Zoo tunes

No pun in the post title this time around; it's an actual event put on by the local zoo each summer, where a bunch of great bands are brought in to perform on the zoo's broad grassy lawn. Apparently this isn't particularly unique to Seattle, as last night's performers mentioned they'd played another zoo the night before. Anyway, when the schedule had come out a few months ago, Meh saw that a fun-sounding group of Newfoundlanders was performing Celtic music, so she'd grabbed tickets for us, mima, and papa. We successfully fought our way through evening rush hour traffic as a car caravan, and the parking karma was decent when we reached the zoo shortly before the concert. We parked our chairs (and Zachary's stroller) in what we thought was the back of the field to enjoy a lovely picnic put together by mima before the music started.

There wasn't an opening band or anything; after a brief intro by a local DJ, Great Big Sea came out and started playing -- and while it wasn't deafening, it was a pretty loud and amplified opening. Alas, both Owen and Zachary got immediately unhappy with this, and Zachary and I had to take a walk around the perimeter of the field to get adjusted to the (very fun!) music. I'd forgotten that the zoo's carousel is right there as well, so Zachary was insistingly saying "I want to go ah horse!" and nearly laid himself out when I suggested we just watch for a bit. But all's well that ends well -- after our walk, we returned to the rest of the family and both boys seemed to do better as the set progressed; Zachary chilled out eating his dinner and then snuggled on my lap while Owen smiled at everyone.

The only remaining hitch was that we apparently weren't quite far enough back; a police officer asked us to scoot back (instigated by folks who had arrived even later than us, and had sat even closer to the garbage cans). But it was all good; we switched spots with them and enjoyed the rest of the set, wrapping up our evening with a nice walk back to the car and abbreviated baffy time back at home.

The last straw

We've mentioned on a few occasions that Zachary can be a fairly selective eater -- and not just foods, but also how he interacts with beverages. Yesterday, at a trip to one of Zachary's favorite fine dining establishments, we had a huge breakthrough, as he finally drank from a straw/cup combination other than his trusted and familiar brought-from-home juice cups and sippy cups. We've been trying to expand his repertoire here for some time, and progressed to his own favorite straw in an open cup last week, and went on to trying a Thomas-themed cup with a different straw on Sunday -- Thomas won out, and Zachary strung together the impressive sentence "I want more Thomas sippy cup milk" to indicate his intentions (I think all closed cups are still "sippy" in his vocabulary).

And speaking of vocabulary...

Synchronized swimming

Today marked the beginning of Owen's non-bathtub water experiences, as he joined his brother in swim lessons! Of course, not at the same time -- though conveniently, the lessons for infants fall immediately before the class Zachary is signed up for. Owen ended up snoozing in the car on the drive in (thankfully an increasingly common occurrence, considering his earlier general dislike for cars when awake) and, while waking up on his own for class, wasn't exactly the alert smiley man that he usually is - still, no crying or tears, so we'll count that a good first lesson. I entertained Zachary for most of the delay before his own class with a walk to the nearby park, some high flying swing time, and a visit to their broad waterfall feature. He then proved to be very excited to be back in class, dunking himself frequently and then clapping while underwater.

Afterwards, we all explored the fabulous Bellevue Arts Fair, cleverly interleaved into area around the local shopping mall, with both outdoor booths and most of the ground floor of a parking structure converted into stalls for artists, jewelers, furniture makers, and other craftspeople. The boys both conked out in strollers at least for a little bit, though everyone was awake and hungry in time for us to grab lunch and sample a cupcake at the latest chic bakery to start selling $3 tasty morsels (our take on this one: decent, but a bit overpriced). Afterwards, we wandered across the street from the mall and ran into another (!) huge art fair, with an entirely separate set of arts, crafts, clothing, and food stalls. We really love this part of the Northwest; come July, there are often multiple great events happening at the same time all over the area.

When we came home, the boys had a nice afternoon both indoors and out in the new backyard; Zachary played with the sprinklers and then (at his request) dined al fresco, enjoying his dinner after climbing up into one of the large patio chairs at our umbrella-shaded table. Owen meanwhile continued to raspberry, babble, laugh (at all three of us), and generally smile any time we made eye contact. All in all, a lovely way to wrap up a beautiful weekend!

Foodie

Owen loves to smile at people, and if the smile gets big enough, sometimes the tongue gets involved as well, as demonstrated here:

A piece of trivia we emerged from Owen's four-month appointment with was that he can start trying out foods - if he shows an interest. And as mentioned in the last post, for the past week or so, Owen's been very focused on us as we eat. So after our early apple-licking experiment, yesterday was the first true food sampling: first some mashed avocado that we'd gotten with lunch, and then back at home the same apples from the early trial, presented in slightly more pureed form. The avocado was accepted (though I found bits of it on his bib later), and the applesauce was a hit. He also tried out this mesh food-sucking pacifier thing that Zachary had never really gotten into. Congrats to the tiny man on his latest milestones!

It's been a beautiful weekend here so far, and we got to finally agree to Zachary's request of "want outside!" and enjoyed some time in the newly completed back yard. Zachary really wanted to play with the sprinklers (which he adorably calls "skippy"), so we decided to let him go in his birthday suit (with a sunhat, crocs, and plenty of sunblock of course). He had a great time, and Owen was happy and smiley sitting on the deck the as well. I resisted the urge to post more of the compromising shots of him; we'll have to save those for bar mitzvah and/or wedding montage videos.

Test tones

The milestones continue for the tiniest man: following in the footsteps of his brother, Owen has begun blowing raspberries. This is extremely cute -- yes, even when he does it while you're trying to put him down for bedtime. He's also doing great at lifting his head and rolling over, and he even sat by himself for a few minutes, though we've still got to keep an eye out lest he keel over. Owen also continues to exclaim very vocally (but happily) while playing with his toys. And after showing increasing focus and interest on what mommy, daddy, and brother Zachary are eating, he's gotten his first tastes of non-milk food products. I did a quick test today, holding a slice of apple I was eating up to him, and he happily licked it multiple times. We'll have to try something more substantial soon!

Also on the topic of happy noises, Zachary's signing of songs continues to get more refined - he's gotten to about three-to-six-note melodies so far and there's a definite change of pitch; even a bit of accuracy on a song borrowed from the Frère Jacques melody. Sometimes it's hard to pick out just what song he's decided to sing based on his, ah, interpretations of the lyrics, but it's particularly cute when he takes a run at a favorite like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' or 'Take Me Out the the Ballgame'.

He thought his boiler would burst

This morning, we all got up early (or to be more accurate, I just didn't try to coax Zachary back to bed for an extra hour or two) so we could go check out the (annual?) Day Out With Thomas at the Northwest Railway Museum in lovely Snoqualmie. Meh had to be at work at noon, but I think really this time worked out best regardless - we were among the first few there, and got to enjoy the outdoor parts of the museum a bit before the crowds arrived, and before queuing up for our very own Thomas ride. The event started off very well in Zachary's eyes with a ride on a real life school bus from the overflow parking lot - he was a huge fan, and it was a nice preview of what we'll be experiencing in a few months!

Next we had a series of queues, which will of course bore most any two- or three-year-old to tears, or at least whines. Meh and Owen bravely held our spot while Zachary and I circled downtown Snoqualmie. We then inadvertently stumbled onto the full-scale Thomas train we were going to later ride, and Zachary was quite excited ("It's Thomas!"). We returned to the museum as it opened, and explored a few of the engines before queuing again for Thomas himself. Zachary got an excellent sticker, and we got to enjoy a ride in a circa 1950s passenger car. (As I understand it, the cars and one of the engines run like this all the time for the museum; Thomas was a special addition at the rear, and became the front car when the train reached the midpoint, stopped, and headed the other direction.)

After our ride (which featured some excellent views of Snoqualmie Falls and River, as well as a bunch of fun older trains along the way), we toured around a bit. There was of course an uber-Thomas gift shop (we came away with a pez dispenser, an activity book, a viewfinder, and some stamps), a puppet show and storyteller tents (alas, neither starting until 11), temporary tattoos, a giant tent of Thomas train tables, some local kids-music musician performances (Zachary enjoyed the show from the platform of an old diesel train), and photo opportunities with the Thomas train (in between its runs) and a hopefully larger-than-life-size Sir Topham Hatt (the controller in the world of Thomas). Zachary was enthralled with Sir Topham Hatt -- we didn't get a picture of it, but when I first brought him up, he actually touched his plush oversized hand. No shyness here!

Today was day three of my four-day stint solo with the boys, as Meh works her consecutive weekend shift. It's been exhausting but also a lot of fun; we went for another walk today in the mild summer weather, and Owen conked out in his sunhat while Zachary asked to get down from the stroller and ran around while I tried to keep up with him. These boys drive a grueling workout!

School Daze

It's hard to believe, but Zachary already starts preschool this fall! A few weeks ago, we received a letter in the mail from the school district inviting us to registration today. Based on the time requirements and the comments not to bring kids, I was expecting a protracted affair; Zachary and I ended up wandering around the outdoor shopping mall (not sure how a school district lands an office at the mall -- must be some kind of lease break from the city or something) while Meh and Owen headed in for paperwork and proofs of shots and the like. However, by the time Zachary and I completed our first big block of stores, I had voicemail from Meh letting me know she was already wrapped up. Hooray for at least reduced bureaucracy! So starting in September, Zachary will be able to look forward to a school bus picking him up and dropping him off (I suspect this may be a highlight of his day) September. We're so excited for him, though a little sad of course too. Granted, the school he'll be at is at best 3/4 mile away, so we can occasionally walk over to pick him up afterwards. Little man is becoming a big man so quickly!

The constant gardener

After last Monday's (mis)adventures getting the boys to bed by myself, I called in some reinforcements last night, and Mima graciously assisted. Things went a little bit better, though Owen still took a while to calm down from the getting-into-pajamas sadness. We'll master this yet!

Happy seventh anniversary to the prettiest wife and best mommy in the world! We both admitted to each other yesterday that we'd totally dropped the ball on gifts for each other. Still, other folks I've spoken to use their home improvement projects as their mutual anniversary 'gifts'. So it's completely appropriate that we've just about wrapped up our backyard relandscaping. The yard had gotten pretty rough and tumble over the past few months (I'll blame it on knowing that we were going to be relandscaping), but even before that, a combination of invasive plants, fence repairs, and digging/pacing by Korby had left our yard in not great shape. Meh made it a goal to get it reorganized, and to give us some good kitchen garden space as well. She actually even got a head start last year; our first crop of blueberries from the front yard relandscaping came in this week and were super tasty - even Zachary tried a few, though he caught a tart one and gave up on the rest.

The plans looked fabulous, and over the past month or so, we've watched as the entire backyard has been transformed (full set of pictures here), with new plants, rebuilt stone steps and wall, a "dry riverbed" feature in the back, a new sprinkler system to keep everything from dying, and an expanded kitchen garden area on the side of the house that Meh has already filled with yummy veggies, fruits, and herbs. We also got a new shed in the back corner and are looking forward to dismantling the lean-to thing that had been the "shed" when we moved into the house. All in all, a very cozy backyard addition - and wrapped up just in time for our anniversary! Now if I can just get the replanted lawn to take, we'll be good to go; Zachary's clearly impatient to go tromping around, occasionally looked out at the yard and stating 'I want go outside!'

Take a hike

Yesterday we went with mima to Olallie State Park; the weather was gorgeous, and there were reports of lovely waterfall views for Twin Falls without too steep of a hike. We had a nice time even though we inadvertently walked right past the lookout where we had intended to stop (a few more switchback-laced climbs and we decided to backtrack). Owen had a good time watching the world from the bjorn (and later the ergo). And Zachary in particular did a great job with the hike, only getting too tired after quite a bit of trekking, at which point he got to relive his glory days in the ergo (as well as riding on my shoulders or just being carried). He did on the minus side suffer his first scraped knee navigating some tree root-laden terrain.

We had the fine idea to bring Zachary's aqua socks so he could wade in the river a bit - alas, he'd already outgrown them, adding to the number of clothes that he's worn one or less times. But he did have a great time stepping gingerly around the edges of the river in his tennis shoes. Afterwards, we all stopped for lunch at the eastside branch of one of our favorite pizza places. Zachary looked on with interest as the Neapolitan pies came out, but he declined to actually try a slice, sticking with his old standards of raisins, rice cake, and crackers.

The land of a thousand mommies

The heat wave continues; today it's capped out at nearly 95 degrees so far. The car's external temperature meter even hit triple digits, though I'm not sure how much you can trust them (at which point you might ask, what's the point?) And of course we just had new grass seed put out yesterday for our relandscaped yard (pics forthcoming, if said seed survives) so it's a battle of wills (or at least remembering) to keep it watered.

Owen is four months old today, which means it was time for his checkup this morning. Zachary and I stayed at home to avoid an overly crowded exam room, but Meh reported that Owen did great and gave all sorts of smiles to the nurses and doctor, right up until he got shots in both legs. Poor tiny man!

The stats:

• Weight: 16 lbs 12 oz (75th-90th percentile)
• Length: 26 1/2 inches (90th-97th percentile)
• OFC: 16 1/2 inches (25-50th percentile)

So he's a tall and robust tiny man, but at least he doesn't have a big head about it. Ba-dum-bum.

Our doctor reminded us of something that she had also said when Zachary was this age -- object permanence isn't quite within the grasp of the four month old, so every time one of us leaves Owen's field of view, the next time we return, even though we look identical, we're a "new" version for him. This also kind of explains why he isn't bothered when one of us leaves. Thankfully he's just as friendly with the many clones of mommy and daddy -- and continues to be extra smiley with friends and family as well, with special fascination for big brother Zachary.

Won't you please shine down on me

At long last, Seattle has joined the rest of the country in the summer season -- and in a big way, with the temperature climbing into the upper 80s today and expectations for it to be even hotter tomorrow. So it was a fabulous idea when friends B, C, and daughter T invited us to join them at one of our favorite local lakes for a picnic, walk, and Zachary's first experience in a wading ("paddling") pool. Mima came along as well, and we stopped off to 'make' our picnic lunch at the local organic grocer en route. It was even B's birthday, so we certainly had to bring some mini-cupcakes, though unfortunately we didn't have time to get them from the proper venue.

It took him a while (and a long preceding stroll around maybe a third of the lake) to warm up to the idea, but once in the pool, Zachary had a fabulous time splashing, dunking his head under water, and laughing. We even had to go back for a second trip sans swimming shirt ("bye bye shirt"), and only the pool's (hourly?) evacuation for scary chemical additives ended his enjoyment.

As mentioned in earlier posts, Zachary's vocabulary continues to expand daily, along with more sophisticated statements like "I want sippy cup milk". Here he is reading one of his favorite books to me:


Not to be outdone in the vocalizations department, Owen has been making cute baby noises with ever-increasing durations and frequency. These aren't the longest in his repertoire, but of course they're cute enough on their own:


He also has a serious love of music, and seems to generally be more effectively soothed by singing than any of the "true" 5 S's.

Paternity test

Though it was preceded by an excellent three-day weekend, today is the first "official" day of my paternity leave, one of my favorite benefits offered by my employer -- a month home with the boys and, when she's not working (she went back yesterday, more on that in a moment), Meh too! This weekend we got to visit the zoo with friends B, C, and their 10-week-old daughter T (they're soon moving to the east coast - sad!). I noticed once again that there aren't a lot of exhibits well suited to the stroller-seated viewing angle, but Zachary did notice and occasionally talk about some tree-bound monkeys and the giraffes. We also got to enjoy a lovely group pizza lunch. Oh, and the boys managed to sleep through the pyromaniacal 4th of July show put on by our neighbors between 6 pm and midnight -- even a car alarm didn't interrupt them, hooray!

Yesterday I got some early solo time with the boys, since even though the 5th was the observed Fourth of July holiday for many companies, Meh's library was open for business and it was her first day back. Everything went great earlier in the day -- I even somehow managed to get both boys down for naps. We then drove to mommy's work to meet her there for Owen's afternoon snack. He was extra smiley for everyone, and Zachary happily counted the stairs up to the second floor and said "Hiii mommy!" when he saw her -- super cute. Owen even cooperated by not getting angry on either end of the car ride. We even had a nice afternoon walk when we got back; Zachary had a great time watching the construction vehicles that are helping build the new "environmental" junior high school (though I noted with irony that this so-called environmental high school features clear cutting of a bunch of old growth trees, with some even going straight into a chipper!).

Supper time was about when things started to unravel a bit. Owen likes to take a late afternoon cat nap, but he wasn't interested for me, and started getting fussy (despite some heroic distractions). On the plus side, Zachary has started imitating us and saying "It's okay Owie" when he hears him cry. Of course, once we progressed to bathtime and I had Zachary in the tub, I was even less effective, and by bedtime, Owen was more or less hysterical. So I left Zachary to read a few books to himself while I calmed Owen down and got him into his pajamas. At which point Zachary decided to try to escape downstairs, and in the end I had two boys who were both pretty unhappy to be going to bed.

The evening was salvaged a bit when Owen woke up an hour later (angry once again) and I was able to calm him into finally accepting a bottle. But all in all a challenging test for daddy, and I totally understand why Meh has often called to make sure I'm on my way home in time for bath and bedtime -- it's definitely a job for two!