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: