Blanket statement

First of all, a very grateful thank you to everyone who has expressed their condolences for Korby. It's been a hard beginning of the week, as I keep finding myself doing and seeing things that remind me of Korby. Zachary too seems to know something has happened; he walks around saying 'ah ah' and sniffing, and at one point Meh said he was shaking Korby's kennel door. The house is just very quiet, and food is far too safe on counters.

Zachary's actually been even a bit more out of sorts than that; he developed a low-grade fever that lasted for several days and kept him quite unhappy. We thought it might be related to his teething (Meh said she could see some of his rear molars starting to come through today), but after a doctor visit, it was diagnosed as likely roseola. Sure enough, today the fever broke and now he's mister rash. Still uncomfortable, and I was sorry that Meh had to deal with him being so unhappy for the past two days. When Zachary is uncomfortable, he loves to snuggle with a soft blanket (no, he doesn't appear to have a particular "favorite blanket" or anything like that) -- he'll carry it around, then put it on the floor and throw himself onto it, occasionally covering himself with it. Meh caught this video of the phenomenon today:



On the developmental side, Meh and he were cleaning up yesterday from the day's playtime activities, and he actually started putting items into a box (usually he's pretty focused on taking them out) -- in this case, his blocks into their container. When he ran out of blocks, he started trying to stuff his books into the box as well. Hooray for mister clean up! When the blocks are actually out, he still isn't really interested in stacking them, though he continues to enjoy knocking them down when grown-ups try. Here's a video we caught of him and grandma this weekend:

Remembering Korby

After getting back from spending Thanksgiving day at his doggie fun ranch, Korby got into the turkey leavings, which we very stupidly left outside within his reach. Normally after Korby gets into something he shouldn't, he gets a tummy ache, is a little sick for a day or two, and then is back to his dirt-eating ways without missing a beat. Unfortunately, this time his age caught up with him, and he developed pancreatitis. He spent the last day and a half in the animal hosptial, until this morning, when we allowed him to go to sleep peacefully and without any more pain.

Meh's reflections:
Korby was a naughty dog. He ate raw challah dough, cupcakes, muffins, pizza, brisket, and other things left only partially secured on the counter. He stole food from our guests, ate dirt and leaves, and made a play for any roadkill he came across on walks. He tracked dirt around our home, peed on the floor, puked on the rug. He pawed us (and house guests) for attention, leaving bruises and scratches. He barked at inopportune times and shed until we found Korby-colored dust bunnies under the furniture ("Korby cousins"). He was rambunctious and crazy for food, he blurred around the yard for no reason except that he could.

Korby was a very very good dog. He loved us unconditionally, even when we ignored him, shooed him into the kitchen, skipped his walks, and had a baby that stole any attention he was used to getting. He curled up with us on the floor, and protected us from evil squirrels and doorbells. He had the softest fur. He would sometimes sleep with the tip of his pink tongue poking out between his lips, or his ear inexplicably sticking straight up from his head, occasionally barking softly as he dreamed about dirt and pine cones.

I cried the day we picked Korby up from the Humane Society. When I knelt down in front of his cage, he licked my hand through the fence, and I knew we had to take him home. I cried today, when he slipped away to a place that I hope is full of piles of unsecured brisket and cupcakes, and lots of hands to scratch his belly.

Scoot's reflections:
From the very beginning, I knew this dog was going to be trouble. I'd been planning a somewhat elaborate marriage proposal for Meh when she decided that this was the weekend we should go to the animal shelter and look for a companion. He was so gentle and soft that we knew we were hooked, though I should've taken a cue from the fact that when one of the Humane Society employees led him into a run for us to try playing with him, he locked onto the fact that a dog next door was getting treats, and spent most of the time in that corner of the run trying to figure out how to get some goodies of his own.

Korby's first in-house activity was to walk around, sniff everything, and then pee on the corner of a table. By the end of the first weekend, he'd eaten a loaf of unbaked challah that had been rising on the (I thought) insurmountably tall countertop. And he even ate it intact -- when we took him to the vet, it, ah, came back up whole. Ew. On the day of the marriage proposal, Korby dutifully followed me around as I placed objects and flower petals around the house. Then suddenly he wasn't following me anymore -- he'd noticed that one of the objects was a tiny little box of mini-brownies, and he'd torn it open and eaten them (and most of the cardboard box too). But in the end, he was out there in the garden behind our house with me as I presented Meh with flowers, the last page of the story of our lives so far, and got down on one knee to propose to her. I seem to recall he even licked her face when she accepted and was crying happily.

And he was there too for all of the major events in our life that followed: wedding preparations, our wedding day, the move to our new house, trips to various parks and hikes, Meh's pregnancy, the birth of Zachary, and all of Zachary's many milestones. He was also always there to happily greet us when we returned from our various trips, often caked with mud from a particularly fun-filled time at the dog ranch. He's been such a patient dog, dealing with all of those other "important" things in our lives that kept us from giving him attention all day every day. He was happy to spend hours on end in the back yard, wearing a clearly visible trail along the route where he wandered back and forth. He's been a very patient older brother to Zachary, letting him grab his fur and tail, occasionally licking his face, and licking his hands clean after a meal. (Okay, sometimes graduating to a bit of gentle nibbling if there was a particularly tasty morsel in Zachary's pudgy fingers.)

Zachary learned to love him as well, smiling and giggling when he came out of his kennel in the morning, saying 'ah ah!' when he saw Korby running around outside, and looking around for him when he heard him bark, whine, or paw for food during Zachary's mealtime of forbidden foods. He has been fascinated by this large fluffy brother, and many of his favorite toys, books, and mobiles have been dog-themed as well.

Korby did have a perfect last day (for Korby at least): running around during the day at his dog ranch, and coming home to pull down and eat a turkey that evening. We had such a special six and a half years with him, time that we wouldn't give back for anything. We love and miss him very much, and know and appreciate that he has left us with so many wonderful and happy memories of that crazy food-obsessed pooch. The Bun, Good Bo, WhoGuhBoe, the Bun Bar Boe, Korb, Korben Dallas, Korby: we hope you're enjoying a next life with inexhaustible mounds of food, large fields to blur in, and a warm home to snuggle and rest up in between your continuing adventures.

That belongs in a museum

The rain has returned to Seattle (did we really expect otherwise?), so grandma, Zachary, and I were looking for an entertaining afternoon activity today while mommy was at work. A friend of Meh's had recommended the Children's Museum up in Everett, so we headed up to check it out after lunch. I wasn't quite sure what to expect - exhibits on being kids through the years? Dolls and toys? In the end, it was totally different than I had envisioned -- in many ways it was basically a giant indoor playground on steroids. I get the feeling that to a large extent, this must be what other children's museums, play areas, and even that Wanadoo City at the outlet mall near mima and papa must be like.

I'm not sure about the moral or philosophical conundrum of charging young children (and the same price as adults at that, which they do at this museum). Should they charge at all for kids who don't yet have a long term memory, and won't be able to take advantage of all of the features of the museum anyway? (Under one year is free; over is the same price as grownups.) Then again, should a parent with six kids in tow just be charged for the parent? *shrug* Regardless, we definitely got our money's worth. Zachary had a great time toddling around, though he of course focused most of his time in a few small areas. His favorites were a hollow tree trunk (which he walked back and forth through maybe ten times); a giant plastic cow in the 'farmhouse' part of the museum (which he said 'ah ah!' to, since all large animals must make dog noises); and a climbable fire truck with two slides, which he generally insisted on crawling down head-first, despite my attempts to slide him on his tush. We also spent time watching model trains, walking around a black-light room with shiny plastic parts that you could plug into the wall lite-brite style, climbing around the wing of a fake plane, walking around a mock stage set, looking at an italian restaurant set, a vet hospital (complete with stuffed animals in kennels that you could care for), playing with dominoes, and even a large-scale construction area downstairs where you could build your own vehicles. (Think giant-sized tinker toys.) Zachary had a very fun time, though I can definitely see him enjoying this more as he gets older.

Cut the turkey

Happy thanksgiving! Today was an exhausting but lovely day of food, family, and friends. Grandma is visiting from Michigan, and we had a whole house full of friends joining us, including three kids (Zachary, a young infant, and a three-year-old). Meh of course outdid herself with the decorations and table-setting and made some amazing-tasting dishes (including apparently the desserts, though I'll have to sample those later!), including sweet potatoes with a coconut and brown sugar topping; I supplied challah and kind of sort of managed the cooking of the turkey; grandma helped with the mashed potatoes (with roasted garlic, yum!); and friends brought over a wide assortment of incredibly tasty soups, cranberry preparations, salads, stuffing, farro, greens, and other dishes as well. A great feast!

Between entertaining Zachary, keeping an eye on the food preparations, and acting as host, and I felt like I had hardly any opportunity to catch up with our friends, but I think everyone had a great time -- and we've got meals to last for the rest of the long weekend, I expect. It'll be really nice for the whole family to be home for four straight days, and we look forward to figuring out fun things to do with the little man and grandma even if the weather doesn't cooperate.

It's hip to be square

Like most kids, Zachary has a toy designed to encourage shape matching -- it's a little bucket with triangle, square, and circular holes in the lid, and corresponding plastic pieces to put in the bucket. In the past, he's just opened the bucket, dumped out the pieces, and maybe thrown them over his shoulder a few times. But yesterday, he picked up the circular piece and tried to put it into the circular slot on the bucket!

I've noticed similar intentional placement of objects at mealtime (and not just placement over his shoulder onto the chair or the floor). His tray has two recessed circular bowls on the sides, and recently he's started occasionally putting food into them. Sometimes he'll pick the food back up in a few minutes, other times it stays there for the remainder of the meal, as the 'reject' pile.

One of the cutest things Zachary has started doing in the last week is requesting reading time. He'll bring a book over to you whether you're sitting or standing (and he's actually pretty particular about which books he wants you to read), and then he waits for you to sit cross-legged on the floor before he climbs into your lap for reading time. He then happily sits there while you read, and turns the pages (occasionally even waiting until after you've finished reading the words on the current page). The challenge so far is figuring out what to do when the book is over. Sometimes he just wants to start it again, other times he'll respond to the suggestion that he go find another book to read. Reading time is so much fun with the little man that it's quite all right to keep reading the same books again and again.

Designated driver

Thursday was a cool but dry autumn day, so Meh and Zachary spent part of the day hanging out in the yard, where he pushed his cart around (getting moderately annoyed that it's harder to push it uphill, let alone through the Korby-dug holes, weeds, and sticks and rocks of the back yard). Meh also tried putting Zachary back into his motorized bus, and all on his own he figured out how to make it go. From the video, I'm not sure if he was enjoying it or just testing out the whole sensation of whiplash, but super cute nonetheless.



And here are those cart-pushing attempts, while Korby looked on:

I am the key master

Zachary has always had a fascination with keys; Meh has a fun framed box of turn-of-last-century keys hanging upstairs, and Zachary and I always used to count them together in the morning before walking downstairs, to much smiling. From here he's moved onto actually handling keys - Meh has a few additional old-style skeleton keys that he'll carry around the house and drop between the slats of a wooden bench. Today he suddenly made the leap (perhaps prompted by mommy? But if so, this still means he's understanding more and more) to try the key on the child doors we have going out of the kitchen:



Lately these keys have also become part of his ongoing sound-making tests -- he loves to sit in the front hall, between the marble-floored entryway and the wooden-floored hallway, and test out the differences in sound the key makes on the two surfaces. Here's a video Meh caught of his experiments:

No pants at all

One of Zachary's favorite (favourite?) bedtime books is one we got in a bookshop on our pre-Zachary trip to London, titled "Pants". (In the UK, 'pants' mean 'underpants'.) Meh reported that yesterday he took the book to heart; when she came in to get him from his morning nap, he'd somehow managed to pull his pants (trousers?) off and had happily thrown them out of the crib. Thankfully the diaper (nappy?) was still intact, so there weren't any surprises in the crib itself, other than a happy and talky half-undressed silly little man.

Today was Zachary's 15-month check-up! The doctor had rescheduled it to be when mommy had to head to work, so it was just the two of us at the office this time. Zachary was walking around in the waiting room (occasionally entranced by the fish in their aquarium), and when they called us in, he actually walked over toward the nurse and more or less managed to toddle back into the exam room by himself with minimal guidance. Weight measurements apparently start to get a little less stringent as they get older; whereas in the past we had to get him down to his diaper (and I seem to recall they even took that off for the weighing), he was allowed to keep his clothes on (just no shoes), and even held the sippy cup he was chugging milk from. And he got to stand on a regular grown-up scale for the first time! (In defense of the sippy cup being part of the weigh-in, he finished downing the milk a minute or two later, so really that milk weight ended up inside of him anyway.) The stats:

Weight: 25 pounds (60th percentile)
Height: 31" (50th percentile)

I guess they don't care as much about the head circumference anymore, as that wasn't measured.

He still loves the crinkly sound of the exam table paper, and was kicking his feet around while sitting on it through the nurse's exam. And then there was a nice chat with the doctor, who still talks to him about all of the exciting things he's doing and is going to do. At first he liked her, then didn't when she checked his ears, and finally liked her again a few minutes later. He even demonstrated clucking (chickens and currently apparently snakes) and barking (dogs) while walking around the exam room. And he did really well when the nurse came back to give him his two boosters shots as well, quickly transitioning from crying to snuggling with daddy.

Into the woods

Today was actually not raining (unlike the crazy heavy rain and even flooding we've seen most of the week), so we all walked through the woods and over into the park to play there for a bit. Zachary's first attempts at self-direction didn't quite go according to plan:

We eventually made it to the park through a combination of hand-holding and shoulder riding (see below). A lot of people were out with their dogs, and Zachary would watch, smile at, and occasionally say "ah ah!" (his version of 'arf arf') when he saw one go bounding by. There was also some slide action, as well as just the fun of walking around the playground.


The little man continues to do new and interesting things every day! A few days ago he willingly ate his first vegetable (carrots, which we also sneak into his favorite quesadillas). He lasted a whole two or three baby carrots before he got tired of eating them; rather than throwing them over his shoulder, he held a carrot up to my face. When I ate it out of his hand, he thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

Sometimes Zachary just likes to walk around and talk loudly to himself. I saw this firsthand when we went to the mall for lunch with friends this past weekend and then played in the new children's play area. He just ran around the cushy floor and squishy maritime-themed climbing toys, hollering happily to himself for like a half hour. Here's a similar video mommy caught of him at home:

The magic word

For those wondering if Zachary still consistently sticks with a resounding 'dah' for everything and everybody, here's what he had to say to mommy last week:

Attract Mode

Zachary's electronic toys are just a little too smart and self-aware, and it's starting to creep me out a bit. Here's what I mean: Zachary will play with a toy for a bit, then move on to another. Several minutes later, when we've both long forgotten about the previous toy, it will squeak, moo, sing, or otherwise try to remind Zachary that it wants to be played with. It's a tad sinister, because you think the toy would just shut itself off, but really it starts running a little timer (about 90 seconds seems to be the magic number) before it will try to guilt the child into playing with it again.

In video games, this is called the "attract mode" - if the game is turned on and the player doesn't do anything for a while, it'll go into a demo or a movie or otherwise try to entice you to play it. While I suppose this makes sense at the store, where you don't want demo games just sitting there at a blank or static screen, even this can get a bit overbearing at home; you've already bought the game, and presumably you'll play it when you're good and ready.

On the plus side, Zachary's electronic toys are at least fairly non-repetitive and even entertaining for the grownups. He has a little barn toy (with a magnetized back, so it can live on the refrigerator and provide entertainment during kitchen clean up time) with removable front and back halves of animals; if you match them up, it plays a little song. If you don't, it says what kind of silly animal you've made, and then makes a silly combination of sounds for the mismatched animal halves. There's also a 'radio' refrigerator magnet toy that plays a variety of songs with little animations on a rudimentary LED screen. It's hilarious seeing what they do with like ten by ten pixels; turning one off is all it takes to suggest a dog wagging its tail. And he's got an actual dog toy (which occasionally merits his "ah ah!" barking sound) that sings a bunch of songs and even asks how big Zachary is -- Zachary doesn't respond to that bit yet, though I'm sure soon enough.

Straight on til morning

We got back the Halloween pictures from my coworker today, and they didn't disappoint! Full album here. Nobody had told me that my faded jeans and wristwatch were detracting from the Captain Hook aura, but then again, I suspect most people were basically just looking at the little Peter Pan (who again was mistaken for Robin Hood, Link, etc.) man.

As to our Halloween candy stash, somehow we're already down to Smarties. I blame Zachary.

Snip Snip

Zachary and I were at a local shopping center doing errands this afternoon when we passed a children's salon. I'd noticed that the little man's locks had been growing longer; they were far below his ears and sometimes strayed into his eyes. "Why not?" I thought.

The place was empty, so we went in. A very nice stylist gushed over Zachary's cuteness (I could hardly blame her) and told me her son was also named Zachary, then proceeded to buckle the little man into a red car-shaped seat. She presented him with a bucket full of toy cars, and swiftly threw the smock over him. All was going well: Zachary flung cars, the stylist trimmed quickly with Edward Scissorhands-like finesse. Then, she reached his ears.

Zachary suddenly realized what was happening to his head, and began to wail. He would not be comforted, not even by the "Baby Bumblebee" song. Luckily, though Zachary screamed his red little face off, the stylist kept remarking, "Wow, I've never seen a kid cry so hard and keep so still!" The whole procedure took under ten minutes, and we left with a balloon, a lock of hair, a "certificate," and photos of an angry little man.

Here is the post-trauma pic (note the pacifying milk and balloon):

Self-rising

The rest of Zachary's photo shoot pictures have arrived! I've uploaded the full album here -- once more huge thanks to Keri for these beautiful images. A few folks have expressed interest in the Halloween pics a coworker graciously took; I'm hoping to see and post those in the next few days.

Hearing about people waiting in long election lines for today's presidential election, I started to wonder today just how long Zachary would have been happy in that scenario. I'm not sure by the end of the 3+ hours that some people had waited that he would have actually allowed us to get in for voting. Thank goodness for absentee ballots!

The big Zachary news here in the last few days is that the walking is more and more often preferred to crawling. He has also started being able to stand up from the middle of a floor with no clingable surfaces around. Now that the hands are no longer needed to help with propulsion, he's trying to figure out just what to do with them. Sometimes he holds them out flat behind him, and it almost looks like he's doing a little Superman impersonation. More frequently, he'll run around shaking them in front of him. Here he's got a prop to help him out:



Meh reported that he was also using this sock to wipe the windows. Not a bad idea with all of that Korby breath on those sliding doors...

I eat my Reese's with the wrapper on

It's Zachary's second Halloween! (Wow, was the first one really already a year ago?) Meh is very serious about this holiday, and thought, planned, and crafted long and hard for our costumes. As I know everyone was waiting with baited breath, here's the costume reveal: Zachary went as Peter Pan, and mommy and daddy complimented him by going as Wendy and Captain Hook. Despite the seemingly obvious parental tie-ins, Zachary was still mistaken for Robin Hood or Link on multiple occasions. Ah well. As to pictures, alas, we forgot to bring the camera to my office's Halloween party, though one of my coworkers took some pics - will post them when he gets them converted, hopefully over the weekend.

My office does a great job with Halloween, and I've always thought it's the best possible candy-collection opportunity for kids -- most people bring in a giant bowl of candy (often the full-on bars, none of those 'bite size' things), and you can go office to office much quicker than door-to-door in a silly neighborhood. Plus there's none of that weather stuff to get in the way; it was pouring rain much of the day. Oh, and people start to go home early (or have to work), so they often just put their candy bowl outside of their office door, so you can even skip the 'trick or treat' bit.

Last year there were crazy arts and crafts for the kids in our cafeteria - face painting, pumpkin carving (including some crazy professional ones looking like character's from that year's top video games), and of course snacks for all. This year, the building next door went way beyond: the entire second floor of offices was literally transformed - walls and ceiling were covered in dark black tarps, the hall side lighting was covered with red-colored gels and spooky cutouts, ghosts and ghouls were hanging from the ceilings, and some people had created entire ghoulish scenes in what used to be their offices. It was all totally family friendly (no gore or anything like that) and super cool! The place was jam-packed though, so we couldn't stay long.

Zachary toddled around (generally freeform, though sometimes holding onto one of our hands, or in my case, Captain Hook's, um, hook) for quite a bit. We were occasionally able to get him to successfully pick up one piece of candy from a bowl (rather than many, and rather than something out of the hallway garbage cans), and from there once or twice he was able to put it into his bag (rather than over his shoulder or onto the ground). Granted, the candy haul was mostly for mommy and daddy this year -- I tried to offer him a candy corn and he wasn't a fan, and of all of the candy he picked up, only the gold foil-covered mini peanut butter cups went briefly into his mouth (with foil on of course; Meh and I both each found one cute little set of tooth marks when we unwrapped and ate them later that evening).

When we got home, we made a valiant attempt to do some proper trick or treating, but by the time we got him back into costume and bundled up to go out, it was getting too late; we abandoned our plans on the driveway and instead had a 'spooky' bathtime with a fun Halloween-themed cup for the little man to play with. Incidentally, that's become one of his favorite toys - I plunge it into the water top-down, then tilt the cup until the trapped air bubbles start coming up. He thinks that's really fun (generally showing his happiness with smiles and splashing), and has even occasionally replicated the feat (in between filling and dumping the cup in the tub).

In the past few days, we've wrapped up the use of baby bottles entirely (we'd only been using them for his bedtime snack at this point anyway); hooray for no more five-part bottles to disassemble, clean, run through the dishwasher, hand dry, and then reassemble just in time to use! Plus the trusted sippy cup is much more efficient for the little man; he's able to gulp down his evening milk in just a few minutes now, before snuggling up into bed, pulling the blanket over his head, and heading off to his own little Neverland.

Wipe out

Last week, we were down to two boxes of wipes from the giant Costco crate (each crate boasts 704 wipes), so I made a mental note to stop by Costco and pick up a new box. The three of us did just that last Sunday, with Zachary happily chatting through the store and looking around at all of the bulk goodness.

This weekend, we used up the last few boxes from that previous crate, and I happened to be back at Costco with Zachary. Yup, you guessed it, I forgot and picked up another crate. Anyone for 1,408 wipes?

Throw not, want not?

While it was cute when it started (and still certainly is, at least in most scenarios), Zachary's desire to throw everything backwards over his shoulder was leading to a few near misses during play activities with other kids, and even a few wood block impacts on poor mommy (somehow I managed to generally dodge them). Thus, we've embarked on one of our first attempts to correct/adjust/alter/redirect behavior. Let the pavlovian analysis commence. We try to keep it positive, and it's pretty basic for now -- when he throws food, there's a verbal reminder that it's meant for either the tray or his mouth, and a series of throws generally means the end of mealtime. And during playtime, when he throws non-soft objects (books, hard toys, and of course those wood blocks), we similarly try to remind him how to play nicely with them, remove the tossed toy from the mix, and offer him a toy that can be thrown: bouncy balls, his puppets, and his soft football - though on this last one he appears to prefer if mommy does the throwing:


These efforts appear to be leading to some improvement in the throwing, but we may just be staying vigilant enough to keep potential projectiles away from him after he launches them once. On the plus side, though he sometimes whines at the directions, he doesn't seem to care much that the toy is out of the picture. He's always ready to go toddle off to some other object, or even our legs; running toward us, grabbing our legs, and giving us a big hug is one of his favorite activities. Thankfully he hasn't made an attempt to throw us over his shoulder yet - perhaps that'll be a few years down the road.

Meanwhile, the animal noises continue - here he is imitating Korby and then a snake (er, not pictured):

Old blue eyes is back

This past weekend, another mommy (I think her child is just a bit younger than Zachary) came over to the house do a little photo shoot of the little man -- she has her own photography business and is building up her portfolio of children's photography. Naturally Zachary was his photogenic self, even if he was pretty ready for his nap by the time the shoot was wrapped up. The photographer was wonderful - super friendly, engaging, patient, and of course had a great eye for good pics of the little man! More pics to be posted on our own site when we get the CD, but here are a few that made the portolio.

Why did the Zachary cross the road?

To get to the park, of course. A rare warmish (or at least sunny) Seattle day and Meh had the excellent idea for us to walk to the park. And no, 'walk' didn't mean Zachary in the stroller - for the first time, the three of us walked hand-in-hand to the park. Well, part of the way at least; we eventually switched to carrying and shoulder-riding. Still, he seemed very interested and happy in the walking while it lasted, and was smiling and looking around.


Unfortunately our local park doesn't have a swing (he loved the ones he'd been in in the past), but it does have several playground sets, including one designated for 2 to 5 year olds. Yes, he's ahead of the curve. After he tried to climb the stairs on it, Meh put him up at the top of the curvy slide, and he slid down several times, loving the ride.

That dishwasher-fresh taste

As Zachary's nanny is out of town this week, I "worked" from home today. I'll put that in quotation marks, because I had vague notions of getting things done while the little man napped, but his naps were inconsistent (and Korby occupied my time during those brief intervals) and some of the work I had planned to do was somewhat time-oriented. So I ended up in a conference call right as Zachary was at his chattiest. Thank goodness my phone has a mute button, though on a few occasions when I was really trying to punctuate a point I did let Zachary's agreements come through over the phone as well. Hopefully I didn't get the mute/unmute reversed though, since I was occasionally trying to respond to Zachary's comments or otherwise interact in a way that might come off as humorous to my coworkers.

It was fun spending the day with a little walking man - he'd come over to me to check in and/or give my knees a hug, then walk back away (often collapsing back down into a crawl if something of interest was far enough away) to explore and/or play. And while everyone has their personal habits and quirks, here's a rather weird one that came on today for Zachary: he decided that he really likes to lick the dishwasher. I can't tell if it's just a preference for the smooth stainless steel texture or something else, but pretty bizarre, and pretty darn funny. Well, funny until we decide to analyze it enough to get all paranoid about what kinds of household cleaners might be getting used on the dishwasher...

Walk like a man

On day 433, one of the biggest early milestones of all has occurred - from early trials of a few tentative steps (and as I mentioned, sequences yesterday of four and then five), Zachary has moved on to actual walking! Here are two videos Meh caught today:




Zachary still enjoys his crawls and of course the Mickey walker, but it's a brave new day. Meh reported that one of the targets today was Korby, who was too busy cleaning up dropped bits of Zachary lunch to notice the figure walking toward him, and was mildly surprised when the little man reached him.

Walking and talking? Piece of cake. Meh caught him holding this conversation (filled with some pretty unique verbalizations) with his jogging stroller:

Fifty-two pickup

Zachary's new favorite game is dumping out objects from boxes and baskets. But he does it in a particularly charming way (well, charming until the tenth time you pick everything up), flinging them over his shoulder like so:



Last night the game even extended into dinner, with the end result being mushy peas, carrots, and of course quesadilla squares and various fruits all over the ground behind him. I later found a particularly mushed pea flattened on the wheel of his walker. Ew. Needless to say, Korby was a big fan, though his tracking is getting a little sloppy in his old age, and I had to point out a few missed items to him. We'll have to see if Zachary is superstitious and starts tossing salt over his shoulder given the opporunity.

If you're wondering, only on rare occasions (for instance, when he feels bath time is nearing an end) will Zachary do the opposite and actually put objects into a basket.

Yesterday Zachary took 4 steps (ending in a fall) and then later 5 (ending in a cruise). He still definitely prefers crawling or using his walker - though he also now uses his radio flyer rocket ship, walking around to the front of it and pushing it around backwards. Silly little man.

Standardized testing

While I was out of town last weekend, close friends J and S watched Zachary for the day while Meh's choir had rehearsal and a performance. And S happened to have a college assignment to give a young child a standardized development test, so Zachary was a perfect candidate. I'm sorry I wasn't there to see it administered, though then again, I presume the caregiver's presence could affect the results? The Bayley-III test (wow, look at all of the crazy gadgets it comes with!) tests in cognition, language, motor skills, and other areas, and everything gets boiled down to a series of 16 scores that can range from 1 to 19 (8-12 is average). He doesn't yet excel crazily in any areas, but he scored within or near the average in most areas. If you're wondering, his top areas was 'LS' (leisure), so he definitely is good at playing!

Outside of testing, Zachary's newest trick is more proficient vocal responses to questions. If you ask what a chicken says, he says something like 'cluck!' (I think it's more of a "qua", but you be the judge...)

A dog still says 'ah!' in his opinion, but even that's certainly pretty consistent. In other news, Zachary now has a seventh tooth. I don't even recall when it finally came through, but it's part of his ever-frequent smile now. This weekend mommy's in the midst of her long work stretch, so it's guy time! I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the little man -- even just running silly errands is more fun with him in attendance.

Lights out

Zachary's small motor skills continue to refine; after baffy time, we often ask him turn off the bathroom light on the way out, and it's so cute to watch him carefully grasp it between his thumb and pointer finger and flip it off. In the living room downstairs, we've got a wall plate with three separate switches (only two of which appear to do anything; an electrician guessed the third was never properly attached) at convenient Zachary height. Meh noticed the lights flickering on and off today, and only a minute later realized the cause:

Can I count this towards miles?

Today I headed back home, though not without a minor airport adventure to cap off the trip. I got to the gate respectably early, and other passengers gradually showed up. Naturally, they made an announcement about two minutes prior to the scheduled boarding that the plane was having mechanical trouble. But never fear, there was a replacement plane ready for us -- at the opposite end of Detroit's mile-long main terminal. So off we all went, enjoying a crowded ride on the fancy express trams that go back and forth the length of the terminal. This of course delayed the departure by an hour. They started to board, and I got settled in at my seat. Then I noticed they weren't boarding anymore. An announcement 5 minutes later clued us in -- this plane had a mechanical problem as well, but there was a third plane, and this one would really be able to take us to Seattle. Oh, and it was back down by where the first plane had been. It was at this point that I started wondering if we could request frequent flyer miles for all of the walking we were doing with bags in tow.

Finally, and with another hour delay added in to allow the crew to make it back down to plane #3, we were able to board, take off, and make the long flight home. Which was jostled around by constant turbulence for most of the four-plus-hour flight. The consolation prize? Not even peanuts, just the opportunity to buy $3 packages of M&Ms. Ah, the glamour of air travel.

Okay, enough whining! I was very very happy to return home to a very smiley little man and Meh. It was so good to see them both again, to get to read Zachary his bedtime stories, to have dinner and a quiet evening at home. Hopefully I am indeed now staying local for the rest of the year.

Can you hear me now?

One thing I didn't mention yesterday was another milestone for the little man that occurred in my absence, though I was a participant and remote witness. I've of course continued to stay in touch with Meh and Zachary, following their day's activities through phone calls when possible and practical with that pesky three-hour time change. During past trips away from home, when Meh said "talk to daddy!" and held the phone up to his ear, Zachary would sometimes smile when I talked to him, but then either looked around the room trying to find daddy, or reached out to grab the enticingly glowing cellphone. But yesterday, and again today, my "dih-dah dih-dah!" (modelled after his lovely original song) was actually met with a happy "dah-dah, dah-dah!" on the other end of the phone. He only did it once per call, and then apparently just smiled at the phone some more while listening, but it was wonderful to get a reaction and to communicate with him for the first time on the other end of the line.

A time to gather stones

Grandma flew home on Wednesday; I followed yesterday, joining my brother, bubbie, aunt, uncle, and close family friends for my dad's unveiling ceremony. I led the brief service (psalms, a few prayers, the actual unveiling of the grave marker, and kaddish), and family and friends contributed their own memories and feelings about what was of course a difficult day for all of us. Hard to believe it was already almost 11 months ago. Of course, no Jewish event would be complete without obligatory food, and there was a nice spread (nope, no shiva cake this time) back at our place while we all caught up on the current goings on with our friends.

The weather was quite lovely, so after the lunch wrapped up and our last guests had departed, my aunt, uncle, and I took my mom's dog Gus for a walk. Wait, who am I kidding? He took us for a walk - he's a 70+ pound yellow lab. Gus is pretty much the complete opposite temperament of Korby - very calm, patient, not food obsessed in the least (there were so many plates, trays, and even dropped food that he totally ignored), other than making sure he always has a full bowl of food. (Korby is more concerned with maintaining an empty, licked-clean bowl.) When the bowl is empty, Gus paws it around to let us know it needs to be refilled -- though he'll just check to make sure it's full, and leave it that way until his next meal.

Tomorrow the rest of the family heads back to their homes on the east coast, and I'll head back to the west coast on Tuesday.

This old house

Economic downturn? "Bah!" says Zachary; he's enjoying his very own new digs this week.

It started with his latest shipment of diapers, which arrived Wednesday in a giant cardboard box. Of course, why restrict the fun to the actual functional goods when we know how he loves to play with the box itself. (And trust me, boxes are certainly more fun than trying to diaper the little man.)

So he was crawling in and out of the box, and I propped it up on its side and closed the two flaps with him inside, and he found that hilarious. But then Meh had a go with scissors and tape, and quickly transformed the box into Zachary's very own playhouse. He was of course wary of the roof (as well he should be in the damp climate of the northwest), but appeared to appreciate the furnishings:


And today, he actually wandered inside to perform his very own inspection (such a knowledgeable new home buyer, and at such a young age!) before signing the paperwork. Now if we can just find someone to finance a mortgage...

A goat says meh

It's been an action-packed weekend and Monday for the little man. Yesterday we went to a belated birthday party for Zachary's good friend T. Grandma and I met many of his old friends (not just figuratively; he's definitely the youngest [the baby?] of the bunch, though it's generally by a matter of weeks or a few months), and he carted himself around, only occasionally getting into baby toy traffic jams. The boys were all active and running/toddling around (Zachary's the only non-walker of the group), while the girls seemed to be shy and chose quieter and more introspective activities. Meanwhile, it was nice to see some familiar faces that I hadn't seen since that parent-baby class. And the kids are all so unique and different, it's so neat to see their different dispositions already showing themselves even without yet talking.

This afternoon, grandma, Zachary, and I were off to the zoo for the first time in a few months. Zachary spent most of the time in the stroller sitting straight up and actively trying to scooch us forward to see the next critter. Occasionally he was even paying attention to the featured animal when we approached, though he was just as happy to play with his water bottle, the stroller, or most especially the zoo map:


He particularly liked the sea otters (which garnered this smile) and the farm animals. He was 'dah'-ing happily at a pair of goats, who then let out a loud bleat, which he attempted to imitate back at them. It was hilarious and super cute. We also got to finally check out the zoo's excellent Zoomazium, an indoor playground facility geared towards young kids. There were snakes to pet, a stage for some more organized activities, and some impressive climbing areas for the slightly older kids. But Zachary was perfectly happy exploring the play area for younger kids, with faux tree trunks for toddlers to cruise around.

After the zoo, we had a few minutes before mommy wrapped up work, so I took Zachary and grandma up to the top of a tall building in which my company has offices in downtown Bellevue, where you can go out onto a patio and see spectacular views of the city. Zachary started whining, and grandma suggested it was that he was annoyed that he couldn't see said spectacular views from the stroller. Sure enough, I pulled him out and he was all smiles as he looked down at the city, lake, and Seattle across the water. From there, we all met mommy for Rosh Hashanah dinner at a restaurant that has at least a tentative apples-and-honey connection (in that they sell cheesecake that contains apples, and probably another that has honey). We all had a nice meal together, though Zachary got bored and full by the time they delivered his "kids meal" of a very grown-up Cheesecake Factory-sized grilled cheese sandwich. Ah well, tomorrow's lunch!

That's affirmative

For a long time now, Zachary has had basically two signs (in addition to his wide range of da's, grunts, and squeals) to help communicate with mommy and daddy:

1. Shaking his head (which he's done for ages, and signals "no"), and

2. Waving his hands wildly in the air ("all done", generally just for the end of meals)

In the meantime, we have one additional unidirectional signal that we give to him, though he's never done it himself - the "more" sign. We've both wondered at various times why we continue to sign it months after he would have started using it if he wanted to, but old habits die hard I suppose.

Anyway, what started as the funny answer to a question earlier this week has evolved into a more general third Zachary response, which the best I can tell means "yes". When I asked at lunch if he wanted more cheerios, at lunch today, he raised his hand in the air as if answering the "so big" question. This was clearly not the 'all done' or 'no' shake off. Throughout the day, he would answer my questions with either the shake off or the raised hand, so I think we may actually have established the word 'yes'. At the end of bath time, I asked if he was all done (he only sometimes uses the hand-waving in the tub), and he raised his hand. So I guess substituting one sign with another equivalent meaning indicates we've seen Zachary's first use of a synonym. Metaphors and similes will certainly be next.

Grandma is visiting this weekend! Zachary has been having a very fun time with her, smiling, laughing, and playing. The three of us went out for lunch (Meh is in the midst of a stretch of work and after-work activities), grocery shopping, and came home to have a walk around the neighborhood. Korby added to the, er, spice of the evening by escaping right as it was Zachary's bedtime. (First time in a while thankfully, and retrieved by one of our neighborhood fellow dog owners, who found him of course eating their dogs' food. At least he's consistent in his crazy food obsession.)

Recall how Zachary made crazy, um, going to the bathroom faces during lunch a few weeks ago? It was back during dinner tonight. Apologies for grandma's detailed commentary; listener discretion advised. Or something.

You must be this tall

Zachary's newest trick is to indicate his height when asked. As with many people of limited stature (*cough*), I think he perhaps exaggerates a bit, but hey, at least he's not bothering with fractions of an inch?

Clearly not born in a barn

Or is it 'raised in a barn'? Anyway, one of Zachary's favorite games is "open/shut". He finds a cabinet, child gate, or door, and starts opening and closing it. If one of us is around to offer commentary (e.g. saying "open" when he opens the object, and "shut" as he bangs it closed), that makes the game more entertaining, and he'll swing the door open and shut rapidly to see if we can keep up. Pretty complex rule structure, huh? The game only occasionally ends with a pinched finger - generally he's pretty good and careful about keeping his hands out of the way.

Lately he's gone beyond just opening and closing; when he walks up to an open door or gate, he simply must shut it. Sometimes it's after he goes through it, but just as often it's when he's still outside of the room that he was so interested in until this door thing showed up. Last night I was getting him ready for bathtime, and he was happily playing with a toy while I went to start filling the tub. I heard his door close seconds later -- I think he just wanted some private time. Same thing when he crosses from the kitchen into the music room - he has to close the child gate behind him (much to Korby's disappointment).

Another recent open/shut development: today I dropped a little toy into his rocket car's trunk while he was playing the open/shut game with it. The next time he opened it, he held it open long enough to fish the toy out before continuing the game. Then when he opened it again, he dropped the toy back in. There could be some complex choreography starting up soon - is Zachary's next stop Stomp?

Home from the range

Home at last, and for good! Well, for two weeks at any rate. The rest of my trip to Texas was a combination of productive (Austin, Dallas meetings and conference) and a good opportunity to catch up with friends and family (Austin, Fort Worth). I did get to have dinner with my hurricane evacuee cousins in Austin (at a tasty seafood place), and they were certainly handling things in stride. Hopefully in the next few days (if not already) they can head back home, where another cousin who stayed reported there was thankfully minimal damage. The rest of my conference went really well too; one of the highlights was an event called 'Iron Composer Texas', featuring 3 competitors who were trying to produce just-in-time sound effects and music for a video game played live by two volunteers from the audience, and who were then judged by 3 'American Idol'-style judges. (The contestants had been allowed to prepare a musical keyboard full of sounds, and were given a 'secret ingredient' at the event that they had to incorporate into the performance. The secret ingredient was of course cowbell.)

After the conference, I drove back up to Fort Worth for another meeting as well as further catch-up time with friends M and K. I met M at his university, where I got the full tour of the school. Their football stadium was completely open, so we even got to walk out onto the field and speculate as to whether one could touch a goalpost (answer: not with our combination of height and jumping skills). I also picked up a Horned Frogs (their mascot) little t-shirt for lil man, though they had a pitiful 18-month selection, so he got his very first "2T" shirt. Hopefully it'll fit him, or will at least by winter time (aka today, but more on that in a bit).

Thursday night we met up with several other friends (one of whom I'd known since elementary school) for a tasty dinner at an all-vegan restaurant. I was astounded by the selection; it's so much easier when there are only 1-2 things on the menu that I can eat. Oh, and they had hilarious names for their faux meats and dairy: bacun, san'iches, cheez, and i-scream. We actually passed on the desserts to enjoy them at another restaurant next door. It was great to see everyone, enjoy a good dinner together, and get a little bit caught up on the news.

Friday, M and I went to breakfast at the Paris Coffee House. The name is perhaps a bit misleading, this is the epitome of a great southern diner. And I think this place is the antithesis to the vegan restaurant; when I ordered eggs and biscuits, the waitress quizzically looked at me and asked suspiciously, "No meat?" Same response when M bypassed their bacon, pork sausage, and other beefy entrees. But the biscuits were excellent.

Random musings on the Lone Star state:

• They've got a serious love of concrete there - the number of freeways alone is pretty impressive (even the major north/south freeway I-35 breaks into I-35 W and I-35 E branches hitting both Dallas and Fort Worth, leading to interesting directions like 'take I-35 east north'), and I lived in LA. Now overlay multiple freeway labels (at one point the road I was on seriously had five freeway names, including interstate, business loop, Texas state route, turnpike, etc.), extensive service drives ('frontage roads'), giant ramps, and cloverleaf entrance/exits, and you've got a recipe for 79,000 miles of public roads. Yikes.


• "News" stations get pretty scary between Austin and Waco. I was trying to find some news, and heard this unbelievably biased and racist story criticizing employees who had gone on strike at their company for not letting them move their break to sunset during a religious observance. Here's a somewhat less biased version (less biased from FOX news?), but the radio version talked about the workers not being or becoming 'American,' and stayed about a half step from suggesting these workers were militant extremists.


• There's apparently a large and tourist-promoting Czech community in the town of West, Texas. (Yes, that's right, not West something -- just West, which is actually in northeastern Texas.) I don't think I've ever seen highway signage before for a Shell gas station telling you to stop and try their kolaches. T and P, take note for the next time you're in Texas. :) I asked friend K, and her history of Texas class paid off -- she had good detailed info on why Czech and German communities moved to the middle of rural Texas in the mid 1800s.


• Overheard on the radio: "It's going to be unseasonably cool today: 83 to 87 degrees." By contrast, Seattle is 55 degrees today. And rainy.

A huge thanks to M and K for hosting me; I had such a nice time visiting some of their haunts and getting to know their city a bit!

I Don't Like Ike

The Scoot road trip continues; about 12 hours after returning from Orcas Island, I was back on the road today for a conference in Austin -- this is hopefully my last business trip for quite some time, and likely my second-to-last trip overall for the rest of the year. Boo on the timing; Meh worked today, so it was a bit of extra stress on her dealing with my company's backup care scheduling that I would've preferred to avoid (well, along with all of the travel to begin with).

The flight was uneventful and I arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth in time to meet up with friends M and K (friend S joined us for a bit) for a tour of their cozy home and a late lunch. (Random story: an entire large family walked in and sauntered to the table behind us. And I do mean sauntered -- the kids were all in powder blue cowboy jumpsuits and boots, complete with jangling spurs. Wow.) We then enjoyed some authentic Texas gelato at their favorite local market, where I picked up snacks for the drive down to Austin. Then I was, as they say, "on the road again..." (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Any whining I've done in the last few weeks about challenges dealing with Zachary in one-room hotels and cabins seems completely inappropriate and out of place now. The drive down didn't give much hint as to damage from Hurricane Ike, other than frequent digital freeway signs warning people not to drive to Houston, and a few seriously angled (but still intact) telephone poles along the side of the road outside of Waco. M and K reported that the previous day, when Ike had passed through Fort Worth, it had spun down to mainly rain and a bit of wind. And Austin itself seems to have fared pretty well too.

However, the story changed dramatically when I pulled the car into the hotel -- the lobby is crowded with families, children, and lots of dogs. (Thankfully, the hotel appears to be dog friendly -- there were even bowls of dog biscuits up at the check-in counters.) As I'm guessing is likely true throughout the city, the hotel is filled with folks fleeing the hurricane. It sounds like power won't be restored to some areas for a month or more, so they may be here with nowhere else to go.

After talking with members of my extended family (from a Houston suburb, and who ironically evacuated to a hotel I must have just driven past on my way into Austin), it perhaps doesn't sound like it's quite so dire for those who evacuated ahead of time. My cousins sound like they're faring pretty well, and we're going to try to meet up this week. But still, I can't even imagine such a life disruption. Everywhere I've lived there's some kind of natural disaster waiting to happen - tornados, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. But despite the fact that hurricanes at least provide some warning, they still seem the most terrifying -- Zachary's Mima and Papa are so brave to deal with these storms year after year!