Truck stop

Zachary has a new favorite pasttime: he encourages one of us to sit on the ground (preferably with his favorite blanket), gathers up and brings us his toy truck and toy airplane, and then climbs into our lap for snuggle time while holding his toys and kicking his feet happily. Super cute! Though it makes it a bit harder to multi-task when the little man requires our laps' full attention. The only interlude occurs if we send his truck out for a short push into the hallway; then he'll get up, race after it, and bring it back to us with a big smile on his face. Meh caught this first-person perspective video:



Fear not, the wipeout was minor and he was laughing the whole time.

Immersive reading

Grandma flew into town yesterday morning for a weekend visit! The two of us picked up Zachary from his nanny, and he burst into a big smile when he saw grandma. We came home and he had to introduce her to his favorite toys, including climbing into his cute treasure chest of books while she read him a story.

Of course grandma had a flurry of fun gifts for him. His favorite at the moment is a squishy red ball -- he waits for grandma to throw/roll it to him (apparently mommy or daddy just don't do it correctly), then he picks it up, and waits for a cheer from grandma before running the ball back to her ecstatically. Witness a round of this challenging sport here:



Meh is at a scrapbooking retreat today, so grandma, Zachary, and I went to the mall first thing in the morning to play and then grab some lunch. Well, Zachary spoiled those plans by setting a new in-car napping record of 2 1/2 hours. Crazy sleeping man! Thankfully we both had books to read, and it did help us all build up a bit of an appetite; when he woke up, we had a nice time having lunch together at this high-end dining establishment. Then we took the little man up to the children's area, where he ran around, talked, climbed, and played with all of the interesting toys around the circumference of the squishy climbing toys, while occasionally checking back in on all of the mall goings on below.

Back home for more playtime with the now infamous red squishy ball, books, music, outdoor swing, pushcart, bus driving time - a jam-packed day for Zachary, and one that left all three of us pretty exhausted!

Law of averages

This morning was Zachary's 18-month checkup! He had great fun in the waiting room playing with toys and looking at the aquarium of fish (but of course not tapping on the glass; there used to be a great sign in there asking children not to be a Darla). But for the first time, he actively got upset and cried from the moment we brought him into the exam room. He was fairly hard to console; I'm not sure if he was remembering previous shots or was just unhappy to be taken away from the fish. He was occasionally distractable, and even gave the doctor a smile or two, though as soon as the stethoscope and otoscope came out, he was right back at the hollering. Somehow between the crying and kicking (and that was before the shot, which is ostensibly the last one for the next few appointments, hooray!), they managed to get his vitals:

Weight: 25 lbs. 1 oz. (25-50th percentile)
Height: 32" (25-50th percentile)
Head circumference: 19" (50th percentile)

So right down the middle for all of his stats. In addition to talking to Zachary (in between his tears of course), the doctor had some excellent explanatory reasons for his love of the same book over and over -- it's potentially a case of comfort through object permanence and routine. This makes sense, though it still won't stop us from occasionally hiding one of his books after we read it for him the tenth time that morning. Incidentally, his book preferences have changed over time; his favorites at the moment are a Doctor Seuss alphabet book (he echoes the 'H, h, h' when we get to that letter's page) and a fun book about mice and colors, though he also brings us some of his classics from time to time; Goodnight Moon remains a favorite bedtime volume.

Little Britain

I'm just back from a trip to the UK, where I got to meet up with several of Zachary's young friends (well, two of whom I don't believe he's actually met yet) in between participating in this conference.

The night I arrived, I got to visit with friends N & S and their boys J & R. R was the first to arrive home from the evening activities, and is a very happy and mellow 8-month-old. We played and he smiled at my silly accent. J is 3, and full of energy - he was very happy to see me (I think he maybe vaguely remembered me from my last visit?) and kept chatting and wanting me to lift him up in the air for crazy gymnastic jumps; apparently his favorite character is Sportacus from an Icelandic kids TV program called LazyTown. (I haven't yet seen it across the Atlantic, though how much Nickelodeon do I really watch?) We had a lovely baffy time (the two boys share a bath; R is extremely cute and smiley in his little bath seat while J madly plays with toys around his brother) and bed time, and then N's parents watched the boys while the three of us went out for a lovely kosher Indian dinner.

The next evening, I was so glad to be invited to visit with T & B and their son T, who had moved back to the UK nearly a year ago, having been good friends from Zachary's parenting class. T is several days older than Zachary, but of course has a completely different skill set and personality. He was happy and talky, and knows a bunch of animal and vehicle sounds. He also uses utensils a bit and kicks a football (an American one at that; B is a 49ers fan), and eats a fair number of fairly sophisticated/adventurous foods. We all had a really nice time, and then the adults had a wonderful dinner together, including a delicious British sticky banana pudding for dessert.

The conference dominated the next few days, but my last night before leaving, I was back at N & S's home for a lovely family Friday night dinner, this time with S's parents (it's wonderful that both of the boys' sets of grandparents live so close by). J was absolutely adorable, helping to light the Sabbath candles and then leading all of us in rousing song after song -- he really does enjoy his Jewish traditions!

It was so good to catch up with our friends and their children, and I thank them all so much for their wonderful hospitality. I'm also looking forward to hopefully welcoming them back to Seattle soon!

While the trip was productive and it was lovely to catch up with our friends, I was still very happy to be back home yesterday afternoon. I arrived during Zachary's dinner time, and he had a giant smile on his face and seemed very happy to see me - though he was also sad to see his temporary nanny leave; we stood in front of the window and he waved as she walked to her car. So cute!

Swing kid

It took many months, and multiple trips to the hardware store, but Zachary finally has a functional swing of his very own! Seriously, with how much he loves his swings, I feel bad for not installing it sooner. Meh had gotten the actual swing several months ago, and I lamely hadn't done the research or gone to the store to figure out how to attach it. Meh took it upon herself to hop over to the hardware store and pick up what looked like the correct parts. Upon closer reading of the directions and looking at all of the parts together, we had to return to the hardware store (and of course, as always, multiple times; the required hole was large enough that I had to switch from drill bit to spade), but finally had the right stuff for tool time.

The apple tree in the middle of our yard has the perfect branch for a swing - nearly horizontal, fairly thick, and out of the way of things to swing into. When Zachary saw the swing nearly complete, he got very excited - and then vocally objected when I still had to tighten a few bolts before the ride could begin. But a few minutes later, he was secured in his new swing and very happy to be rocking back and forth:



We've already used it multiple times. I'm hoping that this will give Meh one more tool to entertain the little man while I'm out of town at a conference in London all of this week (I fly out tonight). It's tough to be away from them for so long, though I'm sure much more difficult for Meh. Thankfully friends have offered to help watch him a few times, and my company's backup care will be providing a nanny for the days Meh works. But I'll still miss them very much and be happy when I get to come back!

Put a fork in it

More firsts for the little man! First, he decided he wanted to go for a drive; Meh watched him climb into his school bus all by himself.


Next, he ran around talking up a storm for Meh. Of course he quieted down as soon as the camera started rolling, but Meh did catch him saying several of his new favorite words; "H" and "wokka" are among his favorites.


And lastly (and the subject of today's post), while we've gotten him to eat off a spoon or fork that we've held out to him, he wasn't interested when Meh offered him sweet potatoes on a fork tonight. Until she tried handing him the whole fork:

Hooray for Zachary's first self-silverware-fed food!

Open door policy

When getting Zachary ready for baffy time in the evening, I often let him run around a bit upstairs ("let" generally means he escapes in varying states of undress) while I get out his pajamas, get the tub running, and so on. He often plays with toys in his own room, brings me books to read, comes to check on the tub and make sure the water is filling (he loves to put his hands on the edge of the tub and peer in, often even bouncing with excitement about baffy time), or plays with the sliding hallway closet doors. Of course, as he is a curious little monkey, if any of the other hallway doors are inadvertently left open, he's off to explore. A few times he's ended up in the bedroom going through our drawers, or in the office playing on the computer keyboard or music keyboard.

So to help keep him out of too much trouble, I generally check to make sure all of the doors in the upstairs hallway are closed. Last night, he ended up in the office for the first time in a few days, and I just shrugged it off as not looking closely enough to make sure the door was actually closed. But this morning, Meh brought him up stairs, and she heard him grabbing the office doorknob and and opening the door himself! Oh no, is any room safe anymore? Is it time to invest in more of those baby gates that even grownups can't open? Though he's been thoughtfully eyeing and fiddling with those as well...