if we might be available to babysit their 2-year-old son N this morning while they were taking a class. We've hung out with N many times before (even babysitting a few times before Zachary was around), though usually it's both Meh and myself. However, today Meh had to be at work, so it was going to be an all-men's day! D & D wisely suggested their place, already child proofed and flush with N-friendly/familiar activities.

We got things started appropriately for an early morning babysit by being already awake. Repeatedly, all night long. Meh took the brunt of it; Zachary was up every hour or two - we're guessing it was his teething once more, and we hope that his gums stop bothering him soon. Two teeth still look ready to come through, but we've been saying that for months (and indeed, they just look more ready every day). Anyway, Zachary and I drove over and got the tour from D & D. N started things off for us so nicely, offering Zachary a rattle he used to play with. Zachary accepted and shook it happily for a few minutes; the treaty of Seattle was signed soon after. The rest of the morning was really nice, though certainly exhausting - we did all of the following, in no particular order:

• Played with a wide variety of toys. N made a show of emptying several boxes of small parts onto the floor early into the playdate; we made small attempts to tidy things before D & D got back - mostly futile.
• N got to watch a bit of his favorite movie - perhaps 20 minutes before he got bored with it. On the plus side, this was Zachary's one opportunity for a quick nap; at other times N seemed to want to engage and keep him awake - which is not to say he wasn't always very considerate and gentle with Zachary.
• I read a few books to the boys, including one of N's written by one of Zachary's newest favorite author/illustrators. I was impressed that Zachary seemed to recognize the illustration style as similar to the books we own, and he was very happy to look at/paw at the brightly colored pictures. All of us gathered on the couch, the boys were both entranced, and it was very cute.
• I sang a few songs. N had a book about the five little monkeys jumping on the bed, and I transitioned from reading to singing the song from our Putamayo CD. Zachary recognized and loved it, and N seemed entertained as well. Similarly a book about animal sounds turned into a Laurie Berkner favorite.
• We took a walk around the neighborhood. Zachary was in the bjorn, and N was self-mobile. Well, except the occasions when he wanted to see something up high (a ladder on the other side of a fence, the buds I was pointing out on a tree, etc.), at which time I had to pick him up and carry both boys for a bit. :)

Whew! D & D returned home (the home was hopefully mostly intact) and all five of us had lunch. Zachary, still exhausted from his late night, fell asleep right in the middle of eating some blueberry/apple sauce. I hadn't seen him sleep in my lap like that in a long time, so you know he must have been very tired.

Anyway, Meh was somewhat relieved to hear that I'd fared okay with the two boys. She admitted she'd been worried that I might be overwhelmed, and that this would perhaps cast some doubt on us having a second someday. (At this point, our Zachary grandparent readers lean forward in their seats.) But fear not, we really did have a good time and I think that some day in the future, I might just be able to occasionally handle two (Grandparents ask: "Are you sure not 3? 5 perhaps?") of our own.

Zachary the Waterbaby

Yesterday was Zachary's first swimming lesson! We signed him up for Waterbabies, a children's swim school that friends D and D take N to, among other families that we know.

There are about 7 babies in our class, which started with all of us lined up on the pool deck, dangling our legs in the water. The teacher went over the safe way to enter the pool with kids, then she handed out foam toys to distract them, and we sang and swooshed them around in the water for 30 minutes. Zachary loved it, he just chewed his toy and kicked his feet the whole time, occasionally squealing with delight when I swooshed him.

The teacher has a great sense of humor. My favorite was when she demonstrated how not to do the activities using her small plastic doll. "Sometimes babies get a little upset, and it can help if you rock them a little," she said while rocking her doll in the pool. "Just be careful not to do this," she said as she dreamily dunked the doll underwater, "because that won't help them relax."

A little disappointing is the fact that this is only Zachary's second "class" environment (if you count parent-baby class), and already there's another Zachary. He is about twice our Zachary's size, and half his age. When his mother said he was 4 months old, there was a collective gasp of disbelief from the other parents, even from the lone father snapping photos from the pool deck.

Zachary looked so stylish in his mandatory swim diaper, and Mommy looked killer in her bright yellow bathing cap. We can't wait for next week!

Ferry Tale the Third

Before I forget, I actually did get a shot of Zachary giving mommy a kiss in Vancouver. The follow up shots looked more like him just clutching at her face, but this one at least hints at how his kisses work. Yes, we'll have to shoot a video at some point to more properly demonstrate it.

And speaking of videos, here's one from Vancouver's Granville Island market. Zachary was very happy with the pretty colors, smells, noises, lights, and of course all of the attention from singing mommy and duelling camera-wielding daddy and friend J.

We got back from Vancouver on Friday, and Meh's choir was recording their small ensemble pieces back out in Port Orchard on Saturday. So Zachary and I once more came along on the ferry to continue to explore the area. Things didn't go exactly to plan, though this wasn't really a bad thing: after we dropped off mommy, I started to drive into town, and Zachary fell asleep about ten minutes into the drive -- and stayed asleep for the 90 plus minutes that mommy was singing. When she called to tell us she was done, I'd been sitting in the parking lot of that little bakery, waiting for Zachary to wake up so we could go in and visit with Zachary's young friend and the nice bakers. But it all worked out fine - we drove back out for mommy (Zachary still remained asleep the whole ride back, so maybe 2 hours in all?), drove back into town, gave Meh the tour of cute things we'd discovered on previous trips, made a visit to the bakery, and walked around the small downtown shops. It really is like a little town trapped in time -- a whole host of antique shops (we scored a pretty tea cup for Meh's collection, along with a 1960's-era Disney Mary Poppins book), candy shops (we got Zotz for Meh), and somewhat oddly, multiple bail bondsman storefronts as well. I was somewhat mystified as to the point of the latter until I heard that there had been 'a bit of trouble' at one of the several bars along the main street a few nights earlier. Oh, those crazy Port Orchard kids!

International Man of Mystery

Yesterday was another big first for Zachary: his first trip to another country! Yes, we drove up to the highly exotic Canada (or in French, it's spelled Canada), to beautiful Vancouver for a one-night stay; friends J and S were going up for S to attend a conference, and had invited us to meet up with them there. The drive up was fairly uneventful (after the car got a bit less crowded by unloading Korby at his kennel-free boarding facility - he really never does even look back); Zachary slept wonderfully through most of the drive, and was happily chatting or looking around with his monkey expression for the remainder. The border crossing was totally smooth as well, maybe a 10 minute wait.

Once into British Columbia, I flipped the odometer to kph (I know it's not actually an impressive speed, but how cool is seeing 110 kph show up on the dashboard? I didn't even realize the odometer had the third digit), and we took the freeway into Vancouver, stopping off first at one of our favorite (and a favourite of friends S & J, not to be confused with J and S who we were meeting) European fast food chains that hasn't quite broken into the US yet. Yummy, and Zachary was happy as a clam in his high chair - he even ate a little bit of his own food while mommy had chicken and daddy enjoyed his lemon herb veggie burger.

We drove onward to Vancouver, where we stopped for the afternoon at the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Park. I'd last been here several summers ago for friends A & R's wedding, and it was so nice to be able to introduce Meh and Zachary to the charming rock quarry gardens (a bit sparse with spring just coming into bloom, but still dramatic) as well as walk through the somewhat Epcot-looking Bloedel Floral Conservatory, complete with exotic birds, koi pond, and Scoot-sized palms.

After driving the rest of the way into the city and settling into the hotel (which generously provided a pack-n-play for Zachary's sleeping pleasure), we met up with J & S for a dazzling dinner at Tojo's (he's the guy who actually invented the California roll), where J's bachelor party dinner had been. It was Meh's first time there, and we all had omakase, where you tell the chef what you don't eat, and they bring a series of dishes out at their own whim. We appreciated the layout and design of the restaurant (they'd moved buildings several months earlier), but Zachary seemed to appreciate it most of all, starting and smiling at all of the waitstaff as they cooed over him, and focusing in on the blue light suspended over our table. This was likely his first time out at a restaurant after his bedtime, and he did so so well. He wouldn't go to sleep (going so far as to bend over backwards watching the light when I tried to rock him to sleep), and was making happy squawking noises from time to time, but he was definitely pretty pleased the whole time as long as he was being held; the last course or two was taken standing up, but he really did do incredibly. The food was all amazing and so fresh - I think this was my favorite ever spicy tuna roll, there was an incredible nori roll with pineapple in it, and they even brought an amazing tofu dish for me. Meh and Jonathan of course enjoyed crab, shellfish, and other goodies.

Full of a variety of sushi and other fresh fish dishes (and some surprisingly excellent fruit ice cream dessert -- you never know if dessert's going to be yet another variant on sweet bean curd at Japanese restaurants...), we headed back to the car, where Zachary promptly conked out, as we drove on to our second and final gastronomic stop of the evening at La Casa Gelato. 218 (arbitrary number, I know) flavors of gelato at this shop, and it's always a fascinating new mix. I hung out in the car while everyone else grabbed flavors, then Jonathan helped me peruse and choose my own. A few that caught our eye this time (but that I wasn't brave enough to sample) included plum tomato, pear/blue cheese/gorgonzola, durian fruit (so stinky that it was the one flavor with the lid on), Guinness, licorice, wasabi, balsamic vingegar, garlic, and many others. I sampled dragonfruit (yum), toblerone (super-yum), and fig/lemon zest (yummiest, I got a whole bowl), while Meh got scoops of rum/eggnog and bailey's.

We were back at the hotel by 9:30 pm, and Zachary promptly went right back to sleep after a quick bedtime snack - he really did handle the late night so well, and slept through the night (that makes... 5 nights in a row?), waking up a little after 6 am. Once we were all up, dressed, and breakfasted, the three of us and J (S was at her conference) ventured out to Granville Island, an old industrial island reclaimed in the 1970s with shops, art, theatres, and a public market. The weather had turned a bit less agreeable, so we ducked across the island trying to keep Zachary's stroller from getting too wet in the rain, and into their fresh produce/food market. Zachary was happy and screechy, loving all of the colors and smells of the fruits, vegetables, flowers, pastas, meats, baked goods, and teas. We had a nice time walking from market to market -- after the public market, we wandered through some paper goods shops (Zachary dazzled the staff there, who kept coming by to say hello), and then through an entire market full of children's shops.

With time running out before we had to get back to pick up Korby, we wandered down to one of Vancouver's two kosher meat restaurants. I was hopeful, but the "restaurant" turned out to mainly consist of a catering company with a sad display of Passover goods and a small menu of lunch options; the corned beef sandwiches Meh and I had came right out of small consumer-sized plastic sealed bags of corned beef. Ah well, it still tasted good; we'll have to try the other one next time I suppose. And then we were off like a flash, back to the US! Well, if only our country would let us. There are two main border crossings, and they've even now got an electronic sign posted telling you the waits at the two crossings, which is nice. Except when the signs both read "60+ minutes". *sigh* So it was a long wait, during which I mused over all of the wasted fuel of the hundreds of idling cars. I also got this artsy photo of the Peace Arch with the subtext of the long line of cars in my rearview window. Interpretation is left to the reader or something.

Back in our native land, we picked up an incredibly muddy Korby (and had forgotten to bring a towel; will have to try to avoid looking at the carpetting in our trunk for a few days...) and continued home, where Zachary burned off a serious amount energy bouncing around like a crazy man in his jumperoo for a bit, then talking to grandma via video chat, before heading upstairs for baffy time and sleep. A seriously full 36 hours for a little boy!

Does no already mean no?

We've seen Zachary start performing three new behaviors in the last few days; while all are of course cute, I'm hoping the last one doesn't hint too much of tough times a-comin'.

First, Zachary now shakes his head "no". Granted, it's primarily when he's on his back getting a diaper change, and generally in response to prompting from mommy shaking her own head (he doesn't really do it for me yet). So it's mainly just imitation at the moment, but still very cute, and continues to demonstrate that nifty head control and his improving small-motor coordination.

Second, he's started to give kisses! It was hard to tell at first, but he'll occasionally wrap his hands around your face (or, with his always improving grabbing abilities, occasionally hook your mouth/cheek, grab an eye or eyebrow, or once even two fistfuls of mommy hair), pull you close, and plant a wet open-mouth on your face while smiling. It's much cuter than it sounds; will have to try to grab a kiss on the camera the next time he's feeling affectionate.

And perhaps slightly more worryingly, we had the first possibly hints of tantrum early this week. Meh and Zachary met me for lunch on Monday before the traditional Monday afternoon Zachary hand-off. He sat in the high chair while we ate lunch, and, after munching on the corner of a menu for a few minutes, he spied and started playing with one of those cardboard coasters for drinks. Yup, a few minutes later, it too went in the mouth, and eventually started to dissolve. When Meh took it away while it was still moderately recognizable as a coaster, Zachary let out a big whine of displeasure. It was over very quickly, but I think we can say with some certainty that he's starting to get the concept of object permanence. And possession. Or perhaps a little bit of both? Uh-oh.