Oh say can you see

Owen continues to most enjoy looking at people, in particular his brother and parents. He smiles (often with his tongue sticking out) and laughs when he catches our eye, and one of our favorite father-son activities is when I help him with baby pull-ups and baby leg crunches, smiling and laughing as I count up the reps. He of course also has plenty to say to his dangling jingling toys:


Proof positive that Zachary understands far more than he lets on - mima and Meh were chatting on a car ride today, and the topics of dogs came up. Suddenly from the back seat, Zachary contributed the comment "barking noises" (a reference to one of his favorite books). Smart little man!

And on the topic of previously unknown vocabulary, today was a nap-free day for the little man (and a nap-light one for tiny man). By late afternoon, Zachary was getting a bit... shall we say beyond. Meh reported that he was walking around the house singing "Ohhhh... the [object]", looking around and picking a new object to sing about for every 'verse'. Here's a video she captured:

The best was when he couldn't find a new object quickly enough - then there was an extra long 'ohhhhhhh' while he tried to sort out something to sing about. On the plus side, we learned that he knows the word 'rug', and enjoyed his 'pih-nah-nuh' (piano). I arrived home to catch the late act and then got him upstairs for his bath and bed time. Later on it registered for us that "Oh the" was more likely actually "All done", since toward the end of the evening he started mixing it with "Night night [object]" - silly labelling man.

Everyone says I love you

A big milestone for a tiny man - Meh watched him roll from back to tummy twice in bed this morning! I still haven't witnessed anything closer than the video we took a few days ago, but congrats to a tiny man on his early mobility!

When we put Zachary to bed, he's gotten more consistent about saying "na na" (night night) to various things in his room, mostly the last book we read and then the stuffed animals and blankie that he snuggles with. Occasionally, he will even say a very cute "na na, dah-dee". But last night after I said "night night Zachary" back, he put his hand on my face and said something approximating "I love you". So endearing! I don't think Meh believed me, but today she was having an exhausting day with two non-napping boys, and right when she thought she was near the end of her rope, Zachary looked at her and said "I love you". Such a good and sweet little man!

Zachary goes to the beach

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day, and luckily we got to spend the morning at a local beach. ("Beach" in Seattle is a bit of a misleading term, as sandy beaches are pretty rare. Rocky ones on the other hand...) Zachary loved walking on the bumpy rocks in his Thomas boots, while Owen mostly slept, covered by both the ergo and his cute sunhat.

The Seattle Aquarium has generously had naturalists coming out to the local beaches at low tide, so we wandered over to see what they'd found, and got to check out a jellyfish, a purple starfish, some crabs, and these almost litter-looking moon snail "sand collars" (egg casings). Zachary was most excited by the Sound itself ("wah wah!"), looking up at passing sea planes ("bye bye ah-pah!"), and just stomping around on the squishy beach. A passing horn-blaring train certainly didn't hurt either.

Today mommy's choir had a performance at the local library. She had to go an hour early for warmups, so the boys and I headed over a little while later, picking up mima on the way. Determined to avoid a repeat of the boys' opening act for the last performance (and to make sure mima at least got to hear it this time!), I wore a sleeping Owen and strolled Zachary strategically near the door. The ladies did a fabulous job, and Zachary enjoyed looking on and munching on fish crackers like he was at a movie. We only had to stroll out of the room once or twice (due to insistent but appropriately volumed "push!" requests from Zachary). And Owen slept right through the applause that had startled him awake back at the last concert. Meh and my favorite part was when Zachary pointed directly at her during a song, smiled, and said "want mommy!"

Afterwards, another first - Owen's been doing such a great job of holding up his head that when he woke up, I turned him around in the bjorn so he could face out. He proceeded to give everyone giant smiles and even a few laughs; mommy then took him around for show and tell while Zachary and I headed home for well-deserved nap time.

Fluid plans

Meh has adopted the descriptive adjective of "juicy" when describing Owen's recurring (some would say constant) habit of spitting up, often in impressive quantities. She's convinced that on occasion he's managed to spit up more than he's actually eaten. In trying to remember the specific adjective, I myself coined the phrase "Mister Moist", though really that describes me more than Owen by the time I'm done holding him for an hour; when I went out to mow the lawn today after having snuggled tiny man, I had some lovely damp patterns on my shoulders.

Alas, it was Zachary who took the fluid-generation award on an adventure with mommy and mima on Thursday. His pre-preschool class was off for the day, so they decided to go check out the zoo. Unfortunately, by the time Owen woke up from his morning nap and they got out the door, they were quickly approaching Zachary's nap time. They walked around for a bit looking at animals, but Zachary was ready to be "all done", so they exited the zoo and walked over to a nearby restaurant, where Zachary needed a diaper change. And in the women's room (with of course no changing table in sight), the standing up diaper change went horribly wrong. Zachary emerged dry, but mommy, the baby carrier, and a great deal of floor had no such luck. Oh, and the electronic automated paper towel dispenser was low on batteries, so cleanup was particularly slow going. Poor Meh!

The fourth trimester

Owen is three months old today! The time has really flown (well, and/or stood still, depending on whether we're reflecting on this while awake in the middle of the night), and it's amazing to see the changes coming so quickly: social smiling, talking/cooing, the beginning of rolling, lifting his head, using the bathtub, starting to have an actual bedtime, and beginning to interact a bit more with the world around him. I know time flew for Zachary as well but whether from the passage of time or sleep deprivation, we'd kind of forgotten what happened when, and have occasionally consulted blog entries from Zachary's second month as well to try to recall what was going on.

Sunday was Zachary's toddler group's end-of-the-year picnic. They again brought the narrow gauge little train to the park, which Zachary was again delighted to ride, though not quite as excited to watch (see last year's great train chase). He was much more into the playground though, running up and down the stairs and slide, and wanting to play something approaching hand-tag with me via the railing. In the meantime, Owen spent most of the time sleeping on mommy, but occasionally woke up to check out the surroundings.

Heads up

In the last few days, Owen has been actively picking up his head. When he's in his play area or chair, this is really cute. When he's in his car seat, it just looks a bit uncomfortable, and he tries to sit up through half the drive home (alas, the other half is often still spent crying). Did I mention he's also already outgrown the size 2 diapers? I ordered a crate of size "2-3"s; the next full size up, 3's, only come in 'Cruisers', and actual Owen movement still seems a ways off.

That said, this morning Owen has jumped past head lifting, and was already trying quite dramatically to roll over! He gets about 2/3 of the way so far.

We tried the opposite (getting him to roll off his tummy), but he wasn't so into that yet. Owen also continues to talk up a storm - here he is hanging out with his sheep:

Synchronized swimming

Earlier this week, Zachary and Owen had their first shared bath time! Owen had previously gotten baths in the little sink-bound tub down in the kitchen, but as he's started going to bed (well, at least the first attempt of the night) at the same time as Zachary, it made sense to try to merge baths -- at least when Meh and I are both at home. So on Monday night, after a particularly voluminous spit-up-filled day, it was time for brotherly baffy time! Zachary thought it was very fun to play footsie with his brother, and other than that just seemed to treat it like a regular bath. Owen meanwhile continued his long-running fascination with his brother, looking on with big eyes, smiles, and occasional happy startles as mommy washed him and Zachary splashed or talked about his Salty, Thomas, Percy, and Bobby Ducky bath toys.

On the topic of water, Owen will be joining Zachary next month in the pool, with the boys in (hopefully; registration is tomorrow morning at the lovely hour of 6:30 am) back-to-back swimming classes. Hard to believe they start the program at 4 months of age, but as Owen already loves the water I'm hoping it will be as fun an experience for him as it has been for Zachary.