Sleep Country USA

It's been a very busy month of September, with high holidays, Zachary starting school, the boys' new part-time nanny starting, and Owen continuing to explore his surroundings and develop new skills. I actually went to Los Angeles to spend Yom Kippur with friends, and got the full tour with three different shuls, as well as plenty of tasty kosher food (though not during the fasting day, of course!) Meh and mima took the boys to a local childrens Yom Kippur service. Alas, Zachary slept through (easier to do when they're like 30 minutes long apparently), though Owen apparently enjoyed the singing and people-watching.

While Zachary has mostly settled back in to sleeping through the night, Owen has continued to be up multiple times a night (typically sometime between 10 and midnight, 2 or 2:30, 4 or 4:30, and then roughly every hour after that) for quite some time. There's of course the extra challenge of Zachary sleeping just down the hall, generally with his door cracked open, but luckily he hasn't seemed to be bothered. Finally, last night we decided to try starting 'sleep training'. However, I think he overheard us, and promptly slept until nearly 4 am. Sleep, tiny man, sleep!

Name Game

We've been gradually receiving clues from Zachary as to the fun times he's been having at school; over the weekend, he was singing both "Wheels on the Bus" and "Row Your Boat". He also was singing the "goodbye" song we'd known from his pre-preschool program to various items around the house:



The goodbye song appears to be used at preschool as well; he eventually got around to singing the names of at least three separate kids besides himself (all nicely pronounced by Zachary) on Saturday and Sunday, and after school today, he'd added two more along with what I'm guessing was his teacher K (he was literally saying the letter "K"). He also came home today with an adorable note:

"Zachary was our song chooser at circle time today! He worked on puzzles with a friend at free choice and helped Teacher [K] make a sand castle at small group! Way to go Zachary!"

Meh and I have speculated that this roughly translates to him jostling with another kid over a puzzle he didn't want to share, and then dumping sand through his fingers (or possibly throwing some). :) But so super cute, and we're so glad his teachers send home little notes and have been so responsive to our curious inquiries!

Owen had his six month checkup this morning. Zachary and I stayed home, but Meh reported that all looked good. The stats:

• Weight: 18 lbs 11.5 oz (75th percentile)
• Length: 27.5 inches (75th-90th percentile)
• OFC: 17.5 inches (50th-75th percentile)

He was sitting up nicely at the appointment (getting compliments from the doctor) and we learned that second children frequently will start to move earlier, wanting to follow around their interesting older siblings. Sure enough, Meh reported that later today he actually pushed up enough to scoot a bit from the sitting position!

Yellow bus

Zachary has long held a special fascination for buses; even when he was really young, he saved his biggest laughs and smiles for the shuttle buses we'd take (during his early frequent flying days) from the airport parking lots to the terminal. More recently he's gotten more specific, liking 'yellow buses' (in particular this song/album), then 'school buses'. A few weeks ago we visited mommy at work at lunch, and the multiple city buses going by across the street gained his attention; when I explained that they weren't school buses, he said "Want to go city bus!" We've still got to find some time to try out the light rail, which I think he'll love.

Anyway, today was the first time a bus came specifically for him -- to take him to the first day of preschool! His teacher had indicated that the buses often run 10-15 minutes late on the first day, but he was so excited that we all (mima and papa came over for the momentous occasion) ended up hanging out on our driveway waiting for the bus. Zachary didn't even notice it as it started down the street, but then the lights came on and he was all smiles. The door opened, the friendly driver welcomed him and mommy aboard, and she got to buckle him into his seat. (The modern school bus apparently has seatbelts in all seats, and further, a fold down 5-point-harness seat for the Zachary-sized kids.) He continued to smile and laugh as the door swung shut and the bus pulled away.

Several hours later, the bus pulled up once again. Zachary was completely conked out, and vaguely blue-looking as well -- as we learned later from an e-mail from his fun new teacher, they'd done an art project involving blue stamps, and he'd gotten it on his hands, face, mouth (inside and out!), and when I got him ready for bathtime, even somehow through his shirt and onto his chest. Anyway, he woke up as Meh transferred him inside, and didn't end up taking much of a nap -- but definitely seems to have had a great time in the classroom on his first day. Teacher K even indicated that he said goodbye when he got back on the bus at the end of the day -- such a good big man!

Here's the full photo album of the day from our perspective.

Don't call me junior

Today was Zachary's open house for preschool! A friend of his from the pre-preschool program he was in is actually going to be in his class, so he already knew one fellow student; we'll ignore the fact that during the open house Zachary was kind of hoarding and grabbing the toys from his friend. We got to meet the staff and they were all wonderful and very nice. Zachary had a great time playing with a wide variety of toys. Tomorrow the bus comes to take him to the first full day (well, 2.5 hours for the first week, and then 7(!) hours starting the following week) away -- yup, alas, school starts on Rosh Hashanah this year. We figured rather than starting off behind, we'd have a nice observance tonight with mima and papa, and ate apples (from our farm trip this past weekend, which mima baked into a tasty cake, and Meh baked into challah) along with a lovely festive meal.

Owen is six months old today! Since we're now at the six month mark and speaking in terms of weeks would draw funny looks, I'll have to update the stat sheet at the right to match Zachary's years/months/days format. Anyway, in the last few days, he's started being able to kind of maintain a seated position if we place him in it. He enjoys some good tummy time (even if he frequently raises his arms and legs off the ground into a Superman pose), grabbing and nomming on his toys, squeaking and screeching happily, jumping in the bouncer, watching his older brother with fascination, splashing ridiculously large waves out of the bathtub, and of course smiling at everyone he sees.

Love at first bite

Another significant milestone for Zachary: one of his sensory sensitivities has been biting food -- as in, he wouldn't. Most everything had to be bite sized, or else it would confound him and he'd either reject it or try to shove it in whole (and get upset if that didn't work). We've modelled taking bites of food, and he understood the concept, but just wasn't ready for it himself apparently. But today, we took things all the way back to the source, and had surprising success!

Mima's birthday was last week, so we took mima, papa, and the boys out for brunch this morning at one of our favorite places that we haven't been in ages. Everything was excellent as always, though I'd forgotten about the extensive waits. Still, both boys were extremely patient, and Owen even tried some of the berry coulis that came with our tasty beignets.

After breakfast, we piled back into the car and headed north into Skagit Valley, where Meh had discovered what we believe to be the closest U-Pick farm currently offering apples -- and a huge variety at that. (While we're well into the harvest season in a state well known for its apples, Washington's primary growing spots are apparently many hours away, in the eastern half of the state.) The boys snoozed most of the 90 minute ride, and we arrived in decent time at the farm, greeted by the friendly owner and her friendlier two dogs -- the pooches later assaulted Zachary with multiple kisses, which he giggled through. The family also has a bunch of toys laid out, Zachary had great fun for a while on a big red jeep. We then grabbed a cart and headed into the first row of the apple orchard.

The rules there are simple: eat as many apples as you want, try one before you pick a bunch of a particular type, and have fun. Zachary did all of the above - wandering through the rows, laughing at the tall grass, and talking about all of the apples. I pulled one down and offered it to him, and at first he just smiled at it. Then I cut him a piece, which he liked, and moments later he started chomping on the apple. I found another tasty one, took a first bite, handed it to him, and he devoured that one as well! By the end of the outing, I think he'd eaten like four, including one that he nibbled most of the drive home. We got a good haul as well - a wide variety of apples and some pears too. Despite the occasional threat of rain, it was a great day out!

Potty wars

Today was the day we made our first serious attempt to focus on potty training for Zachary. There's of course plenty of reading material on the subject (my favorite ironic title was "Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day" -- for a book that was nearly 300 pages long), and we took a few cues from friends and family as well. We also had lined up a reward system with one of his favorites (chocolate chips), including an iconic sign on the bathroom door stating "[image of child on potty] = [chocolate chip]". (Really I think the slightly melting chocolate chip in the picture looked more like, um, something that would end up in the potty, but that's just me I guess.)

Alas, it was an exhausting day of staying in the house and near a bathroom, and even then things didn't really go as planned; despite lots of drinking and occasional praised on-potty production by Zachary, Owen needed occasional attention as well, and Zachary took advantage of any lull in toilet time to go find a place to potty that wasn't the potty. The 6+ accidents (several on a carpet, and all requiring wardrobe resets and much towelling) have us thinking we may hold off until after preschool starts. On the plus side, Zachary still doesn't have negative connotations about the toilet; we've continued a tradition for the last few weeks of sitting on the potty before bathtime, which he seems to like as part of the evening routine.

To wrap up a frustrating day, I managed to shatter a glass on the floor in the kitchen, which sent an impossible number of shards and fragments into every possible room; it took multiple sweeps to get them all up, and I'll still feel better if everyone wears socks for the next day or two. Ugh!

In happier news, yesterday Zachary got a large package in the mail -- it was a welcome kit for preschool, which starts next week! Teacher K (apparently "Miss"/"Mrs."/"Ms." doesn't start until elementary school) sent along chalk, a mini-coloring book of one of Zachary's favorite stories, and a super cute series of story cards telling about the adventures Zachary will have at preschool. A sample card: "At preschool, we will have snack, circle time, free play, and recess." We've read it several times, and Zachary is already excited about recess in particular, and also states "I want to go on bus!" There was also an introductory letter for parents, and we're looking forward to open house and the start of classes next week!