Swing Kids

I'll let our readers decide if this activity indicates a future of sewing, performing vascular surgery, or if we're really just reading too much into it:


Zachary has long engaged in what I had thought was called parallel play, but according to Wikipedia (the source for all that is true and verifiable in the world), is actually more like solitary play. That is, even if there are multiple kids in the room, they're all pretty much playing by themselves. The parallel aspect I guess is that they occasionally do notice what the other kids are doing, which can sometimes lead to the other kids' toys looking more fun and getting taken. (Zachary has actually always been great about that, rarely taking a toy, and generally just moving on to another toy without getting particularly bothered if a toy is taken from him.) He's also engaged in parallel play with us for quite some time, asking for lego help, playing piano with us, and bringing us his moo-ing cow puppet to 'play' for him. More recently, he's figured out how to make it moo himself, and (equally impressive to me) he will make it moo in the correct rhyhtm for the various songs it cycles between!

Anyway, this is a really roundabout way to talking about yesterday, where we had an early glimpse at cooperative ('associative' per Wikipedia) play. After some successful shopping errands, we stopped at the train park on the way home. Zachary was again insistent on staying on the sidewalks until I pointed out the swings, at which point he made a beeline for them, disregarding the lack of a paved path in their direction. Silly man.

Anyway, a few minutes into swinging time, a little girl and her dad came over and she got in the adjacent swing, facing the opposite direction. The two of them proceeded to smile, laugh, and even occasionally pseudo talk to each other as they crossed paths. Zachary kept calling her "ba-ba" (baby) even though she was about his age, and he thought it was particularly funny when they ended up swinging in synchronization in opposite directions. It was very cute to see!

Quick footnote: We get a weekly e-mail about some typical developmental milestones, and it's often spookily on target. Sure enough, this week's talked about the beginnings of shared play.

9 1/2 Weeks

We're at 66 days and counting until Gooshie's due date! He continues to be very active, with much kicking and squirming. Last night we were feeling kicks every few seconds, and it seemed perhaps a bit too rhythmic -- until Meh guessed that we were more likely noticing tiny baby hiccups.

Zachary continues to not entirely get the big news, or that he's going to be a brother. Still, the changes are starting to add up to something for him; we've begun the move of objects and furniture that will create his new bedroom. He does seem to love his soon-to-be room, often asking that we take him upstairs just so he can watch the Snoopy and Red Baron dogfight mobile. And that's not the only thing involving endless circles that he enjoys, as demonstrated today at the park (while modeling his Thomas boots and new red mittens):

Tonight we did half of a "traditional" Jewish activity for Christmas, meeting some friends for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. (They'd come from the other half of the tradition: going to see a movie. I don't think Zachary's quite ready for that yet, though we did try watching a bit of Finding Nemo on DVD with him today. Alas, he wasn't really interested in hanging around for it.) Zachary brought in one of his favorite books, and he and I had a very exciting communicative moment. He was looking at his book and saying "sha!". I couldn't tell what he was saying, so I incorrectly guessed a few times. When he shook his head, I asked what he was pointing at, and he grabbed my finger and pointed at the swing in a picture. I know this isn't such a huge thing, and it's better communication-wise if he points with his own finger and all that, but it was still a very exciting event for him to make the extra effort to directly tell me something!

Sing Off

Zachary continues to love music -- except if we sing along. He'll look at us, shaking his head very intently (sometimes while smiling, other times with a stern look on his face), and even occasionally make a little vocalization of disapproval. Yup, we've got our very own Simon Cowell.

Today we had a lovely day out with the little man. First we met friends D & D with their sons N & B at the local franchise of our favorite chain breakfast spot. Everyone had a nice time, though Zachary ignored most of the food and spent much of the meal playing with his blue car ("boo-bah!") or making eyes at a foam cutout of a girl ("gah-gah!") from his oversized foam book. She's already his second love; we caught him smiling broadly a few weeks ago at the Sun-Maid raisin lady. Before and after, he really wanted to take a walk, so we strolled around the (not yet totally chaotic) shopping mall and adjacent park; he even got to put a coin into the Salvation Army bucket (after being drawn in by the fascinating ringing bell of course), while mommy stopped off here to pick up some tasty slices of princess and lemon chiffon cake to enjoy later.

For lunch, we were back out on the road, meeting friend R for lunch at Ruby's. Zachary was again very happy about the train, though sitting just below the tracks, he couldn't see it when it was on the near half of the loop, and occasionally got upset when it disappeared around the bend.

Afterwards, Zachary wanted to take a stroll (and I do mean a real walk; no strollers were harmed in the making of our journey), so we all went over to the huge plant store/greenhouse right across the street. He enjoyed looking at all of the varied and brightly colored plants, but particuarly liked the ceiling fans in the store, as well as all of the fountains and other water features.

The Great Escape

Zachary has finally discovered that you can actually *ride* (rather than just push) the red rocket he got way back for his birthday (as in, the day he was born).

In the past few weeks, we've been starting to prepare for Zachary's transition to a big boy room and bed. Meh has done a fabulous job sketching out our rooms' dimensions and virtually rearranging furniture as we plan out the guest room merging into the office/craft room to give Zachary his own room. One of the first Zachary touches in his future room was that Snoopy/Red Baron mobile we assembled with mima and papa. He frequently peeks into his soon-to-be room and happily says "ah-pah!" (airplane), and also spends occasional snuggle time just laying on the guest bed looking up at the circling cardboard planes. I don't think I ever posted his initial reaction:

On Thursday, the three of us went to everyone's favorite Swedish flat pack store to choose a little man dresser and bed -- and as it turned out, also bedding (they had some pseudo-crayon truck/bus/car patterned duvet covers; Zachary looked at one, said 'bah!' (bus), and we knew we'd found his set). As usual, they were out of stock of one thing that Meh wanted for the office, so Zachary and I queued up a return trip today while Meh was at work. Zachary had a great time on both occasions, particularly enjoying the lighting and kids sections of the store (as well as when I'd give him a little countdown to a speed boost in the cart). After we got back, I started putting together his new bunk bed while he snuggled on the guest bed with his cozy new duvet (definitely a winner!) and watched the airplane mobile. He got a little drowsy, so we read some stories (this one has become a recent favorite, often requiring 4 or more sequential readings) and I put him to bed for his nap.

Zachary naps often involve audible thumps (squirming around to get cozy) and occasionally even a little talking (to himself or his blanket?) that can be heard from downstairs. However, today's nap featured some unusual and unidentified sounds, so I decided to sneak upstairs and investigate. No sneaking was necessary though; as I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw him smiling down at me from the top of the staircase. Yup, it took 2 1/3 years, but he finally escaped the crib and was apparently waiting for me to notice him waiting at the top of the stairs.

As a short term solution, Meh is removing the bumper from the crib (we suspect he was using it as a boost up), but I think we'll be moving him to his big boy bed a little sooner than we'd thought - perfect timing that I just happen to be assembling it today!

Connecting the dots

One recurring feature of the televised Thomas and Friends is a connect the dots puzzle segment. A bunch of dots (admittedly making a pretty obviously train-shaped object) are placed on the screen, and then an animated pencil starts connecting them. You're supposed to try to guess which of Thomas's friends it is by the time the pencil finishes; I can never tell which engines are supposed to have longer profiles or taller steam funnels or whatever, so usually it's just something to pass the time between the sketches. But Meh reported that today, Zachary looked at the unconnected dots and said "seisss" (that's his word for 'six'. Also the Spanish one; see, he's already multilingual!) When the dots had finished connecting, it was indeed Percy, who's got a big six painted on his side. Coincidence?

Swimming cap

The Thomas obsession now extends even to his clothes; Zachary got a super cute pair of boots (wellies) for Chanukah last night, and kept walking around, looking at his feet, and exclaiming "Gaka!" (his word for 'Thomas') This morning, I'd left the box out (which of course has pictures of Thomas on it), and he found that to be another entertaining toy.

Zachary's winter quarter of swimming wrapped up today, and the kids all had a great time playing, swimming, and walking a semi-stable foam board before jumping to their parents. They even managed to mix in a bit of, um, boating?


Unfortunately, the next quarter's Sunday classes were already booked when I went to register; we landed with a weekday morning, which unfortunately I won't be able to attend as frequently. It was so much fun being able to swim with him this quarter, and he gets so excited from the moment we park the car at the fitness center!

Chanukah continues, and tonight we had friends J and S over for an earlyish dinner of latke tastiness; I even made an attempt at zucchini latkes in addition to the traditional potato ones. J and S brought some yummy foods too, and after more action-packed Zachary and J roughhousing, we put the little man down and had a nice mellow evening with friends.

Faux-reos

Not that there's ever really a need to schedule an event as an excuse, but Meh has been baking up a storm for today's holiday cookie exchange. I think she ended up with like seven options, and friends brought many of their own as well. It was a fabulous time, and everyone enjoyed both the treats and playing with Zachary. For his end, Zachary had a great time, particularly of course with friend J. Eventually there were some nice polite requests from the little man for Thomas, so we had to put on everyone's favorite televised, semi-animated tank engine. Incidentally, we proved that it's not just Meh and myself; as the show came on, the adults sitting on the couch were all inexplicably transfixed too -- it's clearly hypnotic for grownups.

One of the many hit cookies of the party were these "faux-reos" Meh made (someone later suggested we instead call them "moreos"), giant oreo-type homemade cookies with fresh cookie cream in the middle. Tastiness. There were also a wide variety of other cookies prominently featuring caramel, chocolate, nuts, various butter/sugar/flour combinations, and even a pumpkin one that Zachary actually sampled. (Yes, he was the only one at a cookie party who found apple slices to be the most attractive item from the presented options.)

It's also the first full day of Chanukah, which means lots of dreidls and other fun decorations have been tastefully placed throughout the house by Meh. Zachary has a favorite dreidl that plays "I Have a Little Dreidl" when it spins fast enough, and he loves watching/making mommy or daddy spin it. If it stops, he'll smile and look expectantly at it and/or us, saying "sha!" ('spin!' I guess?) until the top is back up and playing its music again. His favorite present thus far (not counting a few early gifts he got from mima and papa when they visited for Thanksgiving) appears to be a superball direct from London, courtesy of Uncle B:

Dental records

Two days after our own mommy/daddy tag-team visit to the grownup dentist, Zachary had his checkup today at the pediatric dentist. They're really wonderful there, with lots of fun toys (many of whom are stuffed animals with extra prominent teeth of course) and kids even get a prize coin at the end of their visit to put into vending machines filled with super balls, necklaces, and other little trinkets. Alas, all of this remains lost on Zachary, who was unhappy from the moment we walked in, and mostly hysterical through the exam itself. We had one moment of hope when they mentioned their swing-arm mounted TVs had two channels, one of which had Thomas -- but alas, at that particular moment, that channel was actually playing an episode of "Bob the Builder". I felt extra bad for the other kids around us, who must've thought he was getting a root canal when about the worst that actually happened was a mirror in the mouth.

On the plus side, the dentist reported that he's now got all of his teeth except a top left second molar! New recent words include "chacha" (cheerio), "neck" (like it sounds - and he points to his neck as he says it), "kah-kees" (cookies, finally distinct from crackers), "gious" (juice), "fafa" (fire - he was staring at the fireplace the other day saying it again and again), "yata" (?), and a word for raisins that I can't quite transliterate. Oh, and did I mention he's getting all domestic? Meh found him helping fold laundry:

By the numbers

Zachary continues to love his numbers and letters. In the past few days, the number 2 in particular has been a favorite during the day, being carried around the house (he's got a 0-9 puzzle) with the occasional comment of "tah!" (two), and in some cases even out of the house on walks and to the grocery store. He and Meh started counting his toes earleir this week, and he was very excited to discover that he had ten of them. For bath time, he's got 0-9 magnets, and an orange five is consistently the favorite there. Even his alphabet and letter cookies will often double as toys once he's had his fill; yesterday, mima, papa, Meh, Zachary, and I went to the U-District Farmers Market, where he held onto a number 4 cookie for a good half hour. The market itself was fun if a bit small this weekend, with lots of fresh veg, yummy baked breads, farm-made cheeses, and flavored hummus and other bean dips (including a vegan bacon-flavored one?).

Back to the numbers, my favorite remains counting the 14 stairs in our house, which we count as walk down every morning. Usually if I speak quietly to him as we sneak past mommy's bedroom door, he'll count them in a whispering voice, which is extra cute.

Zachary's been having a blast with mima and papa during their visit, occasionally calling their names questioningly when they're not immediately visible to him. He's been particularly snuggly in the afternoons with mima on the couch - super cute!

A rooster says meow

Mima and papa came bearing many gifts (so many, in fact, that I think this was the reason they had to check their actual clothes suitcase -- which promptly missed their connection, though it thankfully arrived the following morning). One is a classic mobile (and by classic, I mean circa 1960s, and last used by Zachary's uncle J as a young child) of Snoopy and Woodstock on their flying dog house in an eternal circling aerial battle with the Red Baron. It's got real working propellers and little lights that are supposed to be the guns; we've all been gradually assembling it, and will hopefully hang it up in the guest room (soon to be Zachary's room). Zachary's favorite gift of the moment is a seriously sturdy diecast battery-operated Thomas. He's about ten times heavier than Zachary's previous wooden Thomas, but the battery operation makes him a hundred times more fun. Thomas has even pulled Thomas around the track a few times, in addition to freight, egg crates, and New York subway cars.

With a lovely turkey dinner behind us, we headed yesterday to the Bothell Country Village, a faux-frontiery/Santa's villagey group of buildings that host lots of stores relating to fabric, stamping, papercraft, antiques, confectioners, and even a few tea rooms. Oh, and apparently a large family of chickens and roosters live there as well; we caught a few snuggling for warmth outside of the toy store, and later, the roosters were strutting around crowing at each other. Zachary thought this was hilarious, and kept occasionally meowing back at them:



The village also has a 1/4 mile 'train' ride (several carts that get pulled around by a golf cart), which Zachary laughed and smiled at when it drove past, as well as a duck pond, where he quacked and smiled at all of the ducks swarming kids feeding them breadcrumbs. And they also have a park with some fun play objects -- a carousel-themed merry go round and a community created pirate ship. Zachary had a great time walking around in the sandy (and from the rain, a bit muddy) hold of the ship, and Meh enjoyed opening up the treasure chest "hidden" in the main deck. He probably had the most fun at the tea house though, where we warmed up with hot drinks while Zachary played with magnetic letters and numbers on a giant board as well a large (what else but) Thomas train track.

Guess who's coming to dinner

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and we'll be having a full table of family and friends joining us to enjoy turkey, stuffing, cranberries, potatoes, and of course the traditional Thanksgiving challah. Zachary's mima and papa arrived last night, and were happily surprised by some other secret guests who met them at the baggage claim: Meh's brother J and girlfriend S had flown up from Texas several hours earlier.

Zachary's been having a great time playing with family; even a few days before people arrived, he'd been bringing me our little flip photo album, and correctly identifying papa (a flawless "papa"), mima (which he pronounces "mama"), and Uncle Josh (uh-kah, or occasionally UH-kah-jah). Today we all went for lunch at one of Zachary's and our favorite eating establishments. Other than an ongoing demand for refills on his bottomless milk, he had a good time, and we all enjoyed a lovely meal together. Afterwards, Zachary got some wild running time at his favorite mall play area, and the adults got to do a brief bit of shopping while he took a post-play stroll.

Tonight the cooking has already begun (well, Meh had started even earlier than tonight), and tomorrow we're looking forward to celebrating with friends and family!

The Plush Menagerie

It's turned out that one of the gifts I ostensibly got for Meh in Japan, a plush Jiji cat from Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, has actually become one of Zachary's favorites. He'll snuggle with Jiji and meow, trading off the meowing with saying "ba" ('bear') to a teddy bear grandma brought from the UK, moo-ing for an all-American (that is, made in China) plush cow, and hissing at a sensory snake that friend S made for him -- yup, his very own stuffed menagerie.

That said, he's also a big fan of the JAL toy airplane I got for him. Today I finally broke down and installed some batteries to see what that 'on/off' switch was all about, and Zachary was mightily entertained:


On Friday, Meh and Zachary met me for lunch at the local chain diner. Zachary hadn't been there in a long time, and he was more than beside himself with glee ("Ga-ka! Ga-ka!") at the fact that they run model trains throughout the restaurant along ceiling-suspended tracks. His children's menu/placemat also came with a pair of those blue and red polarized "3D" glasses. I put them on (mildly amused by the blurry images that only sort of popped off his menu), and then gave them to him. He actually imitated me and put them on himself, and thought it was really funny to look at daddy through the red filter, then the blue one. The glasses and trains made for a very happy meal indeed; his favorite ceiling fan establishment may have serious competition.

Splitting hairs

The time had arrived once more where Zachary's hair was getting unweildly and tangled, so this afternoon we hiked over to the salon with the fun truck-shaped barber chair. Alas, our streak of pseudo-happy haircuts ends at two; his reception was more like how Meh had described some of his early haircuts, with unhappiness, standing up in his seat, and lots of "all done". In the end, he ended up sitting on my lap for the cut, with me trying to stay out of the way of the scissors and clippers, and with each of us wearing a smock and yet still somehow getting hair everywhere. Still, you can't argue with the results; he's got a smart new little haircut now, and I've got yet another excuse to throw out my old wool jacket -- the stylist was very nice and lint-rolled it for a good five minutes, but I'm not sure if she was grabbing more lint or just pilly wool bits.

Good Morning America

From 8 hours ahead of Seattle time to 7 hours behind (well, technically 17 hours ahead) in four days - yikes! I'm almost done with my Tokyo trip, and will head back later this afternoon.

London was hectic enough (and the time zones didn't really align) that I didn't really get to chat with Meh and Zachary; we just left e-mail messages for each other. But from here in Japan, we were able to get a video chat session going yesterday. Little man kept smiling at my image on the screen and saying "dah-dee!", and Meh and I got to catch up a bit during his mealtime as well.

I'm actually at the airport right now, having picked up some surprises for both Meh and Zachary. Hint: cute papercraft (Meh), stuffed animals (Meh), and airplane-themed items (Zachary) are involved. Looking forward to seeing them in a few hopefully brief hours, where I'll arrive at like 6 am this morning -- gotta love backwards time travel due to the international date line. Yup, it's going to be another long day!

The longest day

Long distance trips continue to be challenging with a two year old at home - well, I suspect quite a bit more challenging for Meh with me gone, but still, I miss my family and want to be back home as soon as possible! So when I had business trips this and next week to London and Tokyo, I found myself diverging from coworkers, who mostly were doing one continuous trip, and instead booked some mildly abrupt itineraries to minimize the time away. Today was the tail end of trip number one, where I ended up spending less than 48 hours in London. Somehow this involved being booked on the very first flight of the day out of Heathrow terminal 4, which meant a 4 am GMT wakeup and a 4:20 am cab ride for a 6:20 am flight. On the plus side, I got home by early afternoon. On the minus side, I won't be home from teaching my class tonight until after 10 pm PST, which means 26 hours of being awake. And Zachary will likely be up at his usual 5:30 am tomorrow, so no recovery time in the forecast. Next week onward to Japan for a nearly-as-hectic repeat performance - eek!

We've been experimenting with "timeouts" for Zachary, mostly when he gets frustrated (or overly tired) and starts swinging his amrs in our direction and "hitting" us. The timeout generally just means sitting in a chair for a few minutes, talking to him about how we don't hit people, and then redirecting him to another activity. I'm not sure if this is a good sign or not, but Meh reported that in the midst of a mild tantrum yesterday, she asked him if he wanted a timeout, and he pulled out the chair and sat in it all by himself! Here's the tail end of his self-timeout:

Stowaways

I've arrived safe and sound in the United Kingdom for a very brief business trip, where I went directly from the airport to a meeting, then travelled onward to my hotel and a few more meetings, and somehow still managed to find the energy to grab the taxi-to-train-to-subway back into Central London to have a tasty dinner with friends N & S. It was so good to catch up with them; I'm now back on the train back to the countryside where my hotel is, mildly dreading the early wakeup tomorrow for more meetings. And Thursday I'm on a super early flight back home -- fun times!

A quick story to share - as I unpacked my bag this afternoon, a tiny little sock tumbled out of one of my folded shirts. I chuckled at the reminder of Zachary, and then proceed to find two more tiny socks hiding in some boxers. Silly little man socks!

Speaking of the little man, before I left, we grabbed this video -- he continues to enjoy feeding us foods that he's not interested in. Every so often he'll actually start to give us the food and then psyche us out and take a bite himself, but not on this particular occasion:

A sugar-free Halloween

It's Halloween! Meh has been lamenting that while this is arguably her favorite holiday, she hasn't really gotten to properly celebrate it for the last few years. In 2007, Zachary was too young to trick or treat (though he and mommy trick-or-treated earlier in the day at my office, and a few days before he and I had cheered on mommy at a Halloween-themed 5K run). Last year, we again did the office walk, and even attempted a proper evening trick-or-treat; he made it all the way out the front door before laying himself out on our driveway. This year, the office trick-or-treat didn't work out schedule-wise, and we made some progress getting out to actually trick or treat in the neighborhood, but still, um, not quite there yet. Here's a comparison between 2007 and 2009:
Okay, honestly, it wasn't *that* bad, and things actually went pretty well. We made it out of the house, down the driveway...

...and to our next door neighbor's front door. Zachary even successfully knocked (you might make out his "na na").

Unfortunately, they weren't home yet; that's what we get for trying before 6 pm. And from there out, he really just wanted to walk on the sidewalk. Any attempt to divert him up a driveway to actually trick or treat met with sadness; even when we had to hop into the street to go around a parked car, he was unhappy. Still, we did complete one loop of the neighborhood, with the little man in his super-cute lion outfit and holding our hands while we occasionally called out Halloween greetings to a neighbor or two who waved to us from their front door.

Earlier in the day we all went to Jump Planet, basically a giant warehouse packed with those inflatable moonwalk things. They were piping in fun Halloween music, and Zachary and his friend N had a great time -- he spent much of it crawling around rather than actually jumping, though he thought it was really funny when I'd bounce near him. Oh, and he loved the giant slides that allowed him to tumble down them way too fast.

A very full (yet paradoxically candy-free) Halloween for a good little man!

A very special episode

Zachary continues to love everything Thomas, in particular the televised version. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?) our Tivo appears to only pick up one episode a week, so he's been cycling between the same few for his one TV show per day. This week's has easily become the new favorite in the collection, featuring Zachary's favorite non-Thomas character, Harold the Helicopter. Usually he just does the flyover at the beginning of the show, but this time he was in several stories and even had his own mildly creepy children-performed theme song -- Zachary just kept smiling and saying 'haha' again and again. Here was his reaction to the episode a few days later:

The most startling thing about this episode was that it's apparently from the most recent season, where the model trains with puppeteered eyes and non-moving die cast model human characters have suddenly all been replaced by either computer-generated faces or entirely computer-generated scenes. Thomas suddenly has a moving mouth and cheeks that Zachary finds hilarious even when Thomas is just talking and not particularly "cross" or "getting into trouble".

Bringing in the harvest

Zachary and Meh went to the pumpkin patch yesterday with their toddler group. Z had a great time, and was totally in love with the hay ride in particular. They carpooled together with Zachary's nanny J and her son/Zachary's friend T; apparently the carpool was T's suggestion! In addition to farm animals, hay, and arts & crafts, there was also a giant barn slide that Zachary flew down way too quickly (he loved it particularly when he launched off the end of the slide), as well as pumpkin picking; Meh and Z returned with a lovely specimen that we'll carve later next week.

Today Zachary received a surprise in the mail -- a postcard from Uncle B of a "wah cah!" (That's "red car" to the rest of us, a fabulously shiny Italian one that's apparently part of the MoMA collection.) He spent much of dinner holding onto it, smiling, and talking about his shiny red car. Who needs toys when he gets such entertaining pictures in the mail?

Cars and trucks remain Zachary's very favorites. Though he loves several books about being an older sibling, it's still the pages that incidentally have depictions of toy or real vehicles that get the most attention from him. He even likes to talk about helicopters and airplanes in the morning when he wakes up and I bring him to bed for a family snuggle -- in between cracking himself up. We're not sure what precisely makes him giggle, but somehow he manages to pull off 'cute' even when it's far too early and still dark outside!

Gender neutral

One bit of data we didn't mention about the 20-week ultrasound was that it was our first opportunity to find out Gooshie's gender -- if we wanted to. We'd debated this for quite some time; for Zachary, we'd elected to be surprised, and it was actually quite the experience when, the moment after he was born, the doctor held him up and asked me to call the gender; I somehow sputtered "It's a boy!". On the other hand, finding out would help set our minds at ease as to whether we'd need a whole new wardrobe (not that many of Zachary's newborn clothes were particularly gender-identified), whether our growing collection of Zachary's old non-infant clothes should be held onto or donated, and whether we'd need to be preparing ourselves for a bris versus a baby naming soon after Gooshie's birth.

It wasn't until we headed to Thursday's ultrasound that we decided to find out, though only if they could be really certain one way or the other. And roughly 5 seconds into the ultrasound, they were - it's (going to be) a boy! We even got a great image printout saying "It's a boy!", with the mouse pointer indicating the, um, source of the certainty.

Gooshie in 3D

When we were getting ultrasounds for Zachary (Ziggy at the time), I recall there were fancy clinics you could go to, pay extra money, and have this new-fangled extra expensive technology that would generate glamour shot 3D models of your baby. While that might be interesting for dropping the wireframe model of your baby into the latest video game simulator, it seemed a little unnecessary when we got perfectly cute actual ultrasound still images. Two years later, the technology is apparently a bit more standard -- today was our 20-week ultrasound, and they generated a 3D image of Gooshie's profile, alongside the more traditional images.

Everything is looking great; an approximate weight of 12 ounces, which is apparently 30th percentile. Gooshie was wiggling around during the ultrasound, but we got to see all the proper limbs, tiny fingers and toes, and of course a cute face that Meh thinks already looks different from Zachary's. Zachary and I hung out next to mommy for most of the appointment while Zachary played with his yellow car (which for some reason he kept talking about as 'wah kah' [red car]), though eventually he got a bit stir crazy, with repeated 'Ah dah!'s [all done] leading us to go play in the waiting room. I had him in stitches moving around a magnetic car in one of those closed hollow tables with magnet paddles that you use on the table's underside; he'd say 'go', and I'd hesitate just long enough to surprise him. This boy loves to get startled!

Halftime

It's hard to believe, but we're already at 20 weeks! Meh continues to be amazing with simultaneously handling a little man and growing Gooshie at the same time - I miss them all so much whenever I have to be out of town for work.

Thankfully, I'm back for a bit now, returning home late last night with prezzies in tow. For Zachary, I brought wooden model subway trains corresponding to those his Uncle B takes to work every day in New York; he loved the C train and was happily carrying it around this morning. To help out with communication (and to start to teach a few limits on some activities), Meh has taken to placing a Thomas the Tank Engine trading card on the fridge. When Zachary wants to watch Thomas (usually by saying "Gaka!" -- though I thought this was grandma a few weeks ago?), we go to the fridge and give the picture to him, explaining that this is his one ticket to watch Thomas per day.

This morning the process played out right after breakfast; Zachary ran to the fridge, grabbed the Thomas card from the fridge, brought it to me saying "Gaka!", and we went in the other room to happily watch one episode, with blankie, MTA train, and Thomas card in hand. His smile alternated focus between the TV and the playing card, and he happily called out "wawa" when the train went over a river and "haha" when Harold the Helicopter swooped past on the screen. Afterwards, the playing card goes away for the day (hidden on the counter).

Zachary's been learning his numbers and letters ever since we brought out the magnets when grandma was visiting (even on the first day, he'd already nailed 1, 7, and 8). In the bathtub, he plays with 0-9 and is getting most of them, and he still counts up to fourteen as we walk up or down the stairs. Tonight I was giving him alphabet cookies after dinner, and when I pulled out an 'N', he more or less correctly identified it (well, as "em"). Meh had better success while I was out of town:

Are you my Daddy?

Nothing reminds me how lucky I am not to be a single mom than when Scott goes out of town. How do those women ever shower??? I have gotten in only one since Scott left last Thursday, and that one occurred while Zachary stood outside the shower door holding up his socks and crying. I swear there was still shampoo in my hair when I got to work.

We did get to have a brief video chat (riddled with technical difficulties) with Scott, during which Zachary looked at him on the screen and said "Dada!" This made Daddy very happy!

Today I took Zachary to a fall festival at a super cute place in nearby Bothell that I didn't even know existed. He wasn't as turned on by the ponies and train ride as I expected, but he did enjoy the huge spread of Thomas the tank engine toys that the little toy store put outside for the kids.

When we got home, I baked cookies, and Zachary helped. He enjoyed playing with the dough on the mixing paddle, and picking chocolate chips out of the batter. He put his hand over mine when I cracked the eggs, and he even tried to put the measuring cups in the batter, such a helpful little man!

Affirmative action

At last, a video of the "yeahhhh", as well as his newest variant, a slightly 'sh'-y "yessss":


Grandma is visiting for the weekend, and Zachary has been having a wonderful time with her - lots of reading, listening to music, playing with a new sound-making book that grandma brought, and she even handled bath and bed time on Thursday while I taught the first lecture of my class. Today we all went out for breakfast, where Meh optimistically ordered Zachary some chocolate chip pancakes. He helped himself to many melt-in-your-hands (and face, mouth, bib, etc.) chocolate chips, and made a spectacular mess mushing them and the melting butter around on the pancakes, but the big news was when he actually picked up a piece of pancake and ate that too. Just one, but hey, we'll take it! Meh had some excellent pumpkin pancakes, grandma had coconut ones, and I stayed with the classics.
Afterwards, we went to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and Zachary had a fab time driving around in one of those car-shaped shopping carts (it was red - "wah!"). He prefers if there are two steering wheels that he can direct simultaneously, and was happy through the entire store visit. I, however, still struggle to drive what amounts to a double-length shopping cart, and almost hit a display or two. I blamed it all on the steering of that cute little man in the driver's seat.

Thinking Fast

Yom Kippur started at sundown on Sunday, and I definitely experienced a pretty wide range of observance styles over the next 26 hours! On Sunday evening, I went to synagogue with friends J & S at S's parents' lubavitch shul for Kol Nidre. J and I actually ended up in front and center seats (literally right in front of the rabbi), so there would have been no escape -- but it was a very nice and welcoming traditional service, with a really warm community feeling.

On Monday, Meh and I were hoping to take Zachary to a Reform childrens' service in the afternoon; we'd made a similar attempt last week for Rosh Hashanah, but he slept clear through it. Anyway, I stayed home and did a miniature service for Meh and myself (in between her preparation of a yummy chocolate wafer/whipped cream/banana concoction for break-the-fast later in the evening -- talk about making it a tough fast!) during his nap. He woke up at a perfect time for a quick lunch, and then we were off to the temple.

The little man was of course smartly dressed in his new shoes and an excellently dapper outfit, and he did amazingly well at temple. The service was the perfect length for him (and, Meh joked, for her): about 35 minutes, with a 7-page prayer book consisting mostly of group songs, featuring a tiny little torah that the very engaging rabbi unrolled and briefly read/translated from, plus a few quick stories thrown in. There were probably close to a hundred kids plus their parents there, and they all seemed to like it. Zachary did a great job sitting still -- well, not sitting exactly, but staying on and around his chair; he kept standing up on it, leaning back against it, sitting back down, climbing down, climbing back up, etc. But there was no wandering away, and his eyes remained fixed on the rabbi (though he was occasionally saying 'ah-pah' -- granted, they've got lovely wide windows and skylights, but I couldn't for the life of me see any airplanes up there). My favorite part: about a minute after each song ended, he'd suddenly realize it was over and start clapping his hands. He was occasionally talky, and wide-eyed and entranced at the music and service overall. Afterwards we drove home and had a quiet family afternoon. All in all, a great first High Holiday experience for the little man!

These shoes were made for walking

Meh got Zachary his first pair of real non-"one-size-fits-all-toddlers" shoes on Wednesday -- and he already wears a 6 wide. I vaguely remember being trapped in the childrens' 11-12's as a kid for what seemed like forever, so he's already totally on my tail. He gave the dapper duds a nice workout at the park today, where he ran around multiple play structures, down a bunch of slides, occasionally parked himself in a little glass porthole/window seat on the second floor of a play structure, and commented on the multiple 'ah-pahs' as they flew overhead.

The big news today was that the little man actually ate some cinnamon toast for supper. It was on his plate, and then before we realized it, he was shoving it into his mouth and going for the second piece. (Both Meh and I valiantly feigned disinterest, though eventually she had to hop into another room and let out a small squeal.) Fourteen offers before a child tries a new food? How about forty? But very exciting; we'll have to see if he remembers the taste the next time we offer it.

Gooshie has been kicking up a storm, though I can't feel the activity quite yet! We took him/her to a play last night with friends J & S, and Gooshie seemed to enjoy it; we had a nice time having an evening out together, with kaiten sushi dinner and a play that was, per the program description, very certainly pastiche (good new Scrabble word) as well as completely silly.

It goes to eleven

We've been discovering over the past few days that Zachary's able to count - well, sort of. I generally carry him down the stairs in the morning, and I've almost always counted the steps as we walk down them. The other day, he smiled at me on the top step and said 'wah' (one). So since then, we take it a step at a time, and he counts and I echo with the actual number. The key to the Zachary numbering system:

1. 'wah' | 2. 'dah' (not much rhyme or reason for that one, though 'dah' is often his default in general) | 3. 'dah' | 4. 'fah' | 5. 'fv' | 6. 'sha' | 7. 'shasia' (both ceiling and seven apparently) | 8. 'eh' | 9. 'mah' | 10. 'tah'

11 is the crowning achievement, where he proudly announces 'el-wah!'. He likes the sound of it so much that sometimes the twelfth through fourteenth stairs are also 'el-wah', though on other occasions he realizes that breakfast is near, and starts saying 'mih' (milk) instead.

We've started another round of swim lessons, and this time we scheduled it for the weekend, so both mommy and daddy can come along. Zachary still has a great time splashing around in the pool, and particularly likes jumping off the underwater platform to mommy. After swim lessons, we even got to have family brunch at a nearby yummy bagel deli.

In between playing with his favorite blue plane (which alternates between 'ah-pah' and 'boo pah'; 'boo pah' is also any blue toy, blueberries, etc.) and red car ('wah kah'), Zachary will often carry on conversations and make some really strange noises. When I say 'Oh Yeah' (think Kool-Aid Man), he'll frequently say a cute extended 'yeahhhhhhh' back. Not in this video, but at least you'll know why I'm saying it:

King of Hearts

Home at last! Another long trip away, and it was very good to be back; the little man was already asleep when I got home, so hope he's happy to see me in the morning! Meh was baking today, and Zachary simply had to watch - so in came the step stool, and up he went to check out the mixer. Note how blankie had to come with him.

I had a great time visiting friends M, K, and their nearly two-month-old daughter N. I couldn't believe how tiny she was when M and K let me hold her! And even her noises were tiny; I remember when Zachary was unhappy at restaurants as an infant, we'd quickly scurry out. With N, I felt like I could barely hear her across the table (not that she was making much noie to begn with) - though I'm sure M and K are a bit more sensitive to it than I was. :)

M and K have an incredible home outside of Forth Worth, and baby N's room is very sweetly decorated for when she's ready to check it out. (For last night, M's friend A, visiting from Chicago at the same time as me, got to borrow N's room). The five of us hopped into Fort Worth to enjoy the lovely vegan restaurant I'd visited with them last year. I had the 'Paul Reuben', made with faux corned beef and faux cheese (or as the menu called it, 'cheez') -- it was super yum. We headed home in the afternoon and passed the time with a few rounds of cards. We actually attempted to indoctrinate K into the 4-player Michigan classic known as euchre, but N refused to be part of such a backwards Midwestern game, so instead the three of us played hearts. For whatever reason, I had the game of my life and ended up winning with 8 points; I jokingly asked where the nearest casino was, but I think that would've been pushing what little luck I had. Instead we had friend S (another Seattle-to-Forth Worth transplant) grab some tasty takeout tex-mex and come by for dinner and catching up.

M's friend A headed home early the next morning, but the four of us got to eat breakfast at the Fort Worth classic diner, where baby N was the center of attention for staff and patrons alike. And yes, all three adults again had to answer "no" when the incredulous waitress asked if we really didn't want any meat with our breakfasts. A quick trip through the entertainingly large and varied Central Market and a take home Thai lunch, and I was back on the road to the airport. A huge thanks to M and K for hosting me, and to N for letting me occasionally hold her - it was good to get a little practice in!

Gooshie Kickoff

We've been gradually sharing the news around, and with yesterday being the first day that Meh felt a certain familiar kick, this seems like a good opportunity to post the announcement on our blog - we're expecting! On or about March 1 (plus or minus 2 weeks or more of course), we're all looking forward to meeting Gooshie.

The name came about quite early; I actually remember we were sitting on a dinner date, where a few minutes before, Meh had surprised me with a gift-wrapped book that we'd actually read through once before -- it was a wonderful way to find out the news! Anyway, Gooshie just popped into my head when we started thinking about what to call our in-vitro baby. It's certainly appropriate and consistent, as Zachary was originally named Ziggy, another name that happens to belong to a Quantum Leap character.

Not sure yet whether we'll find out the gender this time; Zachary was a surprise, but I think Meh would like to know if we'll be needing a new color and clothing-style palette or not. :) And as to Zachary's own awareness, not sure if he has any idea yet. One of his favorite books remains "The Berenstain Bears' New Baby", but I think that might mostly be for wood-chopping sequence for brother bear's new bed (in which I still think papa bear looks suspiciously menacing with a sharpened axe).

I was bummed to miss the first kick as I'm still in Texas, though I know it's a bit longer before they can be felt by others (though preferably not strange people touching Meh's tummy like last time!). On the plus side, I'm now visiting friends M, K, and their super-cute baby N - we've been having a wonderful time together! It certainly brings back memories, though I still have a hard time remembering Zachary being that small.

Float like a butterfly...

I'm once again on the road, this time for a conference in Austin followed by some meetings in Dallas/Fort Worth. On the plus side, the second stop will allow me to catch up with friends M, K, and their new daughter N! On the minus side, it seems like we just got back from DC, and Meh had been fighting some kind of bug for the past few days - it was hard to get on another plane early yesterday.

Some sad news reported from the homefront today - Meh and Zachary went to one of his favorite parks, where he was having a great time playing and running around. At some point, he started picking the flowers (our own little Ferdinand), and before Meh could stop him, he picked a flower with a bee on it. Little man got his very first bee sting, and was very sad - though thankfully had no major allergic reaction. Meh cleaned it out (with a credit card to avoid pushing in more venom, though apparently now not all sources deem this necessary?), but he had a tiny little swollen thumb for the afternoon. Meh said that when he got home and tried to play with his legos, he'd occasionally pick one up with the stung thumb and be uncomfortable once again. We hope he learns from this to avoid bees, though Meh thinks it's as likely he'll avoid flowers, legos, or both.

He was doing much better by the evening, and the bite seemed almost unnoticeable. If there's a silver lining to the experience, at least it hopefully indicates that the little man won't be as susceptible to bee allergies.

Let them eat cake

Yesterday we had our return flights, and we'd learned from our outbound journey to not underestimate the value of a smooth start. Thankfully, BWI was practically deserted -- check-in took about 5 minutes, and the security line was nonexistent as well. As we walked toward our gate, we were met with a fairly unusual sight at an airport: a gate decorated with streamers, balloons, a giant table with cake and cookies, a trio of classical musicians, and a small press contingent. Apparently, JetBlue now serves Baltimore, and we were witnessing the arrival of the maiden flight, full of $19-paying passengers. Why can't we get deals or service like that out west? Meh remarked that airports should always have live classical musicians, and I agree that they and free cake would certainly make travel a little easier!

Zachary's sleep schedule was totally out of sync with our itinerary today -- he fell asleep 10 minutes before we arrived at the airport, 20 minutes before our first flight landed, and 25 minutes before our second flight landed. Despite being woken up every time (unlike our last amazing experience with multiple sleeping man transfers), he really did quite well; it was just exhausting trying to keep him entertained! We attempted his headphones (he'd dissed them on previous trips), and this time they actually stayed on and elicited a small smile and some music listening for a whole two minutes before he was done with them:

We had a decent layover in the Twin Cities, and Zachary spent much of it running from window to window, watching the planes and commenting on them like so:

He also frequently said "ah-pah!" [airplane] and talked about their colors; he particularly likes the blue Southwest planes. Another flight, and we were back in Seattle; we grabbed our luggage, had another happy (but clearly tired) shuttle ride back to our car, and headed home. Zachary was very happy to see his own bed, and was practically asleep as his head hit the sheets. We had such a wonderful and fun trip with bubbie, aunt I, uncle S, Meh's friend C, and my friend J. But it's good to be back in our own home and sleeping in our own beds tonight.

L'Infant Plaza

Yes, he's more of a toddler at this point, but the title still seemed apropos considering our location today; aunt I and uncle S were working, so Meh, Zachary, and I braved the Metro into DC for a visit to the Smithsonian Institution. The Metro claims to be fully stroller accessible, though there were a few dodgy moments; on the way back we were fully stumped and had to shlep the stroller up an escalator and down a broken escalator (a.k.a. a long metal stairway) to get to our train; Zachary thought the bumping and jostling were hilarious. Suffice it to say, he was happily beside himself watching the trains approach - the combination light show (in addition to the headlights on carriages, circular lights embedded along the track flash when trains arrive), train horns, door chimes, and gusts of wind had him laughing and smiling. Aboard the train, he kept glancing over at me and bursting into a big grin in between chowing on goldfish crackers.

When we arrived at the Smithsonian, we started with a stroll through their gardens and then hopped into the castle for a quick look as it started briefly raining; the centerpiece there was a pile of props mocking up famous items in the Smithsonian's collection, as used in the recent family movie -- and yes, there was a giant gift shop display next to it hawking "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" souveniers. We moved on to the Museum of Natural History, where Zachary fell asleep about 5 minutes into the visit. We sat down for a nice lunch in their cafe, and when he was still asleep as we wrapped up, we started our museum tour with a sleeping passenger in tow.

First we visited the Hope Diamond and a really neat gemology exhibit, with all different shapes, sizes, and textures of various precious, semi-precious, and really-not-precious stones. Meh and I think we saw the Hope Diamond previously at an exhibit in London, but it really is ginormous. They're apparently planning to re-set it and currently have an online vote to choose the design. After wrapping up the gemstones, we visited some ancient and then semi-contemporary fish and mammal exhibits. We were trying to save the dinosaurs for the little man, but he was still out, so we ended up viewing the fossils as he slept on.

At last he woke up as we wrapped up the insect exhibit (the last major exhibit at the museum), ready for milk and lunch. We hopped outside to the National Mall, where the little man enjoyed some yogurt, raisins, and crackers, before we all headed back to the Metro for the trip back. He was happy and looking around through the whole walk through the station and train ride, though I unfortunately wasn't able to capture a video of his full excitement for the approaching train.

Refreshed from his long (I think another 2+ hours) nap, he had an excellent afternoon playing with bubbie, reading books, and playing with a series of toys. All in all, a very good last full day in Maryland -- tomorrow we head back to Seattle, so it's good to see him happy and well-rested in time for a big travel day. A huge thanks to aunt I and uncle S for hosting us, picking up all of Zachary's giant list of needed gear, feeding us (we weren't allowed to pick up a single meal), and playing tourist with us!

Waste management

Two of Zachary's favorite features of aunt I and uncle S's house are the ceiling fans, one located in the bedroom where he's sleeping and the other in the master bedroom. This makes him constantly want to climb upstairs, where he happily runs around between the two rooms, smiling and saying "shah-siya!" [ceiling?] as he looks up at the fans. Meh even got him to say "fuh-fuh-FAH!" [fan?] as well. This morning, Zachary woke up fairly early, so I brought him into bed with us. We all actually slept nicely for a bit longer, then he sat up, made sure I was awake, and signed 'more' and then 'please'. I quietly whispered "more what?" and, just as quietly, he whispered back "shah-siya!" This was so cute that I simply had to go turn on the fan for him, though that just made him happily say "shah-siya" again and again in a regular loud voice; we scurried downstairs for breakfast to let Meh sleep some more.

Today we all drove down to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. They've got a ton of activities there, including the 1854 USS Constellation tall ship, a not-quite-as-old submarine (which sounded its diving alarm like every 5 minutes), and plenty of outdoor strolling. Zachary was eager to be in the stroller and 'gooo'-ing, so we walked most of the harbor with him. Then we spotted their children's museum and headed inside. Zachary was very not pleased for the stroller to stop moving, but we wanted to try to get him at least a little activity, so in we ventured.

There were at least a few minutes of happiness (or at least quiet exploration) in between whining and outright crying. Poor little man had around 20 minutes of Port Discovery before we gave up and headed out. He was not a fan of the ID bracelet, though the rest of us kept ours on in case we decided to venture back later. It was not meant to be though; 10 minutes later, Zachary was totally conked out. So we all went and had lunch (at a place with a *lot* of ceiling fans - his loss!) and then roamed around some of the shopping areas, one of which had freshly filled cannoli for Meh, and another which is the only licensed shop in the country to sell Charm City Cakes merchandise (more on them in a bit). Zachary was still asleep, so we walked the whole length of the harbor, down to some extra swanky-looking condominiums. He was still asleep after that, so Meh and I stopped and relaxed on some benches (I chuckled at the concrete lounge chairs) while aunt I and uncle S got ice cream. He finally woke up as we got back to the car.

Before heading back home, we simply had to drive the 10 minutes from the harbor to stop at the home of our favorite Food Network bakery. I'd looked on their website, and it was quite clear that they don't want their TV fans stalking them - no tours, no visits without appointments, etc. So uncle S pulled over the car, Meh ran out, and I snapped a quick photo of her in front before we dashed back away. The windows were all heavily tinted and/or covered; I'm not sure if they were in the midst of shooting for the show, or in general have had to get even more private. Oh, the inconveniences of celebrity!

Lastly, on to the title of today's post. Tonight, Meh was giving little man his bath, and he suddenly started making the face that indicated he was, ah, making. In the bath. Meh quickly pulled him out and put him onto the toilet. Rather than crying, he just completed his business; hooray for Zachary's first potty training moment!

(Editor's note: We had an alternate title for this post: "Maryland is for Crap." But despite chuckling approval from the few Marylanders we tried it out on, I couldn't quite bring myself to blemish the Old Line State in a blog post title.)