Self Serve

The little man and I have kept very busy this weekend - he continues to do amazingly well being out and about (actually even better than hanging out at home all day; I think that actually kind of bores him) with multiple errands and fairly full days. Yesterday we went to the bank (where the tellers already know him, but he shamelessly flirts anyway), then to lunch with friends S & J at one of the most excellently child-friendly cafes in Capitol Hill -- who else would dedicate like 15% of their in-restaurant space to a gated and well-padded area with tons of kids toys? On the walk down to the restaurant, friends D & D and their son N were driving past, so after they got home, D and N came back out and joined us for lunch.

Zachary's been eating great - he went through an entire jar of food at lunch, along with his favorite finger foods -- Cheerios and bits of a stick of string cheese. Incidentally, I've been noticing a definite left-hand preference in picking up food, even when I put it closer to his right hand. His papa and nanny are southpaws (and his grandfather was a lefty as well), so it's a definite possibility -- though the child specialists are always quick to point out that it's a bit early for a handedness preference to assert itself. And indeed, apparently most children go through a few flip-flops before settling on one.

After lunch, we popped over to visit mommy at work, then did some shopping at Costco before heading home in time for a nice baffy time, stories (still not a fan of my renditions of Goodnight Moon, though he's happy enough when mommy reads it -- as in the dark video below, where you'll notice he turns pages with his left hand), and bedtime.

Today was a bit mellower - Zachary and I took a nice long walk with Korby, met mommy at work in the afternoon, and then came home and played for a while. When I gave him dinner, we reached another milestone! He started reaching for the spoon, I let him try to grasp it -- and he successfully put it into his own mouth. Granted, it was like his existing finger-food eating technique: the hand wrapped around the food end of the spoon and went into the mouth along with at least some of the sweet potato/lentil mix. But this outfit was just about at the end of its use for the day anyway, and he actually did a pretty decent job with the food transfer. He seemed pleased with himself as well; I'm thinking mealtime is about to get a whole lot messier, which I previously would have found hard to believe!