The (Extreme) West End

Zachary's new bedroom continues to come together, with a new shelf (yup, another of the ones that had finally taught me the value of attaching shelving to studs in that mildly disastrous guest room incident) now populated with some of our favorite items from friends and travels, including a Muji "city in a bag", a group of fun wooden toy buildings shaped like London landmarks. Meh had also picked up a cute wall decal of a London double decker bus (from a UK-based Etsy-listed artist, no less) that we mounted right inside Zachary's door. He came to check it out and was very excited by the "busssss" and its wheels. The decal came with all of the numbers, so you could specify the bus number. I of course took on the challenge of figuring out the most appropriate route for his bus. The "ideal" route (which hits both Trafalgar Square [near the hotel we typically stay at], Oxford and Piccadilly Circuses, and Golders Green/Finchley [where our friends N & S live]) was the unluckily number 13, and while we aren't particularly superstitious, that just seemed unnecessary for Z's room. So we instead opted for the route number that matches Z's month and day of birth, the number 8, which still reaches Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, and St. Paul from its origins in East London. Nothing like a little piece of the East End on the Eastside -- of Seattle, that is.

Turn the lights down low

Another step towards transitioning Zachary to his own room: last night I installed a dimmer in his new bedroom. The previous binary on/off switch had been a problem over the last few days; his clothes have made the move into his new room, and when I'd try to get him dressed while (sadly) it was still dark outside, there was either random guesses as to clothes or brief flips of the light. For his end, Zachary likes to turn on the lights and then squint/smile/hide his eyes. Alas, he's started doing this in our room as well, which is not exactly the best way to open your eyes at 5:30 in the morning.

Big shoes to fill

Zachary's love affair with shoes continues. While not yet at Carrie Bradshaw levels, he'll frequently bring us a pair of his own to put on -- even if he's already wearing another pair. Yes, even in the house; we've tried to establish one or two pairs as 'indoor-only'; I feel like Mr. Rogers or something. Yesterday while I was at work, he brought mommy a pair of her shoes (this in itself is generally entertaining, as grownup shoes are pretty bulky for a little man) and said "mama!", then brought her a pair of mine and said "dada".

Here's an illustration of him using his shoes more or less as intended - for wild running, and on a track no less:

At the tone, the time will be...

Most mornings, Zachary wakes up and starts whining or talking to himself at six o'clock, plus or minus one minute. (Seriously, that's a solid internal alarm clock!) I bring him into bed with us for a bit, where he snuggles, occasionally talks/whispers about blankie ("ba-ba! niiice! sah! [soft]"), and, on extra special occasions, falls back asleep for a bit. This was not one of those mornings, but it was almost as cute, as he decided to act as a one-minute snooze alarm: when he sat up, he spotted my alarm clock and started reading the digits. We got a new readout pretty much every minute, though he was pretty insistent that 1's were I's. Was it more impressive that he kept at it, or that we remained immobile lumps until he gave up on us and climbed out of bed at "seis tah fah" (6:24)?

Meh's bags are packed, she's ready to go

We're now officially into the red zone, with two weeks to Gooshie's due date -- and, as we've often been reminded, that due date being roughly plus or minus two weeks. Meh packed her hospital bag yesterday (which she insists means Gooshie will arrive late), and I've got to get going on mine as well. We've created our multiple plans for what happens if Meh goes into labor in the middle of the night, and have several friends generously on standby to watch the little man.

I've also been "grounded" as it were; I had a local conference in Seattle last week (and had to explain to the other attendees why I had an exemption from the "all cellphones must be switched off" rule), but I've passed off my talks for an upcoming London conference to other speakers, and have backup speakers on standby for a conference in San Francisco the second week of March.

Z and I performed our first experiment on Sunday with him sleeping in his big boy bed. He'd quite nearly fallen asleep on our drive home from lunch with mommy and running some errands, so I tried snuggling him and putting him into the new bunk bed, even turning on the new white noise generator we'd picked up on said errands. He happily smiled, snuggled with blankie, and squirmed a bit in the bed as if getting ready to go to sleep. I ducked out into the hall and quietly shut the door. Alas, two minutes later I heard the thumping feet on the ground, the door knob turned, and the little man was there smiling at me. He grabbed me by the hand and led me into his old bedroom, pointed at his crib, said "ba" (bed), and then waited for me to pick him up and put him in the crib. He was out cold moments later. Ah well, I guess the next step is blackout curtains for the new bedroom.

The Last Supper Revisited

The countdown continues, with 16 days left until the midpoint of the statistically probable due date. Hm, perhaps not as dramatic as just saying that we're two days from any time now! With that in mind, we wanted to have a special date night before meeting Gooshie -- and that took place last night, where we went with friends J & S to a very special Valentine's Day-themed dinner at The Herbfarm.

The Herbfarm remains as wonderful and amazing as the first time we were there, which appropriately enough was right before Zachary was born. (Meh was pregnant the second time as well, which means she still has never gotten to enjoy their flights of wine or any less-than-fully-cooked meats!) The food was incredible, the service excellent and friendly, and I'm still always extra impressed when the proprietor/host is able to talk his way down the row of staff members and introduce each by name, background, pedigree, and random accompanying trivia. We of course also took a stroll to visit the Herbfarm's resident 'recyclers', Basil and Borage, who wagged their tails and happily ate some of the leftovers from the little pail we brought with us; talk about a charmed life!

I'm a bit embarassed to admit that one of the most entertaining bits for me were these little self-enclosed hand boilers (glass sculptures filled with a colored liquid that expands and boils up to a top compartment when you put it in the palm of your hand). Which is not to say the food wasn't incredibly amazing, as was the company -- hooray for a very special date night!

House Hunters

Huge news from the east coast -- Mima and Papa are looking to move out to Seattle! The idea had been tossed around for a few months, and this weekend they took a first big step, with a brief visit to start looking for homes. We all got to hang out together in the mornings and evenings, and somehow in between they managed to see something like 30 properties during their three and a half day visit.

There were a few promising options, including one that we stopped off to check out late in the afternoon of their last day before taking the little man down to a play area at the mall and dinner at his favorite digs. One option there hadn't been available to investigate on the spot, so Zachary and I returned there yesterday afternoon with the realtor. Zachary did a great job, happily looking around without getting into too much trouble. The only hitch was when we came back up the elevator from checking out the parking garage, when he decided it would be fun to push the 'emergency assistance' button -- whoops. But the property's realtor was right there and she assured us it was all fine.

Tell me about it

Zachary's labelling skills continue to develop, with new words (or at least semblances of words) every day. Yesterday he and I went to a friend's housewarming party, and he had a great time with her dog ('dah-dee!'), petting the dog and saying 'niiiice'; grandma would be so proud. For breakfast, he now specifically asks for 'mik' (milk), 'cha cha' (Cheerios), and/or 'kah' (Kix). If I ask him whether he wants something, he'll say 'yessss' (though no is still either a head shake or 'all done'). More and more objects in his daily life have names too - 'house', 'sahss' (socks), 'sha' (shoes, and also sheep), 'pah' (pants), 'dah' (down), and others.

Oh, and he has a favorite new word for when his toy airplane propels itself into a wall, or one of his cars or trucks decides to express itself via Newtonian physics: