A boy and his toys

Zachary has not yet focused on any one particular toy as his 'security' item. Which on the whole I think is great -- he's interested enough in a variety of toys (and even non-toys; recall his love of menus and airplane safety cards) that if any one were to disappear during our many transits, I'm not even sure he'd notice.

His favorite "toy" continues to be Korby. When I bring Zachary downstairs in the morning and first let Korby out, he (Zachary) gives a squeal almost equalling the ones he makes when we play his favorite music tracks. And he then continues to say "dah" and smile every time I point Korby out to him, whether Korby is inside or outside. When he plays on the floor (or out on the deck), Korby has been very careful but friendly around Zachary, coming up to him, sniffing, and occasionally licking his face. And of course when Zachary is eating, Korby is very interested in staying near those often food-covered hands.

Another fairly new favorite is the pull handles on our kitchen cabinets. They're fairly big and high contrast, and he kept reaching out for them when I walked through the kitchen. So I let him grab one, pulled him back a little so the cabinet opened, and then pushed him back so the cabinet closed. The cabinets have those spring-loaded hinges, so they close very satisfyingly, and Zachary now loves the 'open/closed' game. (I say 'open', he grabs a cabinet handle and pulls it open; I say 'closed' and he either pushes it shut or sometimes just lets go and lets the spring do its work.)

Extrapolating from the menu/airplane safety card enjoyment, we've learned that Zachary loves paper. Junk mail and catalogs actually have a use now (besides keeping our recycling bin full); Zachary will swing them around, crumple them up, and yes, occasionally try to eat them. His favorites are those envelopes with the clear plastic address window in the front - that makes for the most satisfying crumpling noises.

Of course, he still has lots of more traditional toys that he loves - his piano, Mr. Whoozit, plastic toy airplane, rattle, plush toys, books, etc. One of the more cozy and unique (one of a kind actually!) toys is Sheldon, an amazing knitted turtle that our friend K made for him - thank you so much K! Here's a video of him enjoying Sheldon and talking to Sheldon and mommy.

Submersible baby

As Meh previously mentioned, Zachary has been taking his Waterbabies classes weekly with mommy. It always sounded super cute to hear about the kids being bounced and swirled in the water, and everyone singing welcoming and goodbye songs in between developing new skills (learning how to hold their breath when going underwater, good splashing technique, etc.) and a general level of comfort in the water. Yesterday I was finally able to arrange my schedule so I could attend and watch, and the class didn't disappoint!

From the moment they sat on the edge of the pool, you could tell Zachary loved the water. He was all kicky and making happy sounds. Once actually in the pool, he kept kicking and waving his arms in the water, and had a giant smile the whole time.

The big skill of the day was the first day of the underwater 'pass', where the baby would be swooped underwater by the instructor and then sent towards the parent (hooray for the daddy who was swimming with his baby!), who then scoops the baby up. The babies all did a wonderful job, though I think they were mainly confused or surprised rather than actually happy with the process.

Bringing in the harvest

In honor of Memorial Day, today was my, er, annual mowing of the lawn. It's not quite that bad, but it had definitely been a few seasons, leading to a running joke that we were going to have our harvest in May. At least I can at least partially blame it on the weather; they always say you're not supposed to mow a lawn that's wet, and when in the past few weeks have we had a rain break that lasted long enough to dry out our jungle of a lawn? The point was born out when the lawnmower occasionally stalled in thick patches of grass/moss/weeds, and I'm suspecting once things really do dry out back there that we'll have some nice patches of pre-cut hay sitting out there for Korby to graze on. (Fear not, he got an early start on the grass-eating season by finding a few little piles the lawnmower had spit out.)

On the plus side, the predicted rain for the day turned out to just be a short morning drizzle, so we had glorious weather for the lawn mowing and later for a barbecue with friends M & K. Meh brought out a blanket for Zachary to sit on the deck while I mowed and mowed and mowed (to the tune of what felt like several hundred pounds of grass clippings) and Meh weeded, and in general we got to reclaim a little bit of our backyard from the wilderness. Korby was happy to wander around the yard and even came to say hi to Zachary on the matt - I saw Korby sniffing him and wagging his tail, but when Meh came over to see how Zachary was doing, there was a bit of dirt on his face, so I think some dog licks may have occurred as well.

In the end we had more or less successfully reestablished our lawn; if not a pristine one, at least one where we could see our way across it. Along the way, I found several previously hidden Korby dog toys, a tennis ball, a basketball, and a soccer ball. Talk about hidden in plain sight.

If you're happy and you know it

Zachary's got the old adage reversed; after previously being startled or scared by applause, he now appears to love it when groups of people clap their hands. This was well-demonstrated at Meh's Balkan women's choir's performance (yikes, that was quite the string of possessive nouns) at Folklife this afternoon.

Today was actually a pretty packed day for the little man -- in the morning, we met up with friends L & R (at their cozy new house), headed off to brunch in the city, then onward to the Seattle Center for Folklife (where a bunch of friends came out to support Meh's group, hooray!), before wrapping things up with dinner with visiting LA friends C & R.

For those who don't live in the northwest, Folklife is a giant carnival-like weekend of folk music, dance, and arts and crafts. It takes over the entire Seattle Center, and has like 20 different stages, so you could really wander around all day and enjoy Zimbabwean music next to Celtic music next to a band that mixes Zimbabwean and Celtic music. (I kid you not, there are some pretty eclectic performers out there!) The music is all excellent; the crowds perhaps not so much. Particularly with the Seattle Center's layout and the food stalls all being stacked up on top of each other, it gets pretty claustrophobic in a hurry. The stroller acts somewhat like a cattle catcher as far as carving a path through the crowds, but it still gets pretty uncomfortable, and Zachary got unhappy when the stroller couldn't make quick enough progress, so I was eventually holding him while pushing the stroller.

Meh's group had a fabulous show, and many friends were there to cheer them on, which was wonderful. Zachary was happy through most of the show, and again, really got a giant smile on his face and laughed every time people applaued between pieces. Oh, and during pieces he kept finding women around us to smile at and make happy sounds towards - he's such a little flirt! If you'd like to hear the concert, check out the recording I made here. Interestingly, when we listened to it on the drive home, Zachary didn't have any reaction to the applause - maybe he really does need to see people clap their hands for him to be happy and to know it?

Swingers

Hm, Blogger's videos still look to be broken. So let's try Flickr's fancy new video support and see how it works. Here's that video I alluded to yesterday of Zachary enjoying himself at a Newton park. This kid was seriously happy in the swing!

Blue eyes, meet red-eye

Zachary's great summer travel adventures continued this past weekend, with a cross-country trip out to Boston. Well if we're getting specific, we were actually at Tufts' veterinary campus in North Grafton, our hotel in Westborough, and a few car trips into Newton, Boston, and Cambridge.

First things first - at some point in the past, we'd decided due to schedule constraints that the best way to get to Boston was to take an overnight flight. On the plus side, we were flying JetBlue, our new favorite airline -- at least when flying to Boston or New York (the only two direct places you can go from Seattle). There was an amazing fare to supplement the leather seats, lots of leg room (though still as always a bit crowded with a lap infant), 35 channels of live satellite video, ridiculous number of Sirius radio channels, and a free/nice variety of snacks (remember when airlines used to actually serve food?). On the minus side, the flight left after 11 pm and got in at 7:30 am local time, or 4:30 am back home.

Our plan to put Zachary to sleep until leaving for the airport backfired, with a rare early glimpse of summer leaving his room too warm for sleep - is it already time to start researching a second in-room air conditioner? So he was angry until we were with him, and then he was awake, happy, and talking to the fan that I'd brought into his room. He stayed awake the whole ride to the airport, through security, and was happily screeching at the gate while other passengers looked on with what I can imagine were wary expressions. On the plane he was talky on the ground (as were the flight crew on the PA system every time we thought he was going to settle down and fall asleep), but as soon as the plane took off and the lights went out, he pretty much conked out, and stayed asleep through most of the flight.

The trip itself was really nice -- Zachary got to spend some excellent quality time with bubbie, grandma (who flew into the airport just after us), Uncle Brian, and his great aunt, great uncle, and then-soon-to-be-DVM cousin once-removed (that's what my cousin is to him, yes?). It was very moving to see my cousin graduate in the same field that my dad had occupied for so many years, and from what sounds like a very challenging program. We'd also organized visits to several friends we hadn't seen in a while who live in the Boston area. The weather was for the most part decent, only really raining during graduation. And Zachary only had really bad moments on the drive to and from Boston on the day when his naps were thwarted - he did do so amazingly well!

Backing up to the morning that we arrived, after getting settled into the hotel and playing with family for a bit, we made our first visit to go see friends S & A (surprising S on his birthday) in Newton. Meh was loving the beautiful forests and super-cute New England architecture on the drive in. In addition to seeing S & A (and their two wonderful kids, one of whom is just a few months younger than Zachary), my brother had bussed in from New York, also to surprise S. After grabbing some tasty sandwiches from a local shop and catching up with S & A, we all headed over to a local park, where Zachary was introduced to his first actual swing. (He'd had a mechanical infant-rocking swing when he was younger, but never really liked being in it.) He loved it, as demonstrated by a great video we captured (Blogger's video uploads seem broken at the moment, so I'll post it later). Oh, and he also almost dozed off from the motion. We'll definitely have to find more swinging opportunities for our little swinging monkey man.

As previously mentioned, graduation was really nice - everyone was very well-spoken, the class co-presidents were certainly entertaining with the kind of harrowing tales that might extend slightly beyond the sensibilities of All Creatures Great and Small, and of course Meh and I looked for most unique/random undergraduate degree backgrounds among the doctoral candidates. (One person already had three degrees, a few had law degrees, there was one person from UW, and a randomly large number of U-Oregon folks?) Zachary slept through most of it, but woke up and made some excellently timed raspberries and squeals during the veterinarians' oath that had our family and folks sitting around us chuckling. Afterwards, we consolidated rental cars before heading into Boston for dinner. And here's where Zachary went downhill - on the way back to the hotel (not in my car), he was apparently laughing maniacally at nothing in particular. And on the way to the restaurant, he started crying hysterically, on the scale of how he used to be during all car rides. I think he was just completely overly tired out, but it was still a harrowing drive into the city.

Dinner was at the Union Oyster House, which has apparently been a restaurant since 1826, and was even a hundred or more years old then. Certainly can't argue with the "Ye olde" sign outside. The food was great, and we were seated in the "original" restaurant booths, which reminded me a bit of some of the older restaurants Meh and I have been to in London. Zachary slept through much of dinner, and was quietly monkey-like during the rest, never objecting to Cheerios or his appropriate new food for the day, tasty oyster crackers.

Our trip wrapped up on Monday with breakfast at our cousin's fabulous apartment, then a nice visit with one of Meh's friends (from the apparently recently discontinued Hillel JCSC program she was in when she first moved to Seattle) in Cambridge - we'd last seen A & D at our wedding, nearly five years ago! It was great to catch up, and we also got to take a nice stroll through Cambridge and around Hahvad Yahd, where they were packing up from their own graduation ceremonies the day before.

A quick stop at friend S's office to drop off their generously offered pack-and-play, and we were on to the airport. While waiting for our flight, Zachary took an interest in kind of sort of waddling around. Again, I think he may be thinking about skipping crawling entirely!

The Biggest Loser

There is a joke in my family that I am a loser. That is, that I lose stuff. Lots of stuff. Sometimes stuff that normal people would have a hard time losing. Some of the stuff I've lost:

Gold locket (twice: once in sandbox, found by teacher, once forever)

A 20" x 20" framed piece of art (left at the airport, later recovered)

Countless sweaters/sweatshirts/hats/earrings

My turquoise unicorn ring (gosh, I loved that ring...for the week or so I had it before losing it)

All of my mother's vintage Barbie clothing (well, I was only four at the time)

Last week I took off my wedding rings and placed them atop my folded pants on top of the toilet while I applied lotion to my Seattle-winter-scaly legs. Once finished, I carelessly grabbed the trousers, flinging both rings. I found the band on the floor just inside the bedroom, but my engagement ring was nowhere to be found. I crawled around the floor, looked under everything that had an under, and shook out the pants. I finally realized that there were only two places it could have gone: into the toilet bowl, or down the heating vent. I stuck my hand into the mercifully clean bowl and felt around, but it wasn't there. That left the vent.

I was on my belly with a eyeshadow mirror and flashlight, Zachary playing with toys nearby and whining "neh, neh, neh!" Finally, forehead to the floor tiles, I saw a glimmer, and called a vent cleaning place to see if they could help. They informed me that the machinery they used wouldn't retrieve a ring, and that I should try a clothes hanger coated with duct tape. "If that doesn't do it, someone will have to come in there and tear up the floor," they informed me. Sobbing and thinking of my beautiful,one-of-a-kind ring and our practically brand new bathroom floor, I called Scott, scared that he would be disappointed in me, to say the least. He once again proved his saintliness by calming me and promising to help get it out when he got home.

We tried more hangers (it took three taped together to get down to where the ring was), as well as the vacuum cleaner, with no luck. We were off to Boston on the red-eye that night, so I called people to come rip up the floor the day we got back.

This morning, I brought down the laundry. As I bent down to pick up a pair of pants, the ring was there on the floor!!! It must have slipped into the pocket of the original pair of pants, stayed put through the shaking, the wearing, the throwing of the pants into the laundry basket, and the trip downstairs, only to fall out just then. All I can say is nes gadol haya poh!

Only one mystery remains: what's down in the heating vent?

Zachary through the looking glass

Today was Zachary's 9-month doctor checkup. It's amazing to believe that he's now existed as long in the 'outside' world as he did when he was making these kinds of noises. The noises he makes now are more and more expressive - happy screeches and squeaks, 'guhs' and 'duhs' of happiness (or when spotting Korby), 'nuh-nuh-nuhs' when he's unhappy, and a fabulous giggle/laugh -- the last of which he surprised me with tonight as he talked himself to sleep with an apparently funny joke.

The stats from the doctor's visit:

• Weight: 18 lbs. 14.5 oz (25%)
• Height: 29" (75%)
• Head circumference: 45 cm

The doctor commented that from his measurements he's tall and lanky. Really? He seems to have plenty in the way of tummy and pulkes, but who are we to judge? :) Anyway, he completely shredded the paper on the exam table; he really liked the crinkly sound it was making. Everything else in the exam was looking great (ptu, ptu, salt over the shoulder) and he even recovered very quickly from getting his latest shots -- less than 10 seconds later he was already distracted out of crying by something else to play with, and he remained happy the rest of the day.

Meh's first mother's day

Not all of the milestones are restricted to Zachary - today, for instance, was Meh's very first mother's day! Zachary and I had descended on the mall yesterday (Meh was of course immediately suspicious) to pick up things that we'd honestly planned out ahead of time -- while Zachary loves walking around retail stores and seeing all of the fun colors, he isn't as thrilled with the standing relatively still that browsing entails. So he and I had mostly picked out things ahead of time for mommy - thank goodness for accurate and functional retail browsing online!

We met friend J (of J & S, not S & J) for lunch first, where all three guys enjoyed a meal together - Zachary had cheerios and yogurt, along with a side of tasty laminated menu, as is his preference. Then he and I were off for the gift pick-ups, where there were of course a few small glitches. A cute set of dessert plates to match the lovely tea set that mima had gotten her for her birthday was nowhere to be found, and we eventually ended up with the last ones in the store. We strolled around outside to get to the next store, and encountered some picketing women handing out pamphlets explaining that mother's day actually (at least in their view) originated as an anti-war movement, and suggesting that everyone join their crusade to end government oppression and human rights abuses. And here I thought it was just an innocent Hallmark-invented/driven holiday. *shrug*

Today friends S & J (not to be confused with J & S) invited us over for a lovely brunch, where they busted out with their impressively large pro camera and snapped phenomenal photos of Zachary, which you can see here. He was very happy and screechy (that's the explanation for all of the open-mouthed shots) while Meh and I enjoyed a variety of tasty breakfast treats created by S & J. When Meh headed off to work, Zachary and I hung out a bit longer, where he had his own lunch and we got to catch up more with S & J - hopefully not overstaying our welcome too much!

I've somehow mastered the art of carrying 2 hot dogs, 2 sodas, and Zachary (well, the last in the baby bjorn) at once, which came in handy when we got the opportunity to bring Meh a sophisticated mother's day dinner of, well, a Costco hot dog and soda. We then got to visit briefly with mommy before heading back home, the end of a busy weekend of good shopping, good food, and good friends!

This place is also a zoo

One good zoo trip deserves another; three days after our Florida zoo visit, Meh and Zachary met some other mommy-baby couples who are friends of ours, and they all headed over to our own local zoo today for a nice walk around. The giraffes in particular were out of their enclosure, and the babies were all fascinated by the one they were watching.

This was also Meh's first opportunity to try out our fancy new camera, which seems like a pleasure to operate - crisp pictures, a functional flash (our old one made everything look like a blown out ghost), and most particularly the fact that it *gasp* has no time limit on video recordings (which are higher resolution to boot). Zachary proved this point by talking through most of this excellent video:

Tofu in my bowl

Our visit to mima and papa has wrapped up and we're at the airport awaiting our long (but hopefully not as long as the way here!) flights back to Seattle. It's been a wonderful visit and Zachary has been such a trooper, but it will be good to sleep in our own beds tonight. Incidentally, today's new sound is "k", which Zachary keeps making in wild abandon any time he sees something interesting around the terminal.

Yesterday we took Zachary to the impressively rebuilt Palm Beach Zoo (it apparently took damage in recent hurricanes). A little weird to see such a pristine zoo, and all of these wood structures (don't they know that hurricanes will blow them back down again?), but you can't beat the setting, and the weather was fabulous. Of course, Zachary had to don his new sunglasses along with one of his not-yet-to-be-worn-in-Seattle short sleeve/short combinations. This was definitely not like most zoos I've seen, with lots of fun things for the kids to do and adventurous settings for the animals - a giant fountain spouting water for the kids to play in at the center of the zoo (Zachary again was hypnotized, he loves him some fountains!), a full Mayan temple replica, the kinds of lush rainforests that Seattle just can't emulate without the tropical weather, and a few strange choices as well, including a white alligator in a somewhat sad bayou-themed enclosure. (I think it's because they have to keep it out of the sun? But still, pretty isolated, and I know I'd be driven crazy listening 24/7 to the mardi gras music they had piped in there.) Zachary loved looking around at everything with his monkey eyes, and even took a rare nap in the stroller.

Yesterday was also papa's birthday! So for dinner, we all went to a yummy sushi/Thai restaurant we'd visited before. Zachary was very awake, sported his new sushi bib, and kept staring over at one of the staff and smiling (or maybe the glowing light on the espresso machine behind him?). Our waitress kept fawning over him, and she had the neat idea to bring him a bowl of small tofu cubes. We gave it a try, and he loved it -- hooray, another new food for the little man, and something we can even get him at our own favorite sushi places. We then hopped over to Cheesecake Factory for dessert - excellent choices all around by papa!

Everybody's a Critic

As if to prove my point on Friday about people talking about how "good" a baby is when they happen to be happy, yesterday we got the opposite - glares, stares, criticism and "helpful" suggestions when he wasn't as happy. Oh, and some excellent almost-masked attitude from smokers at a restaurant. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

First we went to brunch at a great restaurant down on the beach. (Visits to mima and papa often revolve around, or at least focus greatly on, excellent food!) Zachary was again pleased as could be to play with his menu and then his rings throughout the meal. Then we were off to a giant antique fair in West Palm Beach at the South Florida fairgrounds. We attempted his stroller, but he wasn't really happy in it. So we switched to the ergo, and he still wasn't happy and started to break down a bit. Here the looks and glares (real or imagined) got us stressed out a bit; we figured out that he wanted to eat, but had to find a discrete corner in which to set up shop. Zachary was much happier after a snack, and got a few compliments again - but once more, two women working at the fair had to separately comment that "he looks cold. And I'm cold, so you know he's got to be cold...". And then a return of the comments about him needing a hat as we walked outside. *sigh*

In the afternoon, we headed back home and Zachary got to try out his fun new blow-up pool. He loved splashing around in it and grabbing at his fun new pirate ship floaty toy. And mima blew some bubbles that had him fascinated and smiley as well.

And in the evening, we went out to a tasty coal-fired Italian/pizza place nearby. The hostess didn't seem to have a good handle on customer placement; she first sat us down at an outdoor table next to some adults who were all puffing up a storm when I got there. I caught a snippet of their slightly raised conversation that they'd actually intentiontally lit fresh cigarettes right when we sat down to try to give us the point that we were going to be sitting by smokers and should move. Nice. Anyway, mima did an impressively discrete job of getting us moved to a table table along the other patio of the restaurant, where there were already several families with young children sitting. And we weren't positioned here at first why? But as an added bonus, there were several ceiling fans that Zachary kept leaning back to look at - always checking one after the other to make sure they were both still there. Dinner was incredibly tasty, and Zachary once more enjoyed his menu extensively, along with peekaboo from mima and papa. We also ducked into a cute baby shop across from the restaurant afterwards - where we of course came away with for-mommy and for-friend gifts, but nothing for Zachary. :) All in all, another wonderfully fun day despite random strangers' attempts to deflect our good times!

Today has already been jam-packed. After another successfully cute and happy breakfast at the Original Pancake House (similar in menu and tastiness to the one near our own home), this morning featured our return to the beach. Zachary again pretty much conked out when we got there, though this time he stayed down for a little under an hour. At last, we were able to show him the beach and the ocean. He was monkey-faced as we played in the waves a little bit, but I think he had a good time. (Yes, he was fully covered in sunscreen, SPF-rated clothing, and a hat, for yesterday's naysayers.)

Then we were off to Festival, a giant indoor flea market where we can always find eclectic selections of sunglasses, jewelry, Judaica, purses, and cute baby items all under one roof. This time we came out with new sunglasses for Meh and an excellent sushi-themed bib for Zachary. As he always does in retail areas, he had a fabulous time - happily squealing and banging his plastic loops while leaning out of his fabulous mima & papa stroller to see more of the fun wares.

The last stop of the afternoon was for a dessert lunch (well, I think it's okay, since really we had brunch for breakfast...) at Jaxson's, an amazingly tasty ice cream parlor - one of the few that I recall seeing and being in since the heady days of my youth. (Farrell's anyone?) Their special is called 'The Kitchen Sink', and it's served in its namesake - there's a big clanging bell that they ring when someone (well, a group - I think you need a party of 4 or more for it) orders it, which someone did as we were sitting down. The restaurant is covered in floor-to-ceiling license plates; the most clever one I spotted this time was a Michigan plate that said "LATELY". (If you don't get it, here's a hint: I'm guessing it was on a Ford.)

A full day, and we're now back home getting ready (e.g. naps and being mellow) for a BBQ dinner with Zachary's great-grandparents nanny and poppy.

Toast of the town

This morning got started bright and early, with Zachary up a bit before 8 am (local time, so before 5 am back home) for good. I'm guessing that was fine by mima and papa, who were happy to spend more time interacting with him! Oh, I forgot to mention last night that Zachary got to have his baffy time in the kitchen sink along with a very talkative frog rubber ducky (er, is it still a rubber ducky if it's a frog?) that ribbits a variety of tunes while flashing lights in time with the music. Zachary was mesmerized by it.

Then we were off to likely the first of several visits to the beach. Zachary decided that he was overdue for a nap, and was nodding even as we walked down. We got into the shade of one of those wooden semi-permanent double beach chair things, and he totally conked out as I put him down at the head of one of the seats. Seriously, for two hours. We're all convinced it was the ultimate noise machine (e.g. the crashing waves) that kept him out for two hours. By the time he was up, we were getting hungry, so he didn't even get to go into the water this time - we were off to grab some lunch back home.

In the evening, in an event that will apparently be the talk of clubhouses and retirement community bridge and mah jongg games for the next month (well, until something more interesting comes up 5 minutes later), we took Zachary out to dinner with his great-grandparents, nanny and poppy. The restaurant was very nice and the food excellent - and we got to eat out on the patio in the lovely weather. But it was Zachary's good behavior and happy coos and screeches that were the hit of the evening, with group after group of other enjoyers-of-the-early-bird (as well as restaurant staff) stopping by to compliment him, talk about what a good baby he was, and shoot looks of approval at the three generations of his forebears. He was once again kept entertained by a combination of menus, Mr. Whoozit, straw-delivered water, and of course a slow stream of sweet potato puffs (I saw six on the ground when we were getting ready to leave).

While we'll of course always welcome positive attention and compliments to Zachary, it's tough to see how the baby is "good" if they happen to be happy during a meal. Of course, it's even tougher when you get criticism or looks of disapproval when the baby is for any reason unhappy. There's no secret training or anything that you can do to determine which side of your baby will come out, just try to minimize the unhappy moments through a variety of distraction techniques (as well as the quick exit option). Okay, end of rant. A wonderful day with family, and hopefully Zachary will sleep better tonight now that he's fully locked onto the new time zone (then again, if he was up at 8 am when he was still on Pacific time, let's hope he doesn't make that adjustment?).

Flying the crowded skies

Spring marks the return (and some might say the beginning of a hectic summer) of Zachary's world travels. Okay, maybe not world yet, though certainly all around the country. This summer will feature trips to Boston, Michigan, New York, Los Angeles, and we started things off with one of the longest continental US routes possible, travelling to Florida (indirect via DC of course; no airline yet seems to think direct flights from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach are compelling) for a nice visit with mima and papa.

As if to further confirm Meh's last entry, at the security line at SeaTac, we were engaged by the rarely talkative and friendly TSA agent, who replied to Zachary's name by mentioning she too has a young son named Zachary (though he already apparently goes by the nickname "Zack-a-ree-ree". We'll let her keep exclusive use on that one. :)

Once more, Zachary flew really well. He alternated between sleeping and actively grabbing at everything in sight to play with and/or put in his mouth. It's always funny - and a bit ironic - that the toys friends and family have gotten for him often lose out to the most seemingly innocuous things for sheer entertainment value to an 8-month-old. At restaurants, we've already mentioned how he loves to grab (and gum) menus and coasters. And on today's flights, it was the airline safety cards that won out. (Incidentally, for the best selection of safety card diagrams, only some of which are crude, may I recommend this site.) He was happily waving it around and chewing on it until Meh looked over and noticed it was turning to a pulpy mess, with bits of paper and ink (soy-based, I hope?) around his mouth. Silly little man.

The longer first flight seemed to go by quite slowly, though we were rewarded with a surprisingly excellent lunch at a DC staple that's somehow made its way through the security barriers and into an unsuspecting corner of the otherwise crowded, industrial, aging, and fairly depressing Washington Dulles Airport. Zachary enjoyed his lunch as well - it's been fun seeing him start to eat more and more foods more consistently, though of course the messes tend to increase a bit along with them. His latest addition, besides Cheerios, is these little puffed sweet-potato-tasting stars. As with the Cheerios, most of the ones he tries to feed himself end up firmly in a fist that enters the mouth, where they become a gooey semi-dissolved mess in his hands. But he does love trying!

Today's new development in the Zachary's vocabulary was the letter 'N'. Meh believed he was practicing saying "Nanny" (what he calls his great-grandmother). We spent some time on the flights getting him to crack up with a variety of words beginning with the letter N -- noodle and nincompoop were by far his favorites.

Though we'd booked aisle/window pairs on both flights, hoping for an empty middle seat, it was not meant to be, and lucky passengers got to change from middle to aisle seating. Still, he was happy through most of both flights, and received compliments and attention from the crew and fellow passengers. There were several other babies on our flights (mostly a bit older) who didn't do quite as well, though no major meltdowns or anything like that. So Meh and I were moderately perturbed to disembark the plane in front of an obnoxious gentleman who, not seeing us right there, proceeded to whine to his travelling companion that it was simply 'disgusting' that babies were allowed to fly on planes, and that the airlines should have special flighs or sections for babies. Meh tried to retort generically, but I don't think he caught on. Dude, it's a mid-day flight, you've got nothing to justifiably complain about. (As if you even really do on a red-eye flight...)

Zachary needed a diaper (and as it turned out, a full costume) change just before the second flight's descent, so he and I had a bit of a quick change in the restrooms as the seatbelt light came on. Thankfully the second flight's A320 was properly equipped with changing tables in the restrooms -- the first flight's 737 was not so much, so Meh had a much greater challenge in changing the little man.

And we've arrived intact - a very full day of travel, and now exhausted, but ready for the beach, spending quality time with Zachary's grandparents, and whatever fun and new-to-Zachary activities may come our way in the next few days!

What's in a name?

I have been thinking lately about the incredibly difficult and painful process we went through in order to choose Zachary's name. We were so determined to choose something interesting, but not too weird, and not too popular. Zachary was number 33 on the Social Security Administration's most popular baby names for 2006. I thought that was low enough that it wouldn't be too common. Well, as we've seen, there is another Zachary in our swimming class, and last week I noticed that one of the babies in the class immediately before ours is also named Zachary. That's 3 out of 14 babies. Well, I tried to console myself by thinking that with so many Zacharys around, at least his name will be spelled correctly. I was wrong. Misspellings we have had of Zachary so far (and, I still love you all, but these did come from friends and family):

Zackery

Zachery

Zachariah

I was hoping to save Zachary from the curse of a difficult name to spell (or even to pronounce). I love my name, but it has rarely been spelled correctly over the years, even on official documents. That goes for my maiden name, too. Just tonight, my sandwich order came out under the name "Marida." I have never even heard of someone named Marida. My favorite misspellings of my name over the years are (loosely in order of frequency):

Merideth

Meridith

Merrideth

Marydith

Nedda

Yes, that last one is actually on the list. And it has happened several times, always on the telephone. I must speak really quickly, for my name to drop a syllable like that. However, people I have called in the past have received messages along the lines of "Nedda called."

Anyway, I was hoping we had chosen a name that was beyond all of these issues, but it appears we were wrong. And he'll always have to sit in the last row of the classroom, too.

Stand in the place where you are

I forgot to mention that earlier this week, Zachary reached another milestone - he's now self-supporting, at least in the most literal sense. Granted, we've got to position him correctly (standing him up in front of a table) - but once there, he can hold himself up more or less. We do need to keep a hand or leg around just in case, but it's still a milestone in my book.

He's always liked "standing" much more than tummy time (which we continue to offer for those worried that this might be impeding him crawling, walking, or taking up tap dancing), whether we're holding him up, supporting him on the floor or a table, he's in the jumperoo, or if he's kind of floating upright in the bjorn (or our stylish new ergo - more on that once I get to try it out). And he's often reached out - for shopping carts, whatever's in my hands while I'm holding him, etc. So I suppose it wasn't a huge leap for him to figure out to put his arms down on a table to help support himself. Granted, he's not actually pushing himself up yet, and still will tip one direction or the other after a bit if we don't keep an eye on him. Still, look at the little standing man!

The perfect Passover breakfast?

I find it somewhat amusing that it's during Passover that Zachary has experienced his first solid food, and it's firmly in the chametz camp. Yup, though our own favorite breakfast choice is off limits for us for the rest of the week, the ubiquitous Cheerio (or as our baby development newsletter tried to genericize, "O-shaped breakfast cereal") has now entered Zachary's diet, and he's a big fan. Meh gave him some yesterday, and this morning I offered him some more. He actually grabs them himself at times, but hasn't quite figured out how to get them into his mouth; I found two on his pajamas when he came out of the high chair after breakfast, and another at the bottom of the stairs that must've fallen out of another clothing fold later on. But the ones that I offer are happily devoured and chomped (gummed?), along with much happy talking, smiling, and waving hands.

I'm dreaming of a white Passover

The weather craziness continues, with more snow over the weekend. Just to check, we are currently in mid-spring, no?

Passover began on Saturday night, so Zachary got to experience his first seders. We'd expected with the late-ish (for him) start times that he'd likely be asleep, but he was having none of that. It doesn't help of course that it's staying bright later and later (well, when you can see the sun through the snow clouds). Anyway, he was incredibly happy and talkative at both seders. I think he just liked being able to look around the table and see all of these fun faces to interact/flirt with.

On the first night, friends J & S had us all over for a wonderful dinner (featuring J's world-famous brisket and salmon gefilte fish), and they had offered him plush seder plate and seder plate item toys. He loved them, continuing to grab one after another, chomping the grabbed item a bit, screeching happily, smiling, dropping the toy, and repeating with the next one within his grasping range. One of us would occasionally pick them up and the cycle began again. Eventually when Meh sensed he was finally getting drowsy, she snuck him back off to a bedroom and he did indeed sleep for a few hours, only waking up when we got ready to head home at nearly midnight!

He was just as happy for the second night seder, at friend I's parents' house. This time he actually slept much better and somewhat earlier, though mommy and daddy were exhausted and ready to pack it in by around 9:30 pm or so. But we were so glad to be able to introduce him to these traditions in positive and fun ways. He really seemed intrigued to hear a foreign language being spoken, and definitely loved all of the singing. (One of his favorite songs in the weeks leading up to Passover was Dayenu -- likely the combination of a peppy beat and repetitive lyrics? Anyway, he got really happy when he heard that one at the seders.)

When viruses attack

Zachary's weekend unhappiness turned out to likely be some kind of bug. His fever passed pretty quickly (well, after the multiple nights of being unhappy), turning into a rash that too is almost gone. Unfortunately, it looks like he's passed the virus on to mommy, so she was out of commission for the day yesterday, and is still recovering today. Something nasty has been going around, as I've seen coworkers and friends knocked out by this thing for multiple days.

Unbelievable, but it hailed and snowed yesterday. And it stuck. Climate change is such fun, who would think it would cause snow in the middle of April? According to reliable sources (the guy who delivered our final pre-Passover chametz pizza last night), this was the first time in 30+ years that it's snowed this late into spring. And the weekend forecast is for more snow; even as I type, I see some snow and freezing rain starting up again outside - nuts!

Back to the little man, there have been a few more Zachary advancements. First, his two bottom teeth appear to have finally possibly ever-so-slightly broken through. Still looks a bit too close to call, but there's definitely more white than pink there, and you can definitely feel them when he gums (or I guess at this point, bites!) a finger. And this morning, mommy was playing with him and he was actually holding himself up on our ottoman for like 15 minutes. Then he took a bit of a faceplant (I guess better to do those before the teeth come in?), but he was back at it when I tried a little later on. He isn't pulling himself up yet or anything, but definitely some progress towards mobility, and he seemed to be looking around in wonder at his slightly higher self-driven view of the world.

Fever in the morning

While Zachary's achievements and milestones continue to arrive nearly daily, the teeth remain elusive -- and the likely cause for late night wakeups. Last night was unfortunately similar to the night before, with nearly hourly crying - though miraculously the last time he got up, we were all able to get back to sleep until 9:30 am, woo hoo! And I'm not sure if this was a cause or effect, but this morning, Zachary was lethargic, listless, and warm - I took his temperature, saw that he was running a bit of a fever, gave him some motrin, and called the dcotor. Our practice is fabulously open on weekends and had an opening, so I brought him in. Either the motrin or getting out seemed to put the pep back into him; he was singing, talking, and cooing the whole drive to the doctor, and once more, he seemed to get healthier just walking in the front door.

We got another weighing out of the deal (updated on the right column of the blog); while he's only up 7 oz. since last time, he's definitely getting enough to eat, so I'm guessing he's taking a pause or focusing on mental growth at the moment. And the nurse confirmed that he was running a (now lower, but still above normal) temperature. The doctor, not one we'd seen before, was very nice, and she complimented his happiness -- I'd positioned him on the table facing the mirror, and he was laughing and talking to the cute boy in the reflection (all while repeatedly grabbing and basically shredding the exam table's paper cover) for much of the exam. All was good, the doctor suspects he's just fighting a bug. Zachary had a snack in the car before we headed off to pick up dinner for mommy.

I should mention that the word "ma" has entered his vocabulary, so you know that "Meh" likely isn't far behind, though I'm sure Meh would also accept "ma ma". Still "da da da" (yup, generally in threes) remains the favorite. And speaking of "da da da", today was almost another big breakthrough. As I said, we brought Meh dinner at work, but arrived a little early, so Zachary and I were hanging out in an office while mommy was still working. I was eating in between playing with him, and explained to him that the fish tasted yummiest with tartar sauce. He thought 'tartar' was another of the funniest words in the world, laughing every time I said it. And after a few times, he actually responded "da da", with what could have been the slightly hint of r's at the end of each. I tried to get him to say it again, but we were back to regular squeals and babble; the closest were a couple more "da da da" triples.

The Baby-Sitters Club

Zachary continues to demonstrate his place as an overachiver; who else do you know who has started babysitting at the age of 8 months? Friends D & D called us up earlier in the week asking if we might be available to babysit their 2-year-old son N this morning while they were taking a class. We've hung out with N many times before (even babysitting a few times before Zachary was around), though usually it's both Meh and myself. However, today Meh had to be at work, so it was going to be an all-men's day! D & D wisely suggested their place, already child proofed and flush with N-friendly/familiar activities.

We got things started appropriately for an early morning babysit by being already awake. Repeatedly, all night long. Meh took the brunt of it; Zachary was up every hour or two - we're guessing it was his teething once more, and we hope that his gums stop bothering him soon. Two teeth still look ready to come through, but we've been saying that for months (and indeed, they just look more ready every day). Anyway, Zachary and I drove over and got the tour from D & D. N started things off for us so nicely, offering Zachary a rattle he used to play with. Zachary accepted and shook it happily for a few minutes; the treaty of Seattle was signed soon after. The rest of the morning was really nice, though certainly exhausting - we did all of the following, in no particular order:

• Played with a wide variety of toys. N made a show of emptying several boxes of small parts onto the floor early into the playdate; we made small attempts to tidy things before D & D got back - mostly futile.
• N got to watch a bit of his favorite movie - perhaps 20 minutes before he got bored with it. On the plus side, this was Zachary's one opportunity for a quick nap; at other times N seemed to want to engage and keep him awake - which is not to say he wasn't always very considerate and gentle with Zachary.
• I read a few books to the boys, including one of N's written by one of Zachary's newest favorite author/illustrators. I was impressed that Zachary seemed to recognize the illustration style as similar to the books we own, and he was very happy to look at/paw at the brightly colored pictures. All of us gathered on the couch, the boys were both entranced, and it was very cute.
• I sang a few songs. N had a book about the five little monkeys jumping on the bed, and I transitioned from reading to singing the song from our Putamayo CD. Zachary recognized and loved it, and N seemed entertained as well. Similarly a book about animal sounds turned into a Laurie Berkner favorite.
• We took a walk around the neighborhood. Zachary was in the bjorn, and N was self-mobile. Well, except the occasions when he wanted to see something up high (a ladder on the other side of a fence, the buds I was pointing out on a tree, etc.), at which time I had to pick him up and carry both boys for a bit. :)

Whew! D & D returned home (the home was hopefully mostly intact) and all five of us had lunch. Zachary, still exhausted from his late night, fell asleep right in the middle of eating some blueberry/apple sauce. I hadn't seen him sleep in my lap like that in a long time, so you know he must have been very tired.

Anyway, Meh was somewhat relieved to hear that I'd fared okay with the two boys. She admitted she'd been worried that I might be overwhelmed, and that this would perhaps cast some doubt on us having a second someday. (At this point, our Zachary grandparent readers lean forward in their seats.) But fear not, we really did have a good time and I think that some day in the future, I might just be able to occasionally handle two (Grandparents ask: "Are you sure not 3? 5 perhaps?") of our own.

Zachary the Waterbaby

Yesterday was Zachary's first swimming lesson! We signed him up for Waterbabies, a children's swim school that friends D and D take N to, among other families that we know.

There are about 7 babies in our class, which started with all of us lined up on the pool deck, dangling our legs in the water. The teacher went over the safe way to enter the pool with kids, then she handed out foam toys to distract them, and we sang and swooshed them around in the water for 30 minutes. Zachary loved it, he just chewed his toy and kicked his feet the whole time, occasionally squealing with delight when I swooshed him.

The teacher has a great sense of humor. My favorite was when she demonstrated how not to do the activities using her small plastic doll. "Sometimes babies get a little upset, and it can help if you rock them a little," she said while rocking her doll in the pool. "Just be careful not to do this," she said as she dreamily dunked the doll underwater, "because that won't help them relax."

A little disappointing is the fact that this is only Zachary's second "class" environment (if you count parent-baby class), and already there's another Zachary. He is about twice our Zachary's size, and half his age. When his mother said he was 4 months old, there was a collective gasp of disbelief from the other parents, even from the lone father snapping photos from the pool deck.

Zachary looked so stylish in his mandatory swim diaper, and Mommy looked killer in her bright yellow bathing cap. We can't wait for next week!

Ferry Tale the Third

Before I forget, I actually did get a shot of Zachary giving mommy a kiss in Vancouver. The follow up shots looked more like him just clutching at her face, but this one at least hints at how his kisses work. Yes, we'll have to shoot a video at some point to more properly demonstrate it.

And speaking of videos, here's one from Vancouver's Granville Island market. Zachary was very happy with the pretty colors, smells, noises, lights, and of course all of the attention from singing mommy and duelling camera-wielding daddy and friend J.

We got back from Vancouver on Friday, and Meh's choir was recording their small ensemble pieces back out in Port Orchard on Saturday. So Zachary and I once more came along on the ferry to continue to explore the area. Things didn't go exactly to plan, though this wasn't really a bad thing: after we dropped off mommy, I started to drive into town, and Zachary fell asleep about ten minutes into the drive -- and stayed asleep for the 90 plus minutes that mommy was singing. When she called to tell us she was done, I'd been sitting in the parking lot of that little bakery, waiting for Zachary to wake up so we could go in and visit with Zachary's young friend and the nice bakers. But it all worked out fine - we drove back out for mommy (Zachary still remained asleep the whole ride back, so maybe 2 hours in all?), drove back into town, gave Meh the tour of cute things we'd discovered on previous trips, made a visit to the bakery, and walked around the small downtown shops. It really is like a little town trapped in time -- a whole host of antique shops (we scored a pretty tea cup for Meh's collection, along with a 1960's-era Disney Mary Poppins book), candy shops (we got Zotz for Meh), and somewhat oddly, multiple bail bondsman storefronts as well. I was somewhat mystified as to the point of the latter until I heard that there had been 'a bit of trouble' at one of the several bars along the main street a few nights earlier. Oh, those crazy Port Orchard kids!

International Man of Mystery

Yesterday was another big first for Zachary: his first trip to another country! Yes, we drove up to the highly exotic Canada (or in French, it's spelled Canada), to beautiful Vancouver for a one-night stay; friends J and S were going up for S to attend a conference, and had invited us to meet up with them there. The drive up was fairly uneventful (after the car got a bit less crowded by unloading Korby at his kennel-free boarding facility - he really never does even look back); Zachary slept wonderfully through most of the drive, and was happily chatting or looking around with his monkey expression for the remainder. The border crossing was totally smooth as well, maybe a 10 minute wait.

Once into British Columbia, I flipped the odometer to kph (I know it's not actually an impressive speed, but how cool is seeing 110 kph show up on the dashboard? I didn't even realize the odometer had the third digit), and we took the freeway into Vancouver, stopping off first at one of our favorite (and a favourite of friends S & J, not to be confused with J and S who we were meeting) European fast food chains that hasn't quite broken into the US yet. Yummy, and Zachary was happy as a clam in his high chair - he even ate a little bit of his own food while mommy had chicken and daddy enjoyed his lemon herb veggie burger.

We drove onward to Vancouver, where we stopped for the afternoon at the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Park. I'd last been here several summers ago for friends A & R's wedding, and it was so nice to be able to introduce Meh and Zachary to the charming rock quarry gardens (a bit sparse with spring just coming into bloom, but still dramatic) as well as walk through the somewhat Epcot-looking Bloedel Floral Conservatory, complete with exotic birds, koi pond, and Scoot-sized palms.

After driving the rest of the way into the city and settling into the hotel (which generously provided a pack-n-play for Zachary's sleeping pleasure), we met up with J & S for a dazzling dinner at Tojo's (he's the guy who actually invented the California roll), where J's bachelor party dinner had been. It was Meh's first time there, and we all had omakase, where you tell the chef what you don't eat, and they bring a series of dishes out at their own whim. We appreciated the layout and design of the restaurant (they'd moved buildings several months earlier), but Zachary seemed to appreciate it most of all, starting and smiling at all of the waitstaff as they cooed over him, and focusing in on the blue light suspended over our table. This was likely his first time out at a restaurant after his bedtime, and he did so so well. He wouldn't go to sleep (going so far as to bend over backwards watching the light when I tried to rock him to sleep), and was making happy squawking noises from time to time, but he was definitely pretty pleased the whole time as long as he was being held; the last course or two was taken standing up, but he really did do incredibly. The food was all amazing and so fresh - I think this was my favorite ever spicy tuna roll, there was an incredible nori roll with pineapple in it, and they even brought an amazing tofu dish for me. Meh and Jonathan of course enjoyed crab, shellfish, and other goodies.

Full of a variety of sushi and other fresh fish dishes (and some surprisingly excellent fruit ice cream dessert -- you never know if dessert's going to be yet another variant on sweet bean curd at Japanese restaurants...), we headed back to the car, where Zachary promptly conked out, as we drove on to our second and final gastronomic stop of the evening at La Casa Gelato. 218 (arbitrary number, I know) flavors of gelato at this shop, and it's always a fascinating new mix. I hung out in the car while everyone else grabbed flavors, then Jonathan helped me peruse and choose my own. A few that caught our eye this time (but that I wasn't brave enough to sample) included plum tomato, pear/blue cheese/gorgonzola, durian fruit (so stinky that it was the one flavor with the lid on), Guinness, licorice, wasabi, balsamic vingegar, garlic, and many others. I sampled dragonfruit (yum), toblerone (super-yum), and fig/lemon zest (yummiest, I got a whole bowl), while Meh got scoops of rum/eggnog and bailey's.

We were back at the hotel by 9:30 pm, and Zachary promptly went right back to sleep after a quick bedtime snack - he really did handle the late night so well, and slept through the night (that makes... 5 nights in a row?), waking up a little after 6 am. Once we were all up, dressed, and breakfasted, the three of us and J (S was at her conference) ventured out to Granville Island, an old industrial island reclaimed in the 1970s with shops, art, theatres, and a public market. The weather had turned a bit less agreeable, so we ducked across the island trying to keep Zachary's stroller from getting too wet in the rain, and into their fresh produce/food market. Zachary was happy and screechy, loving all of the colors and smells of the fruits, vegetables, flowers, pastas, meats, baked goods, and teas. We had a nice time walking from market to market -- after the public market, we wandered through some paper goods shops (Zachary dazzled the staff there, who kept coming by to say hello), and then through an entire market full of children's shops.

With time running out before we had to get back to pick up Korby, we wandered down to one of Vancouver's two kosher meat restaurants. I was hopeful, but the "restaurant" turned out to mainly consist of a catering company with a sad display of Passover goods and a small menu of lunch options; the corned beef sandwiches Meh and I had came right out of small consumer-sized plastic sealed bags of corned beef. Ah well, it still tasted good; we'll have to try the other one next time I suppose. And then we were off like a flash, back to the US! Well, if only our country would let us. There are two main border crossings, and they've even now got an electronic sign posted telling you the waits at the two crossings, which is nice. Except when the signs both read "60+ minutes". *sigh* So it was a long wait, during which I mused over all of the wasted fuel of the hundreds of idling cars. I also got this artsy photo of the Peace Arch with the subtext of the long line of cars in my rearview window. Interpretation is left to the reader or something.

Back in our native land, we picked up an incredibly muddy Korby (and had forgotten to bring a towel; will have to try to avoid looking at the carpetting in our trunk for a few days...) and continued home, where Zachary burned off a serious amount energy bouncing around like a crazy man in his jumperoo for a bit, then talking to grandma via video chat, before heading upstairs for baffy time and sleep. A seriously full 36 hours for a little boy!

Does no already mean no?

We've seen Zachary start performing three new behaviors in the last few days; while all are of course cute, I'm hoping the last one doesn't hint too much of tough times a-comin'.

First, Zachary now shakes his head "no". Granted, it's primarily when he's on his back getting a diaper change, and generally in response to prompting from mommy shaking her own head (he doesn't really do it for me yet). So it's mainly just imitation at the moment, but still very cute, and continues to demonstrate that nifty head control and his improving small-motor coordination.

Second, he's started to give kisses! It was hard to tell at first, but he'll occasionally wrap his hands around your face (or, with his always improving grabbing abilities, occasionally hook your mouth/cheek, grab an eye or eyebrow, or once even two fistfuls of mommy hair), pull you close, and plant a wet open-mouth on your face while smiling. It's much cuter than it sounds; will have to try to grab a kiss on the camera the next time he's feeling affectionate.

And perhaps slightly more worryingly, we had the first possibly hints of tantrum early this week. Meh and Zachary met me for lunch on Monday before the traditional Monday afternoon Zachary hand-off. He sat in the high chair while we ate lunch, and, after munching on the corner of a menu for a few minutes, he spied and started playing with one of those cardboard coasters for drinks. Yup, a few minutes later, it too went in the mouth, and eventually started to dissolve. When Meh took it away while it was still moderately recognizable as a coaster, Zachary let out a big whine of displeasure. It was over very quickly, but I think we can say with some certainty that he's starting to get the concept of object permanence. And possession. Or perhaps a little bit of both? Uh-oh.

The Bjorn Supremacy

Who would've thought the same pun would work for two completely different blog topics?

Zachary and I have come to know, love, and pretty much depend on the Baby Bjorn for mobility and functionality over the months. He loves the view of the world that he gets, swinging his feet around and making 'mmm' and 'ahh' sounds, particularly as we head out on walks or into a brightly lit store. I love the compact nature of it (travels anywhere), the fact that I basically get both hands free to do things (trying to walking the dog with Zachary in the stroller can be a bit of a juggling act), and just the way that I'm right next to (or at least behind) him and sharing his world perspective.

One of my favorite things that we started doing almost from the beginning was holding hands while walking. He often even grabbed my hand as I held Korby's leash, so it was like he was helping me walk the dog. That's been followed up with him starting to interact more and more with the world from the bjorn -- I mentioned the soda incident, but on the more productive side, when we've got a shopping cart, he frequently reaches out and wraps his little hands around the pushbar and helps push the cart forward.

Why the reminiscing? Two reasons: first, on the rare occasions (like yesterday) when the bjorn isn't available, even seemingly simple tasks tend to get a bit more challenging and I appreciate it that much more. And second, the bjorn is at long last starting to get too small for him -- it sometimes barely buckles closed when he's wearing a puffy jacket, and the amount of weight that it places on my back can get to be a bit of a burden after even short periods. Yup, we're starting to outgrow it, and it's just one of many things that will soon go by the wayside. On the other hand, I love his new comfy sling, which mommy has been showing me how to wear.

Speaking of which, my first demo of the sling was at the library yesterday, where we did our traditional mommy lunchtime visit. We've been intending to get a picture of Meh reading with Zachary for the library's "Read" poster series; apparently you just get a shot in front of a white background, and this fancy software automagically mattes in any of a variety of backgrounds behind you. So we went a little crazy trying to grab shots, none of which really competes with my favorite with Zachary and Mima, but definitely some cute pics - including the moment just before a sneeze.

Oh, and if you were wondering, the fact that we read his favorite book a little bit before bedtime wasn't lost on him; when I got him home, bathed, and ready for bed, I tried to read it to him again, and he would have none of it - so we skipped that particular part of the bedtime ritual last night!

And I thought they smelled bad on the outside

Last night, Zachary slept through the night - woo hoo! We've now got a handful of examples of this, and while I don't want to jinx it, perhaps the sleep patterns will continue to gradually improve from here. Not that we should complain; he's usually up once or perhaps twice. And not that I have any right to complain at all, since Meh is generally the one actually getting up.

While fairly rare (he often goes a day or more between, um, going), Zachary's poop continues to be a prime conversation topic around our house. What amazes me is often the sheer amount - though again, when it's so infrequent, I guess that makes sense. Today he managed to literally poop up to his ears. I'm not kidding; I went to change him, and it was all the way up his back. Ew. By the end, I was seriously just giving him a wet wipe bath; next time I'll likely just run a regular one for him, whether or not it's the middle of the day. Soiled diaper, onesie, pants, shirt, socks, cloth diaper, changing table cover, and about 50 wet wipes later, he seemed clean. We went downstairs for his lunch, and I was still smelling it. I kept looking at him, but couldn't figure out the source - then I noticed my own fingernails. Double ew.

The continuing blowouts have us once again debating if he needs to ramp up to the next size of diapers. Of course these debates always seem to occur when we've got a fairly large stock of the current size that we'd have to unload - hopefully not straight into a landfill. But if an upgrade turns out to be the solution, that will be yet another example of defective sizing guidelines; Size 3 claims to range from 16 to 28 lbs, and Size 4 is supposed to be 22 to 37 lbs. I don't know if he's 22 lbs yet, but he's definitely well within the heart of that so-called Size 3 range.

Sew Cute

A few weeks ago, my friend L (mother of baby E) and I decided to have a talent exchange: she would teach me to sew pants for Zachary, and I would teach her to bake cupcakes. I went to her place and she very patiently taught me how to read a pattern, cut the fabric, and sew the pieces together using her sewing machine. Zachary even obliged by taking a marathon nap, so that I almost finished the pants (made of pirate fabric, by the way). I didn't quite get to finish them, though, and ever since then I had been thinking of how the next time I saw a sewing machine on sale I would snag it. Nevermind that I have no idea how to really use one.

I was finally sent over the edge when a mother posted the link to a site with instructions to make your own baby sling on our support group's listserv. Well, I was on a mission. These slings are around $50 (or more!) to buy, and it looked too easy to pass up! I thought I would just go buy the fabric, then beg L to help me sew it at her place. Off I went to the fabric store with Zachary in tow. I picked out some fabric, and was entertaining Zachary by "peepee teepee"-ing in his ear while the sales lady cut it for me, when I saw that they had a sewing machine on sale. I took it.

When I got to the car, I called Scoot and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hi, don't be mad..."
Scoot: "Do I ever get mad?"
Me: "Okay...I bought a sewing machine."
Scoot: "Oh, cool! I can show you how to use it."

Is there anything my husband can't do??? And how many women can say that their husbands taught them to sew?

I really need to teach L to make cupcakes...to regain my domestic dignity.