Da is the word

Incidentally, this trip's hotel again lacks a proper pack-n-play -- what gives? Thankfully, this is at least a newer model than the New York hotel's "death crib", and it has a mattress that actually properly and snugly fits it. Still, Zachary was not a fan and took a while to get down the last two nights, and woke up multiple times in the middle of the night as well. And the hotel room is just a single room, so there's no separate area to hang out -- when he goes to sleep, we go to sleep.

Another hectic day of visiting friends and wedding activities. In the morning, we enjoyed the hotel's cafe for breakfast; Zachary had grapes, some whole milk, and even perhaps a blackberry or two (he still isn't always sure what to make of them). Then we were off to scenic Cal State Northridge for my rehearsal with the musicians. I'd offered for Meh and Zachary to drop me off, but he was mostly mokeyfied, so they came along. The classroom we rehearsed in had lots of chairs for him to cruise around, and he was happy to listen to the music and toddle around - though the room was unfortunately not air conditioned and apparently not cleaned recently; Zachary's feet and legs were nearly black after crawling around for a bit. Ew.

After rehearsal, we met up with one of my oldest elementary school friends and his family. C & L have two super-cute kids and an adorably fluffy dog (a goldendoodle - and of course these pooches have got their own website), and it was nice to just hang out at their lovely home, have a mellow lunch and early afternoon, and just catch up. They also have a fabulous (and warm) pool, so I got to take Zachary for my very first swim with him. (He's been taking those classes with Meh, but I've been the observer on the few occasions where I've come along.) Zachary was extremely happy, smiley, and making lots of noises and splashes in the pool.

We headed back to the hotel to meet up with friend C for dinner. Zachary again fell asleep on the drive, but the rule in LA is that everything is roughly 45 minutes apart in traffic (paradoxically, it appears to be irrelevant whether it's 30 miles or 3 blocks), so it was once more a brief nap. We then had playtime in the convention center attached the hotel, which has nice large carpetted floors and of course the highly desireable air conditioning. Zachary continues to love wheels, and we developed a new game of him chasing mommy and the stroller:


I also caught this super-cute conversation between mommy and Zachary, the source of today's blog title:


In the evening, I was off to the wedding's rehearsal dinner; we have a babysitter booked for tonight, but last night Meh just wanted to get Zachary down early (and try to go to bed early herself too), so I represented the family. Got to catch up with a few former Seattle friends now living in LA, and of course congratulate the bride and groom before things get too hectic tomorrow.

Coast to coast

One crazy sleep-deprived wedding weekend deserves another, as I always say. So after returning from my brother's wedding and getting us all somewhat back into the swing of things at home for a few days, we were off to Los Angeles for our friends' R and M's wedding this weekend. On the plus side, LA is the same time zone and a much shorter flight (a little over 2 hours). On the minus side, little man was still travelling as a lap infant, and I was bringing my viola along as one extra carry-on (I'd organized and was playing the ceremony music).

Thankfully, Alaska Air is pretty aggressive about offering fairly exclusive seat selection options for their frequent flyers, so I had snagged bulkhead rows both directions. At checkin, there were a bunch of available seats, but as I feared, it was more about them not yet freeing these seats for general assignments than it being an empty flight. So we did end up with an occupied third seat in our row, but Zachary didn't mind as he had plenty of (questionably vacuumed) floor to play on before and during the flight. Only one nuisance - he fell asleep in the ergo, and as we prepared for landing, the flight attendant told us we had to remove him from the ergo, even though he was fully secured and Meh was holding him. Thankfully he stayed asleep, though he remained in the exact same position as in the ergo - goofiness to make such a random requirement.

Our LA trips are always fairly hectic, with so many friends to catch up with in compressed timeframes. This trip was no exception; after the prerequisite stop for lunch at In-N-Out (surprisingly disappointing - how did they manage to let grilled cheese get cold?), where Zachary enjoyed his first grilled cheese sandwich (while foresaking the french fries), we immediately headed off to meet up with Aunt K (Zachary's great aunt K) in the Hills of Beverly. She intended to take us on an LA cupcake tour; two of the big ones are right down the street from each other. I was surprised that the first one was a familiar site from our NY trip the week before -- even the cupcake shops are franchising now? Meh and I had a jelly-filled cupcake that was far superior to her NY one, so Crumbs is back in our good book. We then made multiple attempts to hit the other Beverly Hills cupcake shop, only to be stopped by out-the-door lines each time. Zachary wasn't happy to stand still, so we meandered around and up and down Rodeo, grabbing a whole milk for him from an ice cream shop before stopping at a giant planter for him to laugh, play with, and occasionally try to eat the rubbery leaves of a funky southern California bush.

From there, we were off to dinner with a few friends at a kid-friendly burger joint. Well, it would have been even more kid-friendly if we didn't have to wait 45 minutes for the one 'big table' at the restaurant, which they had decided our group of 8 plus 2 kids required. On the plus side, it worked out well for everyone to arrive and enjoy dinner together. Zachary made friends with young L, and of course continues to love and respond to friend J with crazy near-hysterical laughter:

Free return trajectory

The J & B wedding celebration wrapped up on Sunday with a nice brunch hosted by the mother of the groom. Meh finally got an opportunity to catch up with folks she hadn't had much of a chance to see at the wedding. And Zachary was mostly happy through the brunch, particularly once we found him some (what else but) grapes and blueberries, though eventually the exhaustion did once again catch up with him. He slept much of the ride to the airport - which we incidentally grabbed a town car for. The difference in driving styles from herky-jerky cabbie to 'yes we do realize we have passengers' smooth-driving town car was well worth the like $5 fare difference.

We were dreading the return flight, but did everything in our power to make it a little more bearable for Zachary and Meh. Check-in took ages, which I thought spelled disaster, but I told them our sad story and they recommended keeping the car seat available in case any seats were available at the gate (they thought a few might be). At the gate itself, they insisted that the plane was full and possibly even overbooked, but at the moment we boarded, the gate agent told us that there was an empty seat a few rows back and that we should ask the passengers there if they would trade. They graciously did, and Zachary got a seat to himself - woo hoo! The change was dramatic; he was happy to sit in his spacious window seat, look out of the plane (saying 'da' to passing planes and cargo trucks), fell asleep pretty quickly into the flight, sleeping through much of it, and more or less happily playing through the remainder. We were really grateful to the ladies who switched with us, and tried to offer to pick up their plane food and/or drinks - they declined (perhaps wisely, based on the typical quality of plane food...)

Hooray for being home! Zachary has been catching up on sleep in a serious way, doing 13 or even 14 hours a night. We're hopeful he'll be fully recharged for this weekend's Los Angeles trip, which is quite possibly his last of 2008.

Guess who's (not) coming to dinner

Saturday was the big wedding day! Zachary had again been displeased with the so-called hotel crib, and ended up sleeping in bed with us. It was impressive that even in a king sized bed, he managed to nearly push both Meh and myself out of it; I think he was sleeping diagonally by the end to maximize his space. This meant that he was again up pretty early. So we decided to get him outside once more, since the walks seemed to make him happy. We journeyed the few blocks from our hotel to the famous Carnegie Deli, where he was clearly exhausted and not particularly happy.

Two minutes later he was asleep in the little umbrella stroller, and slept through the whole meal - the juice we'd gotten for him was for naught (though he drank it later in the park). The waitstaff kept coming over to fawn over him. I was surprised by how empty the deli was, though then again, who's already up and out to breakfast at 8 in the morning on a Saturday? Since we hadn't been sure how long breakfast would take, we were actually already in our clothes for the ceremony, so we decided to wander up through Central Park towards the wedding venue. (Incidental trivia: Manhattan streets are apparently roughly 1/20 of a mile. Where I grew up, they were 1/12 of a mile. So whereas I was impressed that we eventually made our way up 43 blocks to the venue, it was actually just over 2 miles rather than nearly 4.) We had a nice walk with the little man, who was mostly happy, and kept getting distracted by passing dogs. We ended up making it up to the venue just in time for one of my wedding duties -- warning park-goers hanging out by The Pool that a wedding would soon be occurring.

The wedding itself was simple and beautiful; the family walked down from 100th Street and had a small ceremony by the pool. B and J had written their vows, and they both looked so happy -- everything was just perfect! Zachary was getting fussy after the wedding while the families were organizing lunch back down toward the hotel, and we were concerned about him getting angry in a cab (or waiting for a delayed lunch), so we popped into a local Ethiopian restaurant (blissfully empty, though the food was great) with friends V, S, and their twins, who had met up with us at the park after the ceremony, and Zachary enjoyed a lunch of grapes, cheerios, and quite a bit of injera, while the grownups caught up. Zachary eventually wanted to explore, so he crawled around the restaurant (occasionally stopping to pick up and eat one of the cheerios he had scattered - ew!).

After wrapping up lunch, V and S were gracious enough to drive us back to our hotel (they'd even brought a third carseat for the occasion!) on their way out of the city, and we visited with Zachary's grandma and bubbie for a bit before getting ready for the wedding reception.

The reception was at the glorious Bryant Park; there were photographs in the park followed by a cocktail hour on the roof of the restaurant, followed by dinner and dancing in the restaurant itself. Zachary fell asleep before the photographs (leaving all of Meh's wedding photos with him in the ergo on her front), but woke up at the reception and was getting increasingly unhappy/frantic. We took turns walking him outside and soothing him with a funky projected animated plant thing in the restaurant (don't ask), but eventually it got to be too much for him (and Meh), and they ended up having an early evening. Definitely appreciating the concept of the babysitter and baby-free wedding reception, which we'll make an attempt at this coming weekend with Zachary's last flights for some time, down to LA. The rest of the wedding was, though somewhat lonely without Meh, certainly a fabulous evening of dinner, dancing, and celebrations. The Michigan gang performed this classic tune for the groom. If you can understand any of it from this posted performance, more power to you.

Jumping the Sark

After hiking back across Central Park (I actually elected one of the car thoroughfares to avoid getting lost, which made for a somewhat boring and exhaust-filled hike), I met up with the groom at his apartment. He had everything all organized into a bag for both the wedding and reception - I walked out carrying two wedding bands, cash payments for the DJ and photographer, and all of the documentation required by the state for the ceremony. Needless to say, I held onto that bag for dear life the entire subway ride down to the bachelor party. My favorite part of the trip was a large group comprised of two religiously observant moms and perhaps seven kids who piled onto the subway, at which point one of the mothers loudly barked out orders for who was to sit where, with excellent names like Mirele and Moishe coming up. The moms then proceeded to speak Yiddish the entire subway ride; it was great to hear the language being used.

B had very few requirements for his bachelor party - a few close friends, a request for sushi, poker, and a request for 'Cutty Shark' alcohol. I'd never heard of it, but looked it up, found a drink called 'Cutty Sark' (I presumed related to the Clipper ship/tourist destination we'd found to be under construction when we tried to visit on our last London trip), figured B had just spelled it wrong, and passed the request on to some of the attendees to grab some

When folks showed up, we had a hilarious series of stories of trying to get this whisky -- a few liquor store owners hadn't even heard about it, others had reported that it was really bottom shelf stuff, another said "that's what my dad drinks", and so on. B revealed that 'Cutty Shark' had been our Zadie's (grandfather's) favorite drink, and I realized at that point why the label looked familiar. At this point I called him on the Shark/Sark discrepancy, and he was totally dumbfounded - it became a running joke of the evening.

We added in a classic childhood video game favorite of B and his friends, and an excellent round of the party game "Celebrity". Everyone had a great time (pictures here - don't worry, nothing too risque).

Meanwhile (who am I kidding, everyone just wants to know more about Zachary!), back in Manhattan, Meh and Zachary had an earlyish evening back at the hotel. He figured out the zipper on Meh's backpack, opened it up, grabbed her wallet, and opened that up. Meh caught this video:

Nightmare at 30,000 feet

Well, it was bound to happen sometime. On Zachary's 21st flight (and still no frequent flyer miles to show for his journeys!), we finally had a total meltdown. Big time. Of course it had to be his longest flight yet, which made for unhappiness both from Zachary, Meh, and likely everyone around us.

The day was pretty much cursed from the start; I had to run a few errands before we headed to the airport, so we got off a few minutes late. We dropped off the car and headed to the terminal, and here the problems started to mount. Here's how it played out:

• We checked in at one of those self-serve kiosks. You then have to wait for the agent to call your name and get your bag check tags and such. Okay, so we stood there. And stood there. There wasn't even much of a queue, but people who had checked in after us kept getting called up. At first we assumed they must just have earlier flights, but 25 minutes later, we still hadn't been called. The gate agent finally motioned us up after noticing us standing around with Zachary starting to get annoyed.


• The umbrella stroller had to be checked in at a different location around the corner, adding more time and luggage dragging.


• The security line was quite long, so the TSA agents were sending everyone to a different security checkpoint halfway down the terminal in the wrong direction to our gate. And Seattle is apparently experimenting at this station with breaking people up based on "special needs", "families", and "seasoned travellers". Now granted, the "families" line did have more friendly and helpful TSA agents, but this still seemed like a lot of additional queueing for not much differentiation of service.


• Now we were through security, and Zachary, Meh, and I really needed to get some lunch before the flight. It had been so long since we'd started our check-in attempt, that I for some reason misremembered the boarding time, so I thought we had 15-20 minutes to eat. We grabbed tasty food at a litte airport restaurant (including a rather crazy triple grilled cheese panini concoction that Zachary loved). I looked down at my watch, and it was the time that I'd remembered that we were scheduled to board. Then I thought, and realized that this was actually only 15 minutes before the flight was due to take off. Hm, tight boarding time. Or perhaps I'd just remembered wrong. Crap. We started heading for the gate, then had to break into a run when we heard the 'final boarding' 5-minute warning for our flight. Of course, the gate was at the furthest possible corner of the terminal. Needless to say, we were the last ones aboard, even behind an unaccompanied minor who was being assisted onto the plane. Thankfully there was plenty of overhead storage, and we got settled in as they closed the door.

Zachary was almost immediately fussy, and of course there isn't a whole lot of room to entertain him. Despite cheerios, star puffs, menus, magazines, toys, and books, he could not get happy, and eventually started that special kind of hysterical and inconsolable crying that particularly upsets mommy, daddy, and of course other passengers. For the next two and a half hours, this was our flight, and there was nothing we could do. He finally fell asleep for 30 minutes, woke up somewhat angry again, and was finally semi-alert and just fussy for the remainder of the 5 1/2 hour flight. Ugh.

His happiest part of the day was the cab ride into Manhattan (also known as the one reason we'd lugged his carseat along, though carseats aren't actually required for cab passengers). In the time since my last visit, most cabs appear to have upgraded to these fancy video screens that can show news, maps, etc. Zachary was happy and screechy throughout the ride, even getting our cabbie to chuckle a bit.

We arrived at the hotel and had a perfect end to the day -- first they couldn't find the reservation (turns out despite my several confirmations that they didn't have the dates right), then they hadn't had us down for a crib (that honor had apparently instead been granted to my mom's room). We got into the room, which itself was nice and even had a second room that would be perfect for him to sleep in -- but then they wheeled in the crib. And I mean wheeled; this was one of those lovely institutional all metal, bottom-to-top-bars cribs of the late 1970s. With a wood plank attached with nails and screws as the base/box spring. And an ill-fitting mattress leaving a gap of a couple of inches to the end of the crib, with that plank exposed. I stuffed a blanket into the gap, but we were both a little wary of the crib. Zachary was moreso -- whether the crib, the new surrounds, or the horrible flight, he was again beside himself pretty quickly, and 20 minutes later, we were all trying to sleep in the same bed in the other room.

Zachary got about half the sleep he usually does, and the next morning we were up by 6 am and ready to wheel around the city. We ended up walking down towards the wedding venue to meet mima, papa, and my friend C for breakfast. Zachary alternated between happy, screechy, and completely monkey-fied as we walked down Avenue of the Americas, but got happier as we made our way into a fancy breakfast place ($3.50 for a muffin? Yikes!). Mima had gotten him a fun puppet that moos whenever you close its mouth (I later figured out that it actually moos some nursery rhymes, you just have to get it to moo semi-rhythmically to determine what they are), and he really enjoyed it.

We parted ways with mima and papa walked back up toward midtown, passing the famous Ghostbusters lions of the New York Public Library on the way. After a nice walk through Central Park (where we walked past the cute Alice in Wonderland statue and enjoyed the shady escape from the 80+ degree temperatures), we met up with friend C (a different C than from breakfast) for lunch at a tasty kosher dairy restaurant, and friend V joined us on his lunch break as well. Afterwards, we hiked uptown to what is generally considered one of New York's top cupcake-specializing bakeries. Meh picked up a 'devil dog' cupcake (a la hostess cupcake, with chocolate with creme filling and vanilla frosting). She ate it later that night and reported that it was somewhat disappointing. From there, I was off to my brother's to help with pre-wedding preparations, and flagged a cab for Meh and Zachary, feeling a bit like a native when I told the cabbie where to take them.

Meh reports that our readership prefers the (ahem) shorter entries, so I'll break things up a bit for the posts on our New York weekend - to be continued!

Ground floor

Another allen wrench-marked milestone -- this morning I finally dropped Zachary's crib mattress down to the lowest setting. Really this changes it from a 'crib' to just a really small square footage bed with high surrounding railings. Some mornings when we go in to get him, he's happily standing and cruising around the inside of his crib. Zachary continues to be more active and interested in the goings on around him. He's also talking more than ever; this is particularly apparent in the car when Meh or I put on NPR. I don't know if he thinks he's carrying on a conversation or just disagrees with their liberal bent, but he chats up a storm.

This morning we also had the first hint of a step! He was standing in front of mommy in the kitchen and decided he wanted to check out the magnets on the refrigerator. He turned around and took one tentative step. Then sat down and crawled a bit to reach his destination. But it's certainly a start. He's also taking more and more interest in Korby (and Korby for his part is licking Zachary's face and hands more and more - not sure if that's interest or just more food being handled by the little man):


Today was the one day a week that Zachary visits his nanny, but she was unfortunately under the weather. So Meh and I both worked half days and did the hand-off. Actually, I ended up working a bit more than half a day; Zachary was happy at the office playing with his toys (and then one of my computer bags, then a box from some computer gear), so he hung out with me for a bit before we headed out. He even sat through my annual performance review meeting -- an excellent way to ensure your manager says nice things about you. It was actually pretty funny, he started playing with the recycling bin, then fished out a printout and started shaking it around.

Zachary's favorite summertime toy is our portable air conditioning unit. In the last few days, he loves to end his day climbing between it and his step stool, frantically shifting the vent left and right and smiling as the air whips his hair:


Tomorrow we're off on Zachary's 21st career flight, the cross-country journey to New York for his Uncle B and Aunt J's wedding! We're thrilled for J and B, and very excited for Zachary to be able to spend time with his family again. Hopefully the 5 hour 35 minute flight will pass quickly for both the little man and for us!

Zachary's Magic Schoolbus (and Trike)

For Zachary's birthday, he received several new modes of transportation -- a large battery-powered schoolbus (an electric vehicle? Who knew children's toys would be so with the times!) and a neat and attractively primary-colored tricycle. The little man gave the bus a few spins last week. Here's a video:


And Saturday night, I finally assembled the trike. It came in a giant box, which of course the little man loved to use as another toy this morning. Assembly involved good use of allen wrenches, screwdrivers, and featured instructions in a dozen languages, and even a 'supplementary instruction for installation procedures' sheet. (Ouch to whoever missed that step in the original printouts.) He loves the trike, though he won't be able to reach the pedals for a little while yet.


Thanks to grandma and Aunt K for these, and to everyone else for all of his excellent and thoughtful birthday gifts!

Please do not touch glass

First he was trying to stand in the bathtub - now Zachary's trying to stand all of the time. This would be okay, except it makes for challenging and extra-squirmy diaper changes. I've tried distractions, changing him on the floor (Meh reported he almost rolled off the changing table), changing him standing up, on his tummy, crawling away from me - they're all pretty dodgy.

Today thankfully he was somewhat cooperative when I had to change him at Meh's work; the men's room had one of those changing tables, and I prepped everything to go before putting him up there, but as long as I sang and had him laughing (today's favorite song: "Who Let the Dogs Out" -- who knew?) he stayed still.

The two of us also visited a group of old friends that we hadn't seen in a while for a brunch/lunch party, and there were so many kids about - it's a little sad that we'd all lost touch in part because of our new families (and in part due to geography; folks were visiting from Boston, northern California, and even *gasp* Sammamish) but it was great to catch up. Zachary had a nice lunch with the other kids at the table, a few of whom were just a few months older than him but already even so much more communicative.

Zachary continues to interact with Korby more and more. Here he is watching Korby on the porch -- just moments before, Korby had wandered away and he'd happily hollered through the glass door for him to come back and play some more.

About face

I'd forgotten to mention a host of milestones Zachary has reached in the past few days:

• On the morning of his birthday, those two teeth we'd started seeing hints of two weeks ago poked through. They've been growing out very quickly since then, and he's now quite close to having a matching top and bottom set!
• One year marks the recommended time to turn those convertible baby carseats around -- so yesterday I made the flip in both of our cars. It was weird to drive and not have the easy view of him in the giant baby mirror we'd positioned over the back seat - now we've got to crane our heads to see down to the actual little man. Though he'd already had his first forward-driving experience last month, he was quite happy and talky to be driving facing forward -- Meh was concerned that with the new perspective on things he wouldn't be sleeping in the car anymore. But this afternoon he did indeed conk out on our way home from my office.
• He's continuing to be more curious and exploring everything around him. I got one of those giant fence things to put around our bookshelves, but he's still wandering into Korby's room, checking out things in the kitchen, showing an interest in outlets (thankfully all have plastic safety covers, though that makes them impossible for me to actually plug anything into!), and is starting to stand up alone for longer periods. He's also been trying to stand up in the tub, which is a little worrying - time to get one of those bath matts I think.

This morning was Zachary's one year check-up. His doctor was wonderful as always, and everything was looking very good with his motor skills and behavioral development. The vital stats:

Weight: 20 lbs 14 oz. (40th percentile)
Height: 29 1/2" (45th percentile)
Head circumference: 45.8 cm (40th percentile)

(The grandparents are likely simultaneously kvelling over his weight and worrying about the height going from 75th to 45th percentile. Remember, baby Scott was consistently off the bottom of the chart. And again, childhood height has no correspondence to adult height. Well, except in my case I guess.)

We chatted with the doc about table foods, and she agreed that he's ready for most everything that we eat. Oh, and he can start having cow's milk -- so he and I went to the store and got some tasty whole milk, which he seemed as happy to drink as formula for his afternoon snack today. He got four shots, including the long-awaited make-up for the one everyone had a shortage of six and three months ago. As with before, the sadness after the shots went away quite quickly - he's such a good little man!

How does "Happy Birthday" sound on a zither?

It's nearly inconceivable that Zachary is already a year old - happy first birthday, Zachary! I'm so glad that I got back in time for it -- when he woke up and came into bed with us, we sang him happy birthday and he gave us a big smile, before climbing all over me and pulling at my face. Then it was present time. He'd received cute cards and a variety of gifts (toys, blocks, books, clothes, a giant puppet theater, a tricycle, and much more) from friends and family over the past few days - thank you so much to everyone for their generosity and for helping us celebrate his birthday!

I'd brought him his first proper Paddington Bear from Hamleys (don't worry, I selected it after that conference call), along with a bobby (British policeman) rubber ducky and a battery-powered floating turtle that sprays water out of his shell. Zachary was somewhat interested in the last two when we used them for baffy time, though I think Meh and I enjoy the spraying turtle more than he does. Meh got him special baby crayons, a pirate doll, and three excellent books (including a replacement for the ABC's book we loved but had lost months before). And of course Meh brought her mad skills to bear to properly celebrate his birthday.

Meh makes amazing cakes. (Ask her to read that sentence aloud for proper 'Meh' emphasis.) And pies. And cupcakes. Really, if it's dessert, and she makes it, it's going to rock. But she truly outdid herself for Zachary's birthday. After brainstorming a variety of themes over months, she struck on the brilliant idea to create an alphabet block cake with a "1", a "Z", and objects that begin with the letter Z. For those who aren't yet zither enthusiasts, enjoy the Wikipedia entry, though my favorite was the amazing zebra. Of course the cake also matched the party's theme colors of brown (chocolate cake), white, and blue (fondant) -- friend J approved emphatically, as it was close to her own wedding colors.

A principal requirement of the first birthday is the first exposure to serious amounts of refined sugar, and Zachary didn't disappoint, with a series of faces and grabbed fistfuls of cupcake and frosting to keep everyone entertained. Note also his birthday hat and the clearly-designed-for-one-occasion '1st Birthday Boy' bib.

Lon-done

Here I am, trip wrapped up, waiting for my flight in the Holideck. No, really. It appears that a bunch of airline business lounges just banded together to make a single massive 3-floor lounge. There was no signage specifically for my airline, so I was wandering the terminal shops for a bit first - feeling a bit dumb for walking up and down Regent Street today shopping at the same stores that are right here in the airport. Granted, even 'duty free', I'm sure the airport versions are pretty marked up, but that's still a few extra hours, streets, and tube rides that I was carrying everything around.

Incidentally, that earlier central London shopping trip led to a pretty funny scenario - I was walking out of Fortnum and Mason after purchasing Meh's favourite chocolates and our favourite teas (you simply must add the 'u' when talking about proper British tea), and my phone started ringing. The caller ID showed a Seattle area code, and I figured it was someone from home who I could just call back when I got back to the US, where it wouldn't be $1/minute. Then again, it was 11 am at the time, so 3 am at home - more likely a coworker also in the UK. Whoops, yup, a question had come up at a meeting, and they were wondering if I could do a conference call. So a few minutes later, I took the call at the most unlikely location: on the third floor of Hamleys (London’s answer to FAO Schwartz) toy store in Regent Street. Nothing like discussing technical audio topics while winding through displays of stuffed animals, dodging silly magic-trick-performing employees, and checking out an impressive life-size Lego Indy display.

The conference went very well - we ended up having more than four hundred people attend! As one final challenge thrown my way, I was asked on the morning of the event if I could introduce the keynote speaker. So I got to take that treacherous two-step walk up onto the stage, with giant video screens behind me projecting, um, me, welcome everyone to the event, and introduce the speaker. It seemed to go okay, though I felt a little odd that everyone was welcomed to the conference by someone they didn't see again throughout the day unless they happened to attend the audio talks.

Well, my flight will be boarding soon, so time to wrap this up. Seattle may still be twelve hours off, but very much looking forward to being back with my wife and son later tonight, and celebrating Zachary's first birthday tomorrow!

Mind the (5 day) gap

It's been a whirlwind trip to London - my first 'long haul' flight away from the little man has occurred right before his first birthday, and I miss seeing, hearing, holding, and playing with Zachary. And I miss his mommy very much as well, and can't even imagine how she continues to be so amazing and incredible with Zachary while daddy is across the pond. I haven't exactly 'missed' the weather, as it pretty much came with - overcast, 60s, and frequent showers. (Of course, last week it was apparently 'glorious', and this week it looks like it's nice in Seattle, so just poor timing on my part.) Glad I brought an umbrella, especially since I forgot my coat. On the plus side, I have gotten to see two other youngster friends -- or their parents at least; I keep visiting in the evenings, and the kids are already asleep (hopefully for the night).

The night I arrived, I fought the urge to go to sleep at 5 pm, and wandered out of central London to visit for dinner with friends N & S (and their young sons J & R). It was so good to catch up with them (as well as grabbing and enjoying a tasty kosher burger). Son J (not yet 3), allegedly asleep, even heard me come in and wanted me to come say hello. His room was totally dark, and by the time I got up the stairs, he was mumbling that he just wanted to be back asleep. Ah well, good to almost see him. Baby R (now 3 months old) slept through the whole time I was there, so we'll have to just keep looking out for posted pictures for the time being.

The next day I was off to Brighton for work, and then planned to meet up with friends T and B and their son T (just days older than Zachary; Meh and then I spent a lot of time with T and T in our parent/baby class and subsequent playdates - a picture of the two boys together can be found at end of this blog post). My meetings ran long, and the trains and taxi took a little while, so I ended up arriving just after T's bedtime and didn't get to see him. But his mom (mum?) T and I had a lovely dinner together, I fawned over their amazing English home (complete with greenhouse-like dining area and a large properly-maintained garden of course), and we exchanged pictures, videos, and tales of the two boys. She also had me write little notes in the gifts we'd sent T for his birthday this past week, two of our favorite books. Oh, and I got to see another of his birthday gifts, a customized (customised? Sorry, I'll stop now) book about T (with cute cutouts of a photo of his face placed on each of the illustrations), and one page (as well as the back cover) talk about him playing with his best friend Zachary. Awwww! It actually says Zachery (so begin the challenges of misspelled first and last names for the little man), but it was so super cute and fun to see.

Today was setup for my conference. Everything is mostly looking to be in good shape; hoping that things go well - for the first time I'm actually in charge of all content coordination, not just my own track, so it's been a little more interesting gathering and tracking all 43 talks and 26 speakers. But hopefully the ~350 people who come tomorrow will get a lot out of the presentations and discussions! The conference is at Chelsea Football Club, so we got to walk down towards the pitch and check things out in between setup. I still say organizing a friendly (e.g. a soccer/football match) for the attendees would be a blast, though I'm not sure the club would agree. :) After set up, I took the speakers out to dinner at one of Meh and my favourite London restaurants. (As I understand it, friends M & K took a cooking class at this same restaurant's "home office" in Thailand during their vacation there.) It was yummy, and very nice to be able to celebrate everything being wrapped up and hopefully ready for tomorrow.

Block buster

Ack, I keep getting behind on posting half-finished entries. Today is the day I promise to finally post one on the day I start it!

That whole milestone with standing up in bed appears to have triggered another milestone - Zachary is finally kind of sort of starting to crawl. We've mentioned before how he was able to scoot backwards (particularly effectively in the bathtub). But now he's starting to figure out forward movement. He only uses one leg at the moment - insert lurching humor here. The speed will come soon enough (uh-oh, just in time for wedding flights at the end of August?), but for now he's just so cute to watch moving around.


Carpet edges are among his favorite toys. And speaking of toys, one of Zachary's early birthday presents from Uncle Brian and Aunt Jen was a large box of tactilely satisfying building blocks. Again, the box itself is a bonus toy - he loves pushing it around and turning it over, even when completely full of blocks that easily weigh 5-10 pounds. I've also noticed he's fascinated with the little push in tab that the box uses to keep closed - I think he'll be figuring out how to open it soon enough. He does play with the actual blocks as well, picking them up, holding them, dropping them, and occasionally trying to eat one. But the funniest thing for me is watching his reaction to mommy and daddy trying to build anything with the blocks. If it gets to be anything more than about two blocks tall, his hands swing in to knock it down.

I tried an experiment yesterday to see if he would care if I built something horizontally, just flat on the floor. Yup, the hands still came out and knocked the blocks in all directions. There's no real smile or laugh at this action yet, but he's definitely watching what mommy and daddy do with his toys before expressing his own artistic vision of organized chaos.

One night stand

Incidentally, last weekend's hiking and company picnic pics are now posted - thanks again to J and S for a wonderful time!

Early Friday morning, Zachary was lying in bed with us - he often comes in and we let him make super-cute happy noises and play with the sheets for a bit before we're fully awake (particularly as this is generally at around 5:30 in the morning). Then, he was suddenly sitting up, and then climbing over daddy. Meh announced that this definitely meant it was time to lower his mattress.

We had two competing fears with these adjustable baby mattress frames. One: now that he was sitting up from a lying down position, he'd be able to pull himself up with the mattress in its top position, vault out of the bed, and start doing cartwheels around the room. Two: conversely, if we adjusted the mattress too low, we're too short to reach all the way over and into the crib, and would have to toss him over the crib frame. So we started with a single notch lower (I think his bed has three steps). Okay, I'll admit, there was a third fear -- that I'd have to disassemble the entire crib to get access to the mattress frame again to lower it. Almost, but through a variety of arm contortions, I managed to make it happen with the crib intact.

We apparently made this switch not a moment too soon - last night, Zachary started crying about an hour after going to sleep. This in itself is really unusual; he's usually down for the night when he passes out. But he was getting more and more angry and, well, it actually sounded loud. So I went into the room after a few minutes to investigate, and lo and behold, he was standing in his bed with his arms holding onto the front of the crib, bawling and looking at me. It was the saddest (but very adorable) image and milestone for the little man. We'd actually read about this kind of thing in several of our baby books - how they sometimes figure out how to stand and then don't know how to (or are too hysterical to) sit/lay back down. So I soothed him for a few minutes, and then laid him back down. A few minutes later, he was crying and back up again when Meh checked on him. We consulted several friends who had gone through similar situations, but the consensus seemed to be that he needed to figure it out for himself. Sure enough, some time later (somewhat of an eternity for us), his room was quiet. I snuck in to check and he was sleeping on his tummy with his blankets in a pile around him. I rearranged them and snuck back out - he slept through the rest of the night. In the morning, Meh reported that he was sitting up in his bed talking to himself when she went him to get him.

We're hoping that the standing-and-crying-in-bed was a rare occurrence; tonight he went to bed very cozily for me, and has stayed asleep so far.

Ferry Tale IV: A New Hope

Yesterday it was back to Port Orchard for one more Balkan women's choir recording session. Zachary slept through most of the ferry ride and even a drive over to a coffee shop with mommy once on the peninsula. We dropped Meh off at the session, and the two of us headed back up to the downtown area. What a difference a few months makes (to the town, not just the little man); this is clearly a summer town (even if the weather disagreed, in the lower 60s and overcast/rainy much of the morning) -- the streets were packed with cars and pedestrian traffic, the docks were full of moored boats, and there was a cute farmers market/fair thing going on to keep us entertained. We saw flowers, fresh fruits and veggies, someone was selling dried jerkies of various flavors, and cute arts and crafts.

Eventually the little man got hungry, so we found a picnic bench and enjoyed lunch together - cereal, fruits (fresh and dried), some pita, and of course cheese. He was happy and active, and enjoyed watching all of the activity from his stroller. He also took a sippy cup of water and successfully held it and drank from it as we walked around the fair a bit more. Next we stopped off at the town's bakery to catch up with his little friend R, the son of the two owners of the bakery. Again, such a difference - during the off-season, it was always just the two owners, R's grandmother, and maybe one other staff member. This time, we didn't even see R's parents -- I finally spotted his dad on the way out, intently working in the back on some pretty impressive-looking wedding cake designs. But we did visit with R and his grandma, and the two boys vaguely showed interest in each other in between climbing and cruising around the bakery's tables and chairs.

We still had some free time before Meh's recording session was due to wrap up, so the two of us went to check out a county park that we'd seen signs for on previous visits to the city. Little man was making the whimpering I'm-close-to-asleep sound, so I put him in the ergo and walked around down to the lake. The weather had cleared and we had beautiful views of the beach, so we hung out for about an hour.

Back at the recording facility, we played outside in a giant grass lawn. He was obsessively grabbing at and pulling up the grass, then focusing in on a single blade and trying to grab it. When I and the engineer's wife scattered grass on our laps, he brushed it all off. Oh, and we found a pine cone, which he picked up and almost put in his mouth before switching to more standard swinging and batting of it. We headed back home on the ferry, where he was active and smiley the entire trip. And we finally caught the faces that he makes when you first pull out the camera and point it at him - squinting smiles, upturned chin, and all! Such a good little man.

Better get used to those bars, kid

Zachary's cruising has led him to the gates that we've used to keep Korby in the kitchen. (Yup, soon enough it looks like they'll be serving their named purpose as 'child' gates.) Here's a video Meh grabbed today:


It was hard being away from Zachary and Meh all day long for the past two days - got to see Zachary first thing in the morning, but he was asleep by the time I got home. The conference did get us to use one of the wonderful services my company offers - pre-screened and available-on-demand backup child care service (our nanny's family was out of town on vacation). Meh said the nanny was really nice, and Zachary seemed to do great with her (even if he slept through half the time). The conference went well too (thanks in no small part to his set-up assistance on Monday), but it was nice to be able to get home at a reasonable time this evening in time for dinner with Zachary and Meh.

Zachary appears to possibly have two new top teeth in the making, at least according to Meh's inspections. I myself haven't been able to see them, but we recall how his bottom teeth appeared ready to come through for months before they finally arrived. As with before, he does seem to be teething at times, and still refuses cold foods that might otherwise help those poor gums. On the plus side, the diet continues to expand - starches have entered the mix, with pita, pasta (he prefers cheese-filled ravioli to plain rotini if you're wondering), and even occasionally a quesadilla.

Looking forward to a nice weekend with the family. Tomorrow Meh's group heads back out to Port Orchard for another recording session, so Zachary and I will tag along on the ferry and continue to explore the peninsula. We're looking forward to visiting our "friends" at the bakery and seeing how they and their son R are doing.

Take your son to conference set-up day

My company actually had its annual bring-your-child-to-work day recently; thankfully my team has continued to be understanding and supportive of Zachary celebrating this event with me most every Monday!

This afternoon was set-up/rehearsal for the conference my group is putting on tomorrow and Wednesday for more than 1200 game developers. It's also a Monday, so Zachary came along with me. He certainly makes for a different kind of speaker rehearsal experience! We were stopped at the convention center entrance by staff who had to 'clear him' with the event coordinators on my team, since the conference wasn't supposed to have any children in attendance - I wasn't sure if I should be amused or annoyed. Regardless, a one-minute walkie talkie conversation later, Zachary and I were heading into our conference room. He happily played on the floor while I made sure my talk content looked okay. A few other speakers came in to check on their talks and demos, and here he started getting a little more vocal. It was afternoon nap time (which he's been fighting mightily the last few weeks), so we went and took a bit of a stroll while folks continued their rehearsals. Alas, no sleep was to be had, though the walk did keep him fairly amused, as did the fawning staff from our event team. We came back to our presentation room a little while later, where he had a tasty dinner of fruits, cheese, pita, cheerios, and puffs while other speakers practiced their talks. After dinner, he played for a bit on the floor, not bothered in the least by a game demonstration on the projector behind him with growling monsters, gunshots, and swordfights. He even occasionally looked backwards and up at the towering screen and smiled at it. Everything went smoothly, and we were able to get home not too long after his usual bedtime, where he had a nice baffy time and went to bed after a refreshing bottle. I think it will be bedtime for me too after this post, as I've got two very full conference days coming up!

Go west, young man

It was only a matter of time - Zachary now looks to be mastering the skill of cruising to the left, becoming fully bidirectional (and of course pretty omnidirectional when he's got his cart to walk around with).

We've had a jam-packed weekend so far, and it's just half over! Yesterday, after our morning family jog, Zachary and I went hiking with friends J & S in the morning. As with last time, the trail was pretty consistently uphill, and this one rated a whole three stars in the trail guide, but it definitely helped to be wearing Zachary on my back. We happened to choose a state park that was having a "Trailfest" event of some sort; J even got solicited by a hiker heading the other direction with a pamphlet and such. Ironically, despite the apparent event (we never did investigate) and fairly packed parking lot, we had a pretty quiet hike up the ridge. The uphill-ness was absolutely worth it, as we were greeted with an incredible view from the ledge at the top, just over an hour later. (I left the camera in the car, but will post pictures when I get them from J.)

After having to wake him up to start the hike, Zachary was making his nearly asleep noises most of the journey uphill, but stayed awake the whole time. At the top, he was definitely ready to be out of the wrap and checking things out. We all had a snack (he enjoyed a bottle while looking down on Rattlesnake Lake), and changed him (almost losing the diaper bag over the edge of the ridge!) before hiking back down. From there, it was a short drive onward to our second stop, the Microsoft Company Picnic, an astoundingly large annual mob scene (it's so big that they've broken it out into 3 separate dates, and it was still at capacity) highlighted by enormous amounts of food (perhaps 30 food stands with different options - including this year separate vegan, halal, and kosher options), multiple giant carts full of sodas, a giant volleyball tournament, and lots of other picnic/fair-oriented activities (live bands, other entertainers, races, sports, etc.).

The last time Meh and I had attended, we'd commented that it would be a lot more fun to be there with kids. And Zachary had a blast, looking all around, kicking happily in his stroller, and enjoying all of the attention from grownups and kids around us. He even got his first party bracelet -- they wisely require all kids to wear one with parent contact information, even if they're, um, unlikely to wander very far at the moment like the little man. Anyway, we walked through the farm and headed to the food area, where the four of us had a nice lunch together (he enjoyed some pita in addition to cherries, grapes, cheerios, and some pasta that he still only shows mild interest in; I had a very tasty tuna sandwich and strawberry shortcake) and walked around a bit before parting ways so Zachary and I could head back out to meet up with mommy at her afternoon break.

We had a nice visit at mommy's work (Zachary and I showed up a bit early, so we read a short board book together), headed home, and it was already just about dinner time. A meal, some brief playtime (including his first look at his exciting new wood blocks from Uncle B and Aunt J - thank you guys!), bath time, and bed time. A very full day!

Eine Kleine Zachmusik

If I had a nickel for every time someone has said that with parents like us, Zachary's bound to have music interests... Then again, he definitely does love it when we sing, when he listens to his favorite music, when he plays his little miniature piano, and in the past he's even happily banged on the piano when I put him on my lap in front of it. But today was a first - a spontaneous piano performance. I caught the second movement here:


Mozart only showed interest at age three? Bah!

Incidentally, another milestone to report - yesterday, Meh and the little man came and met me for lunch. Meh ordered a turkey sandwich, and gave Zachary a little bit of the turkey. He grabbed and ate several bits, seeming to enjoy it. (He even appeared to prefer it to a proffered french fry.) Not nearly as much as he enjoyed the super cool foldable car children's menu they have at this restaurant (he practically banged it back into a flat piece of paper by the end of the meal), but it's a start to his life as an omnivore.

Spaghetti-O's?

I wasn't 10 minutes into my morning commute when Meh called me on the cell phone this morning. Law-abiding citizen that I am, as I didn't have my pseudo-hands-free headset plugged in, I waited for a red light, got wired up, and called her back. Meh had been saying a happy "Uh-oh!" to Zachary when he repeatedly dropped his sippy cup on the floor after breakfast. (This is often one of his favorite ways to signify mealtime is over - he grabs the cup, holds it over the side of the high chair, releases it, and has a big smile on his face as he watches for us to react to the noise.) And for the first time, he responded to the "Uh-oh!" in kind! Well, sort of:

Meh apparently spent much of the rest of the morning trying to get him to repeat the feat - he didn't do it for me when I called back. And when I checked my voicemail, there was about a minute of Meh, without introduction or explanation, saying 'Uh oh!' followed by silence from the little man.

(For those of you who don't associate "Uh-oh!" and Spaghetti-O's, here's more than you ever wanted to know about the canned pasta-like product.)

Round, round, get around

What started innocently enough as slowly orbiting the ottoman for snacks has quickly escalated into full-on cruising around the house. We're trying to keep up with the baby-proofing as Zachary discovers cabinets, drawers, display shelves, vent covers, entertainment center gadgets (he detached an Xbox controller the other day - I was so proud...), shelves under the kitchen's island, and the refrigerator, but he's always one increasingly sure step ahead of us.

A few days ago, Meh clocked a Zachary free-stand at eighteen seconds. Today he circled the music room unassisted (holding onto walls, chairs, and his push cart), then the entire kitchen and dining room. Meh helped him out with the empty space across the kitchen by spacing two chairs on a line directly across the room. He used them like a pro to make his way across to the opposite wall.

A few child-proofing highlights so far:

• Zachary started showing an interest in some outlets, so out came the plastic outlet covers. Pretty straightforward, but then...
• He grabbed and managed to lift up a vent cover, which I can't quite figure out how to secure.
• He then moved into the living room, and was opening (and pinching his fingers when he immediately closed) drawers in an end table. Meh's creative out-of-the-box solution was to remove the drawer pulls for the time being.
• Meh thought our heavy metal bowls under the kitchen island would be safe, but he started working them towards the edge of the shelf. Over they moved into a higher cabinet.
• He discovered the cute ladder we'd displayed tchochkes on. I came home, and the ladder had been moved out of sight.

I think we're about out of safe spots to hide objects and large furniture at this point!

Into the wood

Unbelieveable as it seems, today is already our fifth anniversary!

Unlike last year, with its improbable 4th anniversary gift tradition of fruit, flowers, and appliances (?!), the fifth anniversary has a more standard and gift-accessible "wood" theme. Books are indeed made of wood, so I was pretty well covered with gifts for Meh. (Of course, Zachary enjoyed his gift as well - the wrapping paper.)

We had a jam-packed day of activities, and it was just so nice to spend some quality time as a family (and of course even nicer that the little man was happy throughout most of the day). After the morning walk/jog (Meh has been adding jogging to our routine so gradually that I'm actually almost able to deal with it without whining), we all came home and had a nice breakfast - Zachary had a variety of fruits and yogurt, and we had tasty Meh-made crepes. Then Zachary took his nap, and that sounded so nice that we both joined him for a doze. Refreshed, we all went out for lunch/brunch at one of our favorite restaurants, then ran errands at the local outdoor mall. The weather was fabulous, so we walked all over the mall while Zachary took his afternoon nap. I picked up new running shoes, where I was doubly amused that I had to choose from women's styles (not that there's much difference; the smallest guy size was just slightly too big for my feet), and that the cushy ones that I chose were branded "Nimbus", which immediately made me think of Harry Potter. (I was so unimpressed that both Meh and the salesperson at the shoe store were looking blankly at me; the Nimbus 2000? Fast brooms? Anyone?)

In the evening, friends L & R had graciously offered to babysit, and arrived in time to watch Zachary's continuing adventures in backwards bathtub scooting. We headed off to a nice quiet dinner together. Quiet is perhaps an understatement; for the second time that we'd been at this place, it was completely empty when we arrived (and we felt sheepish mentioning that we had a reservation when we walked in, but why would you pass up those OpenTable dining points?). My only guess is that since it's attached to a lodge/resort/spa, maybe Sunday nights are quiet with lodge guests departing? Still, the food was phenomenal as always, and the setting was great - outdoor on their patio, with a nice fountain, grape vines winding overhead, and a little vegetable patch up against The Herbfarm (where we had an incredible meal almost a year ago).

The restaurant did start to fill up slightly (e.g. one couple sat at one other patio table) throughout the evening, so maybe we're just earlybirds. Speaking of birds, there were plenty of fauna around to keep us entertained between the scrumptious courses -- some tiny birds were taking baths in the large fountain/pool next to us, a few eagles or hawks flew overhead, and a friendly neighborhood hare hopped into the patio's strawberry patch halfway through dinner. We also shared a bottle of a more recent vintage of our wedding wine (we've actually still got a few bottles left at home, though as a white wine, they're probably not aging particularly well at this point - like we'd know, connoisseurs that we are :). Afterwards, we strolled through the Herbfarm's gardens, looking at all of the plants and flowers, visiting our friends the truffle-sniffing pigs-in-training, and also seeing two tiny baby bunnies hopping around the grounds. It was a wonderful evening to complete our first five years together -- now here's to eighty more!

Please insert coin

"Will cruise for food" could be Zachary's new motto. After watching Zachary circle our living room ottoman repeatedly, only to stop as soon as she ran for the camera, Meh stumbled onto the idea to use food as an assistive device. A small pile of his favorite crunchy stars didn't do the trick (though as I'll get to in a moment, it may have just been the wrong direction for him to reach), but strategically placing a few individual stars around the circumference of the ottoman got him moving:

Does this video remind anyone else of Pac Man? Granted, no ghosts or power pellets yet, though perhaps Meh will make the game more interesting now that he's mastered the basics?

Incidentally, like the predictable Pac Man ghosts, Zachary has apparently only mastered cruising in one rotational direction: counterclockwise. He confirmed this today for Meh, when at the shopping mall, he made multiple orbits of a boat-shaped-thing in the play area, but again only in the counterclockwise direction.

Take a hike

Friends J and S had invited us to go hiking this weekend. While Meh unfortunately had to work, Zachary and I elected to go enjoy a morning stroll (well, a second morning stroll - the three of us still did our traditional family walk) and then meet mommy in the afternoon.

New friends D and S (who we met at the fourth of July picnic) joined us as well, and the five of us set off on the fairly short drive to Twin Falls. Stroll is perhaps a slightly misleading term here. The hike was rated a 2 (out of 5) in our travel guide, and the above website calls it:

an ideal hike for small children, novice hikers, or anyone wishing for an easy low elevation walk in the woods at any time of year

So either I'm way more out of shape than I'd thought, the trail has been dramatically altered since the last printed updates, or the presence of a 20-pound load on my front (and a backpack in the back that didn't quite balance this) added an unforseen difficulty modifier. Thankfully, J and D both offered to help, and Zachary was mostly happy as his personal pack mule changed from me to J. Zachary spent most of the hike alternating between staring up at the various trees, and (once J was carrying him) swinging back around to make sure I was still there as well.

The trail was quite nice - mostly well maintained if nearly always uphill. I think the main source of confusion with the rating was that the guides were estimating the hike to a bridge over the namesake waterfalls. We reached that bridge, but the trail obviously continued, so we kept going, figuring there were even more vistas further along. While the views were nice, we eventually ended up parallel to the interstate and approaching large electric towers (while continuing to ascend) - and the path had narrowed and dwindled to a pretty narrow grade, so we eventually headed back down after what turned out to be a roughly 2 hour round-trip hike.

The weather was pleasant and just slightly overcast, though that certainly helped keep us cool on the hike. The walk was always within sight/sound of the river, which Zachary of course loved as he does all "water features". While we had a fairly quiet hike up, the crowds started arriving on our way back down, and it was amazing to see so many babies and young children - most of whom were in those fancy metal-framed backpack things. If we continue hiking with any frequency, that might be a good addition to consider -- though the carrier we currently use lets you put the baby on your back as well (if you trust yourself to gradually jiggle the carrier around 180 degrees; I don't have that much confidence yet).

After the hike, Zachary enjoyed his lunch in the trunk of the car (hey, it's a nice large flat surface - and yes, it's a hatchback) while everyone watched his cuteness gobble up sweet potatoes, crunchy star-shaped cereal, and raisins. All in all, a wonderful day out with friends in the beautiful scenery of the Pacific northwest!

Blogaversary

Hard to believe it was already one year ago today that we started this blog. Oh, how young and naïve we were back then, speculating about then-Ziggy's birth date, gender, name, room color... Not to suggest we're any less clueless now, but it's always easy to look back and self-criticize. :)

Time seems to do funny things when you have a baby. For us, the first few months alternated between sleep-deprived blur (I can barely even remember when Zachary was up four or more times a night, though I'm sure Meh's memory is unfortunately a bit clearer), crazy activity (building/assembling/organizing his room), and figuring out what this new little person truly needed and wanted (items not making the list: maya wrap, that snuggle nest thing, pacifiers, and I'm sure a few other items). But since then, the time has flown enormously fast - I can't believe he's already almost 11 months old!

One of Zachary's fun birth gifts was a picture frame with mattes to place photos of him at birth, each month, and then a large picture in the middle for one year. It was bugging me that we'd kind of run out of steam at four months, so yesterday I finally researched, resized, and printed out photos for months five through ten. Looking at these last six months' pictures, Meh and I agreed that we can't actually tell a significant change in his features - nothing like the change in the first month or two certainly. Incidentally, that was one super-cute contact sheet, with adorable pictures varying from smiles to finger in mouth to raspberrying. I was particularly pleased with the sunglasses photo, which happens to be angled so it looks like he's looking at the forthcoming 1-year center photo, Brady Bunch style.

Speaking of time and the circle of life and all that, today was the bris for our friends' newborn son. (Mazel tov to D & D!) Meh made some amazing cupcakes -- vanilla with chocolate frosting. I was going to make my always-demanded challah. However, the best laid plans... Checking the first pair of a double batch in the oven, they simply didn't seem to be cooking. I finally figured out that the oven had died, right in the middle of baking them, and wouldn't heat back up, leaving me with two and a half loaves of raw challah and two par-baked challahs. I put the half-loaf (a mini-loaf, given to D & D to eat upstairs while watching over baby B's recovery) in my toaster oven, and called a few neighbors. Thankfully our next-door neighbors have young children as well and were up early - they invited us to use their oven, Meh shuttled the dough over, and all of the loaves were successfully cooked and delivered to the bris straight from the oven. Well, except the one I gave to our neighbors in emphatic thanks for, um, bringing home the bread. :)

At the bris, we saw a full range of young children from 0 to about 3 years of age. And bizarrely, they were all boys (I think there were about eight in all?). One in particular is just a month or two older than Zachary and was walking/toddling around the family room. I can definitely see how Zachary's movements could turn into that at some point (I won't say "soon" because that would be pressure/setting expectations, and he'll walk/talk/pick a vocation when he's good and ready to), though we're in no rush to have to child proof everything!

Yesterday, Zachary discovered a new game - he was cruising around our ottoman, and grabbed my toe. It tickled, so I chuckled. He thought this was the funniest thing ever, so we had an ongoing game for a good 10 minutes, which went something like this:

What's your sleep comfort number?

Today was Zachary's first fourth of July (well, duh, so far every day is his first instance of that day - give it another month or so though...). We didn't make it to fireworks (with the late Seattle summer sunsets, fireworks don't start until after 10 pm; and our pyromaniacal neighbors often are detonating [no exaggeration] window-shaking fireworks late into the night - here's hoping they don't bother Zachary too much!), but we did meet up with friends J & S, A & B, and met a few new friends at a waterfront picnic for a few hours. Zachary did great, happily playing with his toys, telling everyone "da da", giving out big smiles like they were sparklers, and generally people watching. He gets very focused in one direction, but it's sometimes hard to tell just what he's actually looking at - this time with people frequently walking by (and his head following them), the subjects of his interest became a little more obvious.

Zachary reached another milestone last night -- in preparation for our ever escalating washload size/frequency, I pulled his fitted sheet off his crib mattress, and happened to glance at the icons on the mattress itself. I'd completely forgotten that we'd gotten a 'convertible' -- that is a mattress that's super-firm on one side for infants, and more like a regular coil mattress on the other side for the slightly older baby. The magic weight for the flip is 20 pounds. Meh had a hunch, and we did a quick weighing on our scale and Zachary looks to be just about 20 pounds. So the mattress was flipped, and Zachary took his first step toward the world of posturpedic comfort. Or something.

While not the first time, we also moved Zachary out of his tub-within-the-tub and into the bathtub proper. He loves being totally surrounded by the water, and kicks and splashes enthusiastically, generally getting his would-be washers as soaked as he is. Still, it's hilarious for all of us to see all of that kicking generate some backwards momentum that sends him scooting across the tub. I know at some point we'll have to invest in a bath mat, but for now this is just far to entertaining for Zachary -- and certainly for us as well.

Hey big smiler

Zachary has always responded to seeing and recognizing our faces (yes, usually in a positive way). But now he's gone one further - Meh was smiling at him and he started smiling back, and she gave him a big grin, and he imitated (exaggerated? Meh can't be sure her face gets quite this dramatic...) it in a super cute manner:

In other news, sweet potato is now back on top in the food preferences race. Meh chopped it into cubes rather than mashing it, since he's been developing that aforementioned head-shaking rejection of spoon-fed foods. And he grabbed it and loves it as much as ever. Even with cheerios, cheese, or blueberries on the tray, the sweet potato generally emerges as champion. On the other hand, the lentils, broccoli, and green beans still face a serious uphill battle. More on Zachary's culinary explorations to come, I'm sure.

Paper toys

We've finally found a good use for all of the junk mail we receive -- give it to Zachary. Just place him in the middle of a pile, and he's entertained for hours by newspapers, print ads, and credit card solicitations. At last there's an intermediate step between the mailbox and the recycling bin. (Though on a side rant, how many times can a company we already are monopolistically forced to use for phone service keep soliciting us to pick up their slow-as-molasses data service? It's seriously a nearly daily occurrence.)

A friend sent Zachary an early birthday present of some excellent super-hero themed dinnerware today (no, that certainly doesn't count as junk mail!), and Meh watched him happily play with (and in) the large cardboard box that it came in for much of this afternoon. He really does love his paper goods. Thanks so much to S for the plate, cup, bowl, and "bonus gift" (aka shipping box)!