Six Degrees of Imitation

Zachary is a great memorizer and imitator - books we've read, television shows he's watched (so we definitely need to be extra careful about what he watches!), things he's seen, and yes, sounds from his environment. When O was very young and cried, Z started imitating O's whines. He still does it on occasion, particularly first thing in the morning when he wants us to come get him. In the last few days, the reference has gotten a bit circular, as O has started to imitate Z's imitation of O's baby cries; how very infinitely recursive of them!

Of course in general, the boys do continue to pick up on things each other say and repeat them, sometimes back to each other, and sometimes causing each other to giggle uncontrollably in the process. Here's hoping that neither one discovers any potty language, or I expect we'll never hear the end of it!

Back to School

Z had his first day back at school today -- between winter break, snowstorms, holidays, and that broken leg, it may have been nearly a month since his last full day! I drove him (a rare green car journey) and the little wheelchair to the classroom, where he got reacquainted with his favorite school toys and activities while the teachers, physical therapist, and aide assigned to help him out got oriented with the wheelchair and adjusted a few tables and desks for him to use. I ducked out once it looked like things were in order, and it sounds like he had a good first day back -- I think he really missed it!

Wheels of fortune

In addition to his recheck yesterday, we had a nice conference with Z's teachers to figure out how to handle his immobility for the next three weeks. We'd written them last week from Arizona to let them know the situation, and the school district's physical therapist had already made great progress in both hiring an aide to assist (we got to meet her) and hunting down potential leads for a children's wheelchair to help with navigation and participation in class activities. Perfect timing: she successfully located one early in the afternoon, the doctor wrote a prescription for it at our appointment, and early this afternoon a tiny yellow and black wheelchair was delivered. (It was so petite that Meh initially presumed it was folded up, but nope!)

I haven't actually seen Z in it yet, but Meh reports that he likes it quite a bit. The district PT even came by to check it out and make sure it will be a good fit for the school -- she indicated they might be able to make adjustments to allow Z to steer himself. Why am I thinking he'll be reluctant to let it go when the cast and boot are gone?! Anyway, for tomorrow we'll have it around the house for Z to get used to it. He's definitely really looking forward to getting back to school, so it's great that we could line up everything to make his transition back smoother -- here's hoping for a good first experience back on Thursday!

Casting Call

Z has been doing a great job adjusting to the "giant green cast"; in the past few days he's started crawling and scooting around on it. And with snowmageddon or snowpocalypse or whatever finally behind us, Z and I made our one-week-delayed trip back to get his leg rechecked, this time at the closer eastside rendition of Seattle Children's Hospital. Still a very cute and kid-friendly place (if a hospital can be kid friendly), and this one even featured a Starbucks in the lobby. Only in the Pacific Northwest.

Z did amazingly well with the x-rays, even going so far as to say thank you to the imaging technician (along with his current favorite exiting salutation of "happy new year") on our way back out to the lobby. He also did great with both the medical assistant and doctor, entertaining himself by weighing and reweighing himself on the portable scale and reporting on the results (35 lbs if you were wondering). There was a lull in the action before the doctor herself could see us, and the assistant asked if he'd like a snack -- how cool is that? Z enjoyed some cinnamon bears and juice before the doctor came back and showed us the results of the "pictures of the giant green cast" (Z's words) -- he's already growing new bone and healing well. She reported he'll be done with the cast in about 3 weeks, likely to be followed by a boot while his leg restrengthens.

Snow Men

Seattle's first snow of the year has come with a vengeance; we arrived back in Seattle on Monday night after the first accumulation, and the warnings for the real snowstorm were lined up for the rest of the week. School was preemptively cancelled (via an automated call every day of the week at around 4 pm), and the forecasts in some ways actually managed to understate the conditions, as things have been increasingly messy all week. I slipped and slid our car the block and a half to the grocery store for supplies at one point (where I was entertained by what people here apparently find important to stock up on in a snowstorm: empty shelves for soda, bread, and a long queue of people waiting to rent movies, but plenty of milk, dairy, fruit, and veg). Finally things started to improve a bit today and I was able to make it into work for some meetings, after picking up Mima to help Meh out with the boys (and get her out of the house herself!)
But for the most part, we all just stayed indoors, snuggled and warm. Meh tried to initiate arts and crafts with the boys a bit, but they were getting pretty stir crazy by the third day at home. Z of course couldn't get out into the snow, so Meh had the brilliant idea to bring the snow to the boys -- he played with it a little, but O was fascinated and had a great time. Here he interacts with the excellent indoor snowman Meh made:

And finally, Meh and O headed outside for a little bit of walking, sledding, and even a quick inspection of the boys' playhouse (he really wanted to go inside despite the high snow drifts and its door facing our house for the winter). My favorite is still just how bundled up he got for his snow adventure:

Travel Marathon

I think we can say our trip to Arizona was a big success all around! The boys had a wonderful time on planes, at parks, and in the "big red car" (with apologies to the Wiggles), Meh shaved 10 minutes off her last half marathon time, and it was very special to be able to catch up with and spend a long weekend with friends T and P and their sons J and M.

On Thursday morning, Papa dropped us off at the airport, where the boys made it through security (I got to carry Z, and his cast got to be swabbed, along with the boys' liquid sundries) and hung out for a bit in SeaTac's spacious central mall for floor to ceiling views of lots of baggage carts, trucks, and of course airplanes -- there was a rainbow-colored Horizon one that I think was their favorite; they're still talking about it days later. Onboard the plane, O actually slept most of the flight while Z enjoyed watching the view out the window (including the Grand Canyon), reading books, asking for "big presents" (last trip we'd wrapped some toys; this time we forgot, so he got to unwrap cars that Meh stuck in the [clean!] motion sickness bag), and watching the adventures of his favorite animated monkey.
Once we landed and claimed our "big red suitcase", we drove up to T's parents' house - they were out of town during our visit and had graciously offered for us to stay there. It was so nice being in an actual house rather than a hotel, and I think Z and O both liked having a few rooms (and lots of grandparent toys!) to choose from. They even had a tiny little bed for Z, though he's still getting used to the cast and had trouble sleeping except in bed with us, often leading to some heavy-footed kicking of mommy and daddy in the middle of the night. And the "neighborhood" is very lovely southwest desert, with plenty of catci and wildlife: the boys and I saw a coyote, rabbits (Owen: "where'd the bunny goooo?"), birds, and more.

We had lots of playtime with the J family boys, as well as M's college friend C and her daughters. Everyone played really nicely together, and all of the kids were particularly helpful to the immobile Z, bringing him many of their favorite toys (and once they learned he liked vehicles, often carried him tributes of every car, truck, and airplane in the house!) O got his first taste of our favorite west coast burger joint (that still somehow hasn't gotten to Washington); clearly he's a big fan of their grilled cheese, and was also pleased to nosh on their french fries. Z was meanwhile very happy with the excellent collection of In-N-Out stickers the cashier gave us.

On Saturday, we caravaned up to Phoenix for the girls to register for the race, coordinate getting into the same starting group, and collect their bags o' swag. The kids and I have clearly left the building, thankyaverymuch:

Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and went back to the excellent McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park that Z had last seen nearly three years ago. Did he remember? Hard to tell, but both he and O had a great time pointing out the many parked trains and riding on the small scale train. The park has even since built a giant indoor model railroad hall, where I think we could have easily left Z for the afternoon if we so chose. But instead, he and I rode on the even smaller scale train while O and Meh watched.

Of course we brought some of the boys' favorite music on the road trip, and Z is so smitten by one of our newer CDs that he started his own performance on the drive back from Phoenix to Tucson:

Sunday was race day, and Meh left very early (4:30 am) with T to get back up to Phoenix. The boys were up soon afterwards; O impressively said "mommy running in pink shirt in Phoenix" when I asked him where she was. After a bit of toy vehicle play, watching an excellent sunrise over the desert, and then an episode of George, we decided to head off with P and his boys to Tucson's Reid Park Zoo. Everyone had a great time; J and M fed the giraffes, O visited some fish that were about as big as he is, and both O and Z fell in love with the playful sea otters (they're still talking about them today). We all had a nice guys' lunch (O ate a literally footlong hotdog plus suddenly decided that he liked potato chips) at the zoo cafeteria while awaiting news from the ladies of their successful race completion, then headed home for nap time before an evening dinner (outdoor grilling in January!)
On our last day in Arizona, we all headed to the mall where the ladies got to enjoy a nice pedicure (well earned after running 13.1 miles!) while the kids played (well, except Zachary, who was content to watch) in the mall's fun play area. Once they'd burned off some energy, we toured the mall (including a stop at the pet shop to visit with puppies, hamsters, and other cute creatures), with O joining the J boys in their jogging stroller while Z continued to stroll solo. At one point, O spotted a yellow bus in the mall, and everyone piled out to go play with the multiple toy claw machines it contained. Then a joint group lunch, and it was time to return the red car to the airport and get ready for our flight back -- the boys had big snacks and enjoyed watching the far fewer planes of the somewhat petite Tucson airport. Both boys were awake the whole return trip, which made for an exhausting afternoon -- papa picked us back up (with snow on the ground, talk about a temperature swing!), and we're now back home with the boys in bed, ready to conk out. More pictures of our Copper State adventures can be found here. Thanks again to T and P for spending time with us and being such wonderful hosts, and to J and M for playing so well and also being great hosts for our boys!

Break a leg

A dramatic follow up to yesterday's post: Zachary's injury turned out to be a bit more serious than a bump, bruise, or twist. This morning he couldn't put weight on it, so he and I embarked on an epic medical adventure, visiting no less than four locations (ah the joys of specialized medicine -- next time we'll skip the pediatrician-radiologist-pediatrian roundtrip and head straight to the ER) to determine that he had a spiral fracture of the left tibia (non-displaced). Apparently it's common enough among kids his age that it even has its own term. Meh and Owen joined us for the final leg of our day, a visit to the impressive Seattle Children's Hospital for Z to be fitted with a cast (or as O calls it, "big green sock"). It was a very long day, but all in all Z handled things really well.

Tomorrow the adventure will continue -- we'll be flying to Arizona for the long weekend to visit with friends and for Meh to run a half marathon. After much discussion and debate about whether Z should be grounded and Meh and O should fly solo (er, duet), we agreed that Z will hopefully enjoy the distraction of flying and travel in general, and of course this may be the last time he gets to see the J family for a while as they're soon moving to Europe. The bags are all packed (and once again, impressively, a single suitcase for a family of four -- amazing!), and here's hoping for a smooth and hopefully fun and semi-relaxing trip for the family.

Tell me where it hurts

Did I mention O sang me happy birthday at a mad gallop?

Everyone is basically wrapping up recovery from that nasty stomach bug, and Z's cough has mostly dissipated and both boys seem to be their raucous selves again. Unfortunately, O's been teething in a major way (at his dentist check-up last week, they apparently indicated that he's got quite a few coming through at the same time). He himself has been pointing toward his mouth and saying "teef hurt!" though some tylenol or motrin has helped out enormously.

Zachary loves to run around before bedtime in his room, sometimes singing songs from school or reciting sections from his favorite books, and generally laughing and having a great time. We're convinced a lot of this sudden energy comes from, um, him holding his #2 for the day until right after bath time, after which he's ten pounds lighter and needs to express this Lightness of Being. Occasionally during the running around he'll trip (on himself, or a book, or the stuffed bear seat), then get back up and run around some more. But tonight when this happened, he got upset and stayed on the floor for a few seconds. I took a look and couldn't see any obvious signs, and when I touched his knee, ankle, and toes, he didn't seem to mind. I asked him if/where it hurt, and he seemed to actually be more concerned with his wrist or elbow - again, nothing that actually seemed uncomfortable though. Hopefully he just hit his funny bone, but we'll certainly keep an eye on it. Poor little bumping man!

Puppet Master

Many months (years?) ago, we got a fabulous make-your-own-puppet for the boys from our friend T. They hadn't really shown much interest in it before, but then O wanted me to pull it out yesterday, and it instantly became his best friend. He eventually even wore it himself, faced the puppet towards him, and said "Hi Owen!". Even Z got into the act of engaging with it.


We had a lovely New Years brunch for my birthday this year; Meh made a fabulous lemon meringue pie (among many other tasty treats), the boys and I grabbed bagels (a very gracious baker helped walk the three dozen rolls with holes to our car, where O noshed down happily on a piece of pumpernickel) and we had a nice time with family and friends.

Unfortunately it's been a pretty rough new year health-wise. Attendance at the brunch itself was down a bit due to a nasty stomach bug that had been going around -- and which landed with Z the next day. As he recovered, all three of the rest of us got it at the same time, leading to an exhausting and rough time all around. Here's a video of O already on the way to recovery:
Then Z's recurring cough got him sent home from school on his first day back from the bug; I took him to the doctor (where he did really well) and he was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Pink stuff was prescribed, and he's overcome his general distate for medicine (follow up pieces of chocolate have helped) and is nearing the end of his regimen. Hopefully everyone will be in top shape by the time we head down to Arizona in a few days to visit friends P and T (the same T who gave us the puppet -- and so we come full circle) and their boys J and M.