Swing song

I think this video really says it all (or at least Zachary does):

Four score and seven wokkas

Most mornings, when we hear Zachary wake up, we bring him into bed with us for a bit of snuggling before we properly wake up. Sometimes he makes a few cute noises or says "Dah!". Yesterday though, he gave a ten minute soliloquy only using the word "wokka". As I've said before, he's clearly a Fozzie Bear in training.

The last few nights, he's been waking up very angry a few times a night - definitely a change of behavior. While we were usually able to comfort him with snuggles and rocking in his rocking chair, something seemed a bit off. Meh noticed that one of his ears was a bit red, and we figured out that it was an ear infection. One of the home remedies for this is warmed olive oil, so Zachary smelled like a yummy pasta dish as I put him to bed last night. Meh took him to the doctor this morning, and sure enough, he has his very first (and hopefully only) ear infection - in both ears. Poor little man! He's now on the same outrageously pink amoxicillin that grandma mentioned my brother and I spent much of our childhoods taking while fighting off strep throat.

This week's new activity: clapping. The claps are usually pretty silent, and occasionally degenerate into 'all done' or 'more' signing -- no particular rhyme or reason to when he claps, but it's still pretty darn cute.

Build up

We were mildly concerned at Zachary's doctor appointment last month when the nurse asked a series of questions about which activities Zachary was currently capable of doing and we had to say no to many of the asks. The doctor dispelled our worries by explaining that these are all just milestones, and they wouldn't be worth asking about (or would be cause for actual concern) if they were things that all kids his age were capable of doing -- everyone does them in his or her own time.

Which leads us to the last two days - one of those questions had been "does he stack blocks?". On Friday or Saturday, Meh had flipped over his trainset toy tabletop, which has one of those oversized Lego-like things on the underside. On Saturday, he was picking up the legos and slamming them down on the table, only occasionally getting them settled in a 'correct' position. Yesterday, he was having more success, and when I looked over, he was suddenly building towers nearly as tall as himself! He got more and more accurate and sophisticated with his lego placement, fixing blocks that were misbalanced, and built several precarious towers over the course of the afternoon, getting very upset when one would accidentally get knocked over before he was done, and mildly frustrated when the rounded dog- and cat-faced top pieces (which don't have the connectors on top to continue to build up) couldn't be stacked on each other. Quite the change from when he used to be all about knocking blocks over. Oh, and he's still managing to reach under the table and play with the upside-down train track toys too. Now where's the milestone for playing upside down?

Gut check

Meh taught Zachary a new trick this past week:



He still hasn't done it for me in person, though we do have the video proof. This week Zachary has another cold -- this time he's got a little frog in his throat, which sounds very sad indeed. He also partially woke up a few nights ago when he was extra-congested; we listened over the monitor to the sad sniffles and mouth breathing, though he was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly.

Mommy braved getting Zachary his second haircut yesterday; this time there was no delay before he got very unhappy with the scissors and clippers. Meh said that multiple staff at the kids' barber tried to assist with distractions, but he still ended up having to be on mommy's lap and little man hair got everywhere. Hopefully next time I'll take him so we can spread around the, ah, fun a bit.

Part of Zachary's morning routine involves running up to the front windows of the house (or the door to the back deck), pulling up the shades if they're still down, and then looking out of the window while holding the sill for several minutes at a time. While at times he'll just quietly watch the world go by, other times he discusses his feelings about how the day is looking:



Even as I type this, he's doing just that, watching the hail/freezing rain (in Seattle, and in March?!?) falling -- but thankfully not sticking -- in the front yard.

Da is the word (still)

(Here's a post from the first go round of this magic word.)

The other morning, Zachary added to the truck/plane snuggling complexity, by really wanting to also snuggle with his dog pull toy. I'm starting to run out of lap real estate (let alone hands).

Mommy works this weekend, so Zachary and I have been brainstorming fun things to do. He said "dah!" yesterday, and I agreed that it was a good idea to meet friends J & S (and J's visiting parents) for lunch at what's quickly becoming Zachary's second-most popular restaurant choice. Afterwards, we of course went up to that Kids' Cove play area on the top floor of the mall. Even though it's usually the most packed on weekends, Zachary always manages to find plenty of space to play. Occasionally that space is at the bottom of a slide that kids want to slide down, but he's generally pretty easy to redirect.

Evening bathtime continues to be one of Zachary's favorite activities of the day, between grabbing at the faucet (as the shower/faucet toggle switch is right on the faucet, I'm convinced that one day he'll flip the filling tub over to shower mode and give himself a good startle), splashing (thankfully not too much yet), chewing on/playing with toys, and talking about his day. He also really appreciates it when I put in my own feedback; here's a pretty good recap of the week that we co-authored:



As seen in the video, Meh picked up some bubble bath last week, and he's been enjoying his fluffy nearly nightly bubbles, splashing and giggling when he gets a bubble beard.