Thirty Days

We're down to the final month (plus or minus two weeks or so) until we get to meet Gooshie! We're all both excited and a little nervous, and keep trying to remember what things were like in the early days; if only we had a blog or something to compensate for the sleep-deprived loss of short term memory. Zachary still doesn't really indicate that he gets it, though he's got to notice that he simply can't always be "up!" in mommy's arms. Not that daddy can sustain that for extended periods either with our 30-pound little man!

Which brings us to nicknames -- what becomes of "little man" when there's another, well, "little man"? Will we recycle names? Share them between both boys? Come up with new options for Gooshie? Only time will tell; this reminds me of our question of whether Zachary would still ever go by Ziggy after he was born - didn't happen. In the meantime, the preparations continue; we took a tour of the hospital last week (this time we're using the one 10 minutes from our house rather than hiking into the city) and got a feeling for where and when to go. Meh has weekly check-ins with her midwives (with their ongoing ban on kids due to cootie spreading concerns, Z and I have stayed home, so I still haven't gotten to meet any of them), and everything has been looking on track so far. (Ptuh ptuh ptuh!)

We'll close this entry out with a video of one of Zachary's sources of constant entertainment:

Meh-ternity photos

Yesterday we had a return visit to an incredible baby/family photographer who had shot some wonderful Zachary pictures back in 2008. We'd met in that parent-baby class (she has a son just about Zachary's age, and now a younger son too) and she was starting up her photography business. A year later, she's in full swing, and even has her very own studio adjacent to her house. (This is apparently her secret to baby photography; the space can be climate controlled to a nice warm temperature, the babies can crawl around on a variety of cozy fuzzy rugs, and then conk out when she puts on a white noise generator.)

The photo shoot was fun and mellow; Zachary did great, running around and playing with Thomas (you'll likely notice the tank engine in all photos of Zachary), and the pictures of Meh are of course beautiful. We even made the photographer's blog. Hooray for beautiful pictures of my beautiful wife, son, and son-to-be; we're looking forward to seeing the final results!

Better get used to these bars, kid

Zachary's bed is built! I wrapped it up yesterday morning by hammering 60 plastic nails into the cross slats -- yes, as fun as it sounds, especially when the nails are both stubborn and right up against the edge of the bed frame. But once it was done, the mattress was hoisted up into the bed (first the bottom and later the top bunk), and Zachary immediately had to explore. He's just a little too tall to stand on the bed without his head hitting the slats for the top bunk, but he had no trouble climbing in and out of bed. We had snuggle time while watching the planes (comfortably visible from the bottom bunk), though he wouldn't quite go to sleep with the eternal dogfight in progress. Still, he's definitely enjoying spending time in his soon-to-be new room!

Who's the fairest?

We of course have plenty of pictures of the little man around the house. But it wasn't until yesterday that Zachary started looking at one of his baby pictures and saying "Zaza" (his name for himself) and then "bah-bah" (baby). Meh said he spent quite a while looking at (and talking about) himself.

The transition of the guest room to Zachary's bedroom is back on track now that we donated the futon that had been occupying the office. Today the guest bed made its way into the office, and Zachary and I continued putting together his bunk bed. Well, really I put the bed together while he ran around on his mattress playing with a truck, a plastic hammer (too bad I didn't actually get to the hammering part yet), a book, and of course talking about the circling airplane mobile. He was actually a little concerned when he walked into the room and there was no "ba" (bed) to be "up" in, but he got over it pretty quickly, and climbed around the bed frame as I assembled it. Still to come: his snazzy new Swedish dresser, rearranging some bookshelves, and painting his room's back wall.

Quick story on the paint -- Meh and he went to Meh's favorite home improvement store to pick up paint yesterday. He was having a great time looking around and up at the warehouse roof, of course particularly enjoying it when Meh took him through the ceiling fan section (alas, none of them were actually functional). She ordered the paint and picked up a few other paint supplies while it was being mixed. When Zachary showed interest, she showed him (and told him about) the paint brush. He picked up on the brush aspect and started trying to comb his hair with it, smiling the whole time. Silly little man!

English man

Zachary's been gradually developing more and more words over the past few weeks that are actually understandable -- even by those who don't speak Zachary. Unmistakably English words include: "on", "off", "up", "yeah", "eat", "socks", "cookie", "house" and "bus" (the last two often with a cutely elongated s, and now accompanied by pointing at the book or vehicle in question). There ae a few close ones as well -- "bah-bah" (baby, though also his favorite blanket), "mah-mah" (mommy), and "dah-dee" (doggy).

He's also been improving his sound effects -- sorry, I'll take the blame for that one. Here's his howling wolf (followed by his favorite 'AH-wah', which is his take on a panther growl, and must be followed by a 'rewr' and mommy or daddy tickle. The book is totally optional for this part.)

To the point

No need to make up my own milestones this time: as of yesterday, Zachary has started pointing. Granted, sometimes he opts for his thumb or some kind of gang symbol rather than the preferred index finger, but it's certainly making it easier to communicate and ask him what he's talking about. This morning, we were reading him a story and he was saying 'fafa!'. When we couldn't figure out what he was talking about, he pointed straight across the room to his giant fire truck puzzle. This has been followed by him reading several of his books and pointing at several objects while identifying them in Zachary-speak.

A few days ago, he and I went to the park and there was some kind of impromptu dog convention going on, with owners and dogs everywhere. He got very excited and happy, and hopped over to the doggies while saying "dah-dee!" One tiny dog gave him a big sloppy kiss and he thought it was very funny; he then was very good about petting the soft dogs very gently and carefully. One of the owners offered to let him feed her pooch a cookie (dog biscuit), and my immediate worry was that Zachary was going to recognize the word and try to eat it. But he was already off and running down the forest path towards more dogs a little ways away.

Say it soft and it's almost like praying

One of Zachary's favorite books at the moment is this board book about Chanukah. We often have to read it 2 or 3 times (after which time Meh and I can invoke a parental veto) before bed and naptimes. I generally ask Zachary what he wants to read, and he's got a few words relating to various books -- "ba" for the Berenstain Bears, "fa-fa" for Frances, "pah" for More Pants, and now "ha-ha" for that Chanukah book.

However, I think he's picked up that when I pronounce Chanukah, there's a very non-English sounding kh sound (or ch, Ḥ, ח, or whatever) at the beginning of the word. And sure enough, in the last day or two, when he asks for the book, he very clearly has started saying "ha-kkkkha!", with a big old guttural accent on the second syllable. Cute little Hebrew-speaking man!

You can pick your friends...

Words? Not exactly. Important things to say? Most certainly.


More exciting milestones that aren't really milestones but I'll claim them anyway: tonight when I said we were going to have bath time and should clean things up, Zachary took one of his Thomas playing cards that he'd been carrying around, and put it back into the appropriate box. Crazy. Then he was trying to figure out where to put a car he'd been playing with, and I suggested the pushcart full of the other cars. He ran over and dropped the car in. Alas, I couldn't get him to help me disassemble his Lego masterpiece (which today was easily three feet tall); he was already at the bottom of the stairs asking me to open the gate so we could head upstairs.

While he thankfully hasn't had a serious cold in a few weeks, we've discovered that Zachary actually understands the concept (if not always the logistics) of wiping his own nose. He was never a huge fan of us trying to wipe for him, so when he had a runny nose a few days ago (and was scrunching up his face to avoid the drips), we offered him a tissue and he was able to wipe it himself. Of course, soon afterwards he decided that tissues were much more fun to shred into increasingly tiny pieces, but hey, it's a start. Tonight, he had a bit of mucous on his nose during bath time. I tried to brush it away, but Zachary wasn't really interested in my hands being on his nose -- so I tried to novel approach of asking him to wipe his own nose. And voila, he did, and it was gone. Perhaps we can scratch that one off the list of dirty jobs parents have to do? Well, until Gooshie at least, so at least a reprieve for a month or two!

Barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen

Happy 2010! In addition to being the new year, today is my birthday. Yes, it's fun that my birthday is brought in with fireworks and a ball dropping, though it also apparently meant a missed tax break for my parents (sorry mom!), and of course means potential birthday parties are either competing with New Years Eve parties or friends' hangovers or ongoing vacations the next day. :)

Suffice it to say we didn't actually stay up until midnight last night. Consulting with other friends with kids, it sounds like surviving to 'east coast midnight' (that is, 9 pm PST) is a feat in and of itself. That said, we were of course woken up by our pyromaniacal neighborhood's traditional midnight fireworks display; somehow Zachary did manage to sleep through the crackles and booms, much as he did for the Fourth of July.

Anyway, I wanted to just do something mellow and low key for my birthday, so this morning we had a fabulous brunch/open house. It was really great, with many friends coming by, as well as quite a few kids -- Zachary did great sharing his toys, and I had a wonderful time; it was so nice to fill the house with our friends and get to catch up after not seeing many of them for some time. Meh had aimed to keep it mellow and low key as well, which of course still meant an incredible spread of freshly-filled cannoli (when I discovered they were back after a long absence Costco, I actually had grabbed and wrapped up a box for Meh for Chanukah -- it was fun to surprise her with a wrapped gift in the freezer), a wide selection of bagels, vegetables, fruits, two quiches, and of course Meh wanted to make me the birthday cake of my choice.

Cake-wise, I really had no idea this year, and wasn't sure how we'd top the yumminess of the past few years, which had featured Meh-made apple-caramel cake (2009), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cupcakes (2008), and a DeLorean cake (2007). Breaking out of the (cake?) mold, I opted for a lemon meringue pie, which was of course amazing, and apparently had been Meh's special recipe to create for papa's birthdays when she was growing up. Zachary wanted to be "up!" as the pie was being created yesterday, so the step stool came out so he could watch the mixer. While he doesn't yet help in the kitchen (or spend much time playing with his own wooden kitchen, other than occasionally shaking his toy salt & pepper shakers like castanets), he's hugely interested in anything involving the KitchenAid.

And yes, to the title of this post, Meh had her shoes off while she was slaving over the pie (made entirely from scratch, even the crusts!). Have I mentioned I have the best and most dedicated wife in the world? Happy birthday to me indeed!