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.