Speech patterns

Both boys have been talking up a storm the past few weeks. Owen coos at us and chats with his toys and sheep (in between presenting us with giant smiles):



And Zachary has been reciting bits of his favorite books and nursery rhymes. Today he was alternating between "The Wheels on the Bus" (my favorite: his hand motion for "the baby on the bus goes wah wah wah" involves putting his hands over his ears), "I'm Bringing Home My Baby Bumblebee," and the second half of "Bah Bah Black Sheep":



Not shown here is how when he answers "yes" to questions, it's sometimes now coming out as "yes sir, yes sir, three bags full".

Meh's choir had a lovely concert this afternoon at Northwest Folklife. We got there just in time for their warmups, so Zachary, Owen, and I met up with mima and papa for a late lunch at the Seattle Center's food court. Alas, another set of performers was playing some seriously over-amplified bluegrass, which echoed around the cavernous space. I think Zachary was a little overwhelmed (and ready for naptime); he wanted to be pushed around and was occasionally saying "Shh! Shh!" As concert time drew near, we headed down into the performance hall. Friends J and S had joined us and saved seats, but Zachary didn't want out of the comfy stroller. And little Owen, comfortably asleep in mima's arms, got startled awake by the burst of applause as the choir came on stage. Poor mima had to dash out of the theater with him and didn't get to hear her daughter's excellent performance. But she (and you) can hear the recording here [scroll down to Dunava, under 'Slavic Choir Showcase']. Owen's first recorded, um, solo starts about 20 seconds in -- but the rest of the concert was fabulous!

Crib notes

Owen inherited Zachary's crib, but really hasn't had much of an opportunity to use it yet. His naps tend to be most effective when on us (when put down in a pack and play or bouncer, he maxes out at like 20 minutes, and often will wake up a bit angry), and at night, he's been sleeping in bed next to us (with one of those nifty bed rails keeping him from rolling out). Sure, in a pinch if only one of us is home, he would lie down and coo (or grunt and then cry) for a bit in the crib during Zachary's bath time, but using it for its own purpose? Nonsense.

But with sleep still at a bit of a premium in our house, tonight we decided to try to put him down in the crib for a bit to see if he would sleep for a while, particularly if preceded by feeding and swaddling. And lo and behold, we're 90 minutes in, and he's still down! No victory laps yet, and I know we'll still be up several times tonight, but it's still nice to see him adapting to one of many transitions on the path to his very own room, bed, and then life. Okay, now I'm going to go cry in the corner. :)



[Postscript: he ended up sleeping for 5 1/2 hours!]

Mama's boy

Zachary continues to talk about Owie, frequently coming over to him in his aquarium bouncer to turn on the music or ocean noises ("wah-wah! bubbles!"), and occasionally even saying 'niiice Owie'. Meanwhile, Owen continues to grow and share his bright smiles with all around him. Other than when we're in the car, he's generally happy and fairly quiet, except when making extra cute cooing noises, or grunting when, um, working on a "special project". He enjoys down time in his little dangling toy play area, as well as up time on mommy and daddy, and of course snack time on the boppy. After everyone always commenting on Zachary's resemblance to me (the jokes about "mini me" are nearly always followed with my height making me the actual "mini me"), it's been great to see Owen looking a bit more like mommy - and of course that means super cute! Meh pulled out some old baby pictures of herself; I'll have to scan some in so our readers can do a more complete comparison.

Zachary isn't just talking about Owen lately; he's started saying (in his cute "grab the first phoneme of most words" way) random sections from his favorite books, songs, and nursery rhymes by heart. Yesterday he was saying "bee ehm," and I couldn't figure it out. Today I decoded it when he added "miice in moon, ehm ehm ehm". He impressively moved on to N, O, P, and Q before getting bored. He's also doing a great job of trying to make us understand him -- taking extra caution (leading to perhaps an extra 10% accuracy) in his pronunciation when we just don't get it. I've even seen him change it up and try a synonym on occasion. Go little thesaurus man!

A blessing on your head

Zachary has developed a bit of a cold -- it's my bad, I had one last week, and now he's caught it. He's long said 'bessu' (bless you) when he sneezes, and that now also appears to apply to coughs. But perhaps more entertaining is that he's saying it to whatever happens to be nearby when a sneeze/cough occurs. 'bessu milk', 'bessu high chair', 'bessu airplane'... He's been blessing the entire house lately.

Sandy's time has at long last come. No, I'm not talking about mima, but my 2000 Toyota Corolla (tan, hence the name). The brakes were again making concerning noises (only 6000 miles after they were changed) and a fair amount of additional work was going to be needed to keep her running, so it's time to investigate a new vehicle. I'd still been rooting for an electric car or another plug-in hybrid, but the options are still pretty meager in those areas -- particularly for what should clearly be a family car at this point. Tomorrow I'll go check out the options, but the current front-runner is the impressive 7-seating Highlander, which from my measurements will still somehow fit in our garage.

Mima and papa continue to settle into their house; we're looking forward to meeting them tomorrow morning for brunch! Zachary and Owen visited again on Thursday, and Zachary allegedly got to pet Lola -- he was very gentle and said "nice" and "woof woof" in between giggling at her.

Changing of the guard

Grandma flew home early yesterday morning, and this afternoon mima and papa arrived from their cross-country drive all the way from Florida! They were accompanied by their fearless chihuahua Lola, which Zachary reportedly excitedly called "Yo-la", then followed around saying "dah-dee" (doggy), "ah-ah" (arf-arf), and "niiiice". She steered clear of him -- go figure.

Mima and Papa's boxes and second car should be following in the next day or so, but for now it was nice to have a day together with the family! Interestingly, Zachary has taken the opportunity to renew his interest in our family photo album, with increasing name accuracy:


In other verbal news, Zachary's been really rolling on his ABCs. He even does the "now I know my ABCs" bit, despite getting a little bored in the videos Meh caught. My favorite part remains "L-M-N-O" coming out as "Elmo".

Big tiny man

First, a video of Owen with grandma - he had a great time with her during her visit!


As usual, I hopped over to the little man's room when he started talking this morning (at the actually reasonably civilized 6:45 am). We snuggled in bed for a bit with his kitty, Elmo, and blankie, and he started whispering the ABC's -- the whole song, including the "now I know my ABCs" ending. He had all of the letters down, except that L-M-N-O came out as "Elmo". Definitely a one-track mind!

Grandma left very early this morning -- we had a wonderful time with her and hope she had a great Mother's (and Grandmother's) Day with us! We spent it first at swimming, then a tasty lunch with Meh (both she and grandma scored gift cards from the restaurant for the occasion), a lovely family stroll along a local trail, then an afternoon barbecue with friends D & D and their boys N & B.

Owen had his two-month checkup today. Meh took him while the little man and I hung out at home reading books and listening to music ("mahsah!"). The doctor allegedly took one look at Owen and pronounced him a "moose baby" (an ironic match to one of Meh's childhood nicknames) - but a very healthy and happy one at that (well, until he got sad from the multiple shots):

Weight: 14 lbs 7.5 oz (97th percentile)
Length: 23 1/2 inches (75th percentile)
OFC: 15 3/4 inches (50th-75th percentile)

Definitely a big -- though very cute -- tiny man!

Sight Reader

Zachary has a(nother) favorite new book for us to 'read book again'. (Incidentally, he's added substantially more 3 word sentences, including 'bessu dahdee' [bless you daddy], and even a 4-word sentence: "Want eat high chair!") In the book, a little girl pig decides she's going to be a one-girl band. Halfway through the book, her 'band' (consisting of pots, pans, etc.) is together, and there's a giant fold out of sheet music. From the first time Zachary read the book, he's readily identified that page as "mah-sah!" (music). Smart little music man! I expect an analysis of the score's chord progressions within the week.

And speaking of music, last night was the premiere of one of my orchestral compositions by a wonderful Seattle orchestra! It was a piece I'd first sketched out several years ago, and had just wrapped up literally as Owen arrived; I recall working on final parts a day or two after we got home from the hospital. Meh, Owen, and grandma (who flew in yesterday from Michigan) all came to the concert, which was unfortunately past Zachary's bedtime. And our friend J (who used to nanny for Z) came with her nearly Owen-aged daughter M; they were all joking about the babies' first chaperoned date. The kids did great; I heard someone squeaking a bit from the rear of the hall during my piece, but it wasn't even them. Meh reported that the loud bits started Owen a bit (it's a very 'live' hall), but he didn't cry or anything. The piece went really well and I was so honored and excited that the orchestra played it; I'm looking forward to hearing the recording soon!

Anger Management

Like any proper 2-year-old, Zachary occasionally gets the tiniest bit angry. For a while, this led to tantrums, with sometimes semi-scary throwing of self onto the floor, screaming, crying, hitting mommy and daddy, and so on. But we've been watching him start to learn to control his temper a bit in a pretty cute way: if he's starting to get upset, saying bye-bye to various objects and asking us to take them away will sometimes help calm him back down. So despite his enduring love for Elmo and kitty, he'll occasionally start to get upset, say "bye bye Elmo", hand him to us, and watch us put him away -- the same occurs with toys, books, milk, juice, and even occasionally (gasp) blankie. Of course, sometimes he's just too upset and starts asking us to say bye bye to things like doors and windows, and when they can't be "bye bye"'d, the waterworks begin. But still, hopefully this is the first step to the end of tantrums? Well, until the teen years at least. :)

Today was Zachary's first day of school! Well, a pre-preschool program at least. One of the requirements was for each child to bring their own backpack, so this weekend we went shopping for one. We offered Zachary the ultimate choice (for him at least): an Elmo backpack or a Thomas one. His choice was clear, and today he got to try it on and then wear it to class!