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It's Zachary's first long-distance journey of 2009! After a record-setting first year and a half (where we noticed the difficulties growing exponentially as he got older), we've been trying to be a bit more cautious with number and duration of trips. So naturally this year we waited until the end of January to get started. First up for this year: a five day trip to the copper state. (Copper? I had no idea, despite the odd coloring of that star on the Arizona state flag.) We're visiting our friend S yesterday and today in Phoenix, and tomorrow we head down to Tucson, where we're looking forward to Zachary getting to meet our friends T & P and their son J (who's a month older than Zachary).

The flight to Phoenix was actually pretty good -- we invested in this incredible contraption that we'd noticed some other smart traveller parents using on previous trips (after originally thinking the wheels must be some cool built-in feature of a travel-focused stroller), and towing the car seat through the airport turned from an awkward head-balancing act to a combination mobility device / entertainment system for Zachary, who laughed and smiled whether being toted behind or in front of us -- he was especially a fan of the moving walkways. Once we got to the gate, Zachary wanted to spend the whole time walking along the window and watching the plane that we were going to get on. (We valiantly tried to ignore the fact that he kept pressing his face to the glass, and alternated between that and touching the dirty base of the window with his hands.)

Things only really got tricky as we boarded -- though the car seat trolley itself was narrow enough, the car seat widened out too broadly to go down the aisle. So here we were, me with Zachary and shoulder bags, and Meh with a roller bag and the car seat. We had to quickly ditch the roller bag, bring back the car seat, and then Meh had to fight her way back upstream to reclaim the bag while I got Zachary more or less settled. Onboard, he did really well, eating his lunch, chatting a bit, and then going to sleep for most of the flight.

Zachary appears to prefer his privacy - we opted for a suite-configured room this time so we could actually stay up and read (or carry on quiet chats with friend S) while he went to sleep in the family room. And for once, things even went to plan -- Zachary went to sleep with no fuss in the hotel's pack and play. As a bonus, the room has a full kitchen, which is awesome for the little man and his penchant for perishables (milk, fresh fruit, etc.). Oh, and it gave him his favorite toy so far on the trip: the paper towels stored under the sink.

Today we did two excellent activities (in between three tasty meals) with friend S: a visit to the very cool McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park and a tour of the Desert Botanical Garden, which currently has an impressive exhibit of Chihuly glass sculptures similar to the one we saw at Kew Gardens in London a few years ago. (Wow, I think I've just set a new record for number of hyperlinks in one paragraph.)

First, the train park, which puts the 'train park' near our house to shame with its 5/12 scale (Really? It felt smaller than that...) fully functional steam locomotive that totes kids one mile around the entire circumference of the park, which is an impressive set of playgrounds, fields, and picnic areas. There's even a little tunnel towards the end of the train ride (though thankfully minus the trippy Willy Wonka tunnel images I was reminded of as we approached). Zachary enjoyed his time on the playground, and monkeyfied through most of the actual train ride. He was ready for a nap pretty soon afterwards, so we skipped the carousel and the even smaller scale train we saw traversing some gardens on one edge of the park. But we did get to enjoy one of his favorite pasttimes before the train ride:

After relaxing back at the hotel for a bit (where we checked out the pool (too cold) before opting for the hot tub, which the little man enjoyed thoroughly), we were off on a drive to the desert (no really) to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens. Definitely a different experience from botanical gardens in more temperate regions, but in some ways that made the striking colors of the Chihuly glass stand out that much more. Zachary conked out as we walked into the entrance, so we got to enjoy all of the exhibits with a sleeping little man. He woke up as we arrived back at the entrance area, so we enjoyed tea and snacks together -- then the little man walked around and kept wanting to check out the cactuses up close and personal.



All in all, a wonderful few days visiting with our friend S - thank you so much for your hospitality, for hanging out with and accompanying us to all of these wonderful places, and definitely for suggesting and sharing such excellent food recommendations for our entire visit (did I even mention the tasty veggie place on the night we arrived?). Thanks for everything, S!!

An inconvenient tooth

Zachary frequently sticks his hands in his mouth as part of his self-soothing techniques (hey, I guess if it's between that and thumbs or pacifiers...), so it's hard to tell if he's ever actually teething. But last week, he seemed to be doing it more often, drooling, and then we noticed what looked like a bit of a bump, which later turned into a somewhat scary-looking big bump, which magically disappeared the next day -- and still nothing underneath. He'd been stuck at eight teeth for quite some time, so we knew that others would be coming at some point.

But finally this morning, he does indeed appear to have the beginnings of a tooth in the rear right quadrant. No idea if that's a molar or bicuspid or what, but tooth number nine is on its way! I'm also happy to report that he's finally been showing a food interest in some of the items he had long rejected -- we'd been marking ticks on a piece of paper on the fridge for each time he declined a specific food (since all them baby experts say to just keep offering the foods, and 'eventually' the kids will spontaneously decide to try them, or at least get bored of you continuing to offer things that they put off to the side of their plate). On the third attempt, he finally got interested in pizza (a slice of cold daddy pizza no less), and scarfed down nearly a slice while I enjoyed mine -- our first shared dinner! And on at least the fourth attempt (I really think we'd tried this more than four times), he decided that the pasta Meh offered him was indeed acceptable. So now, joining the fruit, cheese, quesadilla, and rice cake groups, he's sampling the flour-rich carbs group. Let's wait to see if this configuration shows up on an FDA food pyramid...

The age of aquarium

This weekend was what has been a rare confluence of late: both Meh and myself being off work and us actually being able to leave the house. Granted, it was still pouring rain and there's still some serious flooding further south and north (many thanks to family and friends who inquired after our safety; beyond a somewhat swampy backyard and soaked groceries, all is okay here), but we had the opportunity to actually go do something as a family. So we hopped in the car and met up with friends K and J and their daughter N at the city's aquarium.

I hadn't been there in years (I think the last time I was there was to play a wedding reception in the very cool 360-degree underwater dome), and Zachary had never been. K and J smartly recommended we get there at opening time; as with other attractions that I'd never even considered but are perfectly baby-friendly, the aquarium was packed with strollers and young kids by the time we left about 90 minutes later. Zachary wasn't happy in the stroller, so he got down and ran around -- occasionally even in the direction of the exhibits. By contrast to N making happy noises as she saw new creatures, Zachary was generally less interested in the cute puffins, sea otters, colorful fish, and other marine life than things like stairs and doors (often to the exits of exhibits). They do have got a neat glass-walled tide pool at Zachary height, and he could reach up and into the tank. He would then pull his hand back out and try to 'give' mommy handfuls of water. So thoughtful!

The Sound of Music

One of the constants in Zachary's life is music. Seriously, the kid loves his tunes -- from morning to night, he's always engaging with a wide variety of musical styles, devices, and people. When breakfast ends, he immediately runs over to the fridge and starts playing with his 'fridge DJ' and 'Old MacDonald' music makers. When he gets bored playing with his toys or reading stories for the twentieth time (the first nineteen times he always seems ready for another rendition), I'll ask him if he wants to listen to music, and he perks right up and runs over to the gate surrounding our stereo system, eagerly waiting for me to turn on the tunes. Then he gets a big smile on his face as the first song starts, whatever it might be (we learned long ago that 'shuffle' is our best friend). Throughout the day, he'll run over to the piano (either our regular upright or his little one-octave piano toy), play some notes, and look at us and smile. His favorite part of Sesame Street seems to be the songs, particularly the introduction to Elmo's World. Even on the road, when I put on a CD or a music radio station, he bursts into a wide smile. (Talk radio often gets him chattering along with the radio.)

When we ourselves sing or just say the word 'sing', Zachary himself often makes a little singing noise of a descending major third. Other times, he'll just stand or sit quietly and listen to some of the calmer tunes in his musical collection; in the afternoon, if he wakes up particularly angry from his nap, turning on music and snuggling with him on the couch is a good way to get a smoother and more relaxed wakeup.

For Chanukah, Zachary got a big drum filled with other instruments (which we filled with even more instruments from his existing collection). While he occasionally takes out a shaker or xylophone, he seems happy just carrying around the drum sticks and showing them to us; his preferred actual instrument appears to remain the piano -- in addition to his voice of course.

Pirate Soup

We didn't really buy Zachary Chanukah presents this year, mostly because we knew he'd be spoiled by mima, papa, and grandma. However, I saw this little kitchen on one of my favorite toy websites, and I knew that I... oh, I mean Zachary, must have it. It came the other day, and I put it together all by myself! Zachary's favorite part is the carrot that velcros together, so you can "cut" it with the little knife. He likes to pull it apart and carry the pieces around the house. Here he is checking out his new kitchen:





Then, yesterday, I found some pirate soup cooking on his little stovetop:



I have to admit, I added the mushroom (for flavor).

House Arrest / Prison Break

At long last, the snows dumped on us by one of the worst winter storms in Seattle's history -- and certainly in the ten years that I've lived here -- are receding from our driveway, lawn, and most importantly, neighborhood streets. Meh and Zachary had been pinned at home for nearly a week; I myself had gone to work one day (only to barely get the car back up the iced-over office driveway on the way out) and done a few grocery runs, mostly ending with the car abandoned at the base of our driveway. Meh attempted to go to work on Friday, but couldn't drive with the deep snow on our street. When she headed out on foot for the bus stop (itself four blocks away on an alternate snow route), there was no sidewalk to use (the snow having been plowed up onto it), and cars were having difficulty keeping control when she tried walking on the street, so back home she went.

Finally, the cabin fever got to be too much, so I put the chains on my car (for the first time ever -- and this counts my entire upbringing in Michigan) and we all went up the street to the grocery store together Friday afternoon. I think the drive was even more stressful for Meh than her cabin fever: at one point she just put her hands over her eyes, though I didn't think my driving was that bad. :)

The roads were still sloppy (and our own street and apparently much of Seattle mostly inaccessible) yesterday, so Meh had to cancel a date with a friend for proper tea at her favorite (favourite?) tea house. As a substitute, Meh had the brilliant idea to prepare afternoon tea for the family at home. There were homemade scones, sandwiches with the crusts cut off, sweets, and of course a lovely pot of freshly brewed tea. Zachary actually ate several bites of scone (I think the jam that I put on it helped a bit), though he preferred cheese and veggie booty to the sandwiches and sweets -- not that I'm complaining, more tea for Meh and myself!

It was wonderful to just have a relaxing afternoon all together, and really despite the week's stress of the ongoing bad weather and the occasional light flickers that had us thinking the power would be the next to go, it's been a nice opportunity to all just snuggle up at home. It's been Chanukah as well, so we've gotten to enjoy lighting the candles, sing the blessings, and watch Zachary tear open and play with the wrapping paper (often ignoring the actual presents). Tonight, the 8th and final night of the holiday, I finally caught a video of his response to candle lighting:



With the temperatures rising (inside of the house as well - we finally got our original circa 1970s attic insulation updated yesterday) and the snow finally starting to melt, today we were again ready to brave a different kind of inaccessible/inhospitable environment: the post-holiday shopping mall. Despite the chaos of finding a parking spot and the crazy jam-packed nature of the children's play area (which is even smaller than the one at our local mall), we had a nice lunch and stroll around the mall, and Zachary even took the rare stroller nap while mommy found a few cozy things on super-duper-extra-discount post-holiday sale.

I saw the sign

Many months ago, Meh read a book on baby sign language, which cautioned that a baby being exposed to signs at 10-12 months could take "2 to 3 weeks" to start actively making those signs, though toddlers over a year old are in "prime imitation" period but "may take a few days to a week". Or in the case of Zachary, perhaps many months or even a year?

While we'd gotten him to more or less sign "all done" by waving his hands in the air (as discussed in this previous entry), he never signed "more" -- he'd instead make a guttural "ahhh" sound when he saw more cheese or fruit being cut up in front of him, which communicated his point effectively. Yet for many months now, we've kept futilely signing it at him, more out of rote repetition and habit than anything else.

So it was with incredulous surprise that Meh saw him suddenly and cautiously sign "more" during dinner last night when he wanted more of his favorite quesadilla - he successfully repeated it several times, and we captured one rendition in this video:



Then he again signed 'more' when Meh was reading books to him, and once again when they were singing and playing! So even though the first sign took an eternity, he appears to have already leaped to an understanding of the concept beyond the realm of food. We've pulled the signing book back down off the shelf to see what other words we can teach him, though I'm not sure how interested he'll be when he's already starting to speak a few bits of actual words.

The Kosher Omnivore's Dilemma

Seattle is a pretty tough town to keep kosher in -- or at least to be a kosher meat-eater in. There are no kosher meat restaurants in the city; the few that have opened in the past have gradually reduced their hours to impracticality and then folded. I don't think the kosher hot dogs at Costco really count, since there are questions about the buns, and there's the cheese/pepperoni pizza and non-kosher chicken being served right alongside it. There are no kosher butcher shops. A small handful of grocery stores (all more than 20-minute drives away from our house -- and that's when there isn't tons of snow like we've got right now) offer kosher butchers in-house. Typical grocery stores don't offer any pre-packaged kosher meats (heck, even kosher hot dogs are at times hard to find). Even Trader Joe's, which had started suddenly stocking a decent variety of pre-packaged beef and poultry, has more recently backed off their inventory.

It's against this backdrop that friends J and S mentioned a few months back that they were looking at going in on a kosher meat 'co-op', where you place somewhat large bulk orders for a monthly meat order that the co-op organizes. As these are bulk orders, J was looking for other people interested in splitting the results -- and we said sure, why not. But since it's possible (if not always practical) to get chicken and beef from those few grocery stores I'd mentioned, J wanted to order some of the more, er, exotic meats that the co-op offers: various kinds of bison and elk. Bison pastrami? Why not, and we placed the order -- a month or so later, it came in, and I came home from J's with a large box of meats to fill our freezer with.

Since then, we've cooked almost all of the meat, and it's been mostly quite good -- bison burgers, elk meatballs, elk burgers, bison meatballs... Okay, clearly my preparation options for ground beef are a bit limited. :) But only the elk steak, which only papa was brave enough to actually prepare during their recent visit, was disappointing -- not due to papa's preparation; the meat was just (what else but) gamey. Our only rule in this regard is that Meh doesn't really want to know what kind of animal it is before she eats it.

This is all a long-winded way towards setting up yesterday's lunch, where I pulled out the last package of our order of bison and made buffalo burgers for Meh and myself -- ostensibly under the fear that the snow and windstorm might knock out our power, so we should prepare our perishable foods. These burgers were particularly tasty with some fresh sage mixed in (leftover from the tasty turkey papa had made during their visit). As we try to do whenever we're actually eating at the same time as the little man, Meh cut a small piece and put it on Zachary's plate. He looked at us, grabbed the piece of burger, and actually ate it. Meh and I resisted the urge to cheer or otherwise be outwardly excited, but subsequent pieces offered to him went in the mouth as well -- it was great to see the little omnivorous man eating some mommy and daddy food and enjoying it.

White Chanukah

The snow is falling here in Seattle, and it doesn't appear to be letting up. It's almost at the level of our deck in the backyard, and rising. I guess we will be having a white Channukah tonight! The library was actually closed today (shocking, usually they expect you to brave the treacherous roads or else use precious vacation time), so I am able to stay home with Scoot and Zachary and cozify.

Cozification means different things to different people. To me, it's staying in my PJs all day(including fuzzy socks), reading (at least during Little Man's nap time), and baking. For Scoot, it's not putting in contacts, playing Xbox, and participating in Facebook's Wordscraper, a Scrabble-like game. For Zachary, cozification means carrying various odds and ends around the house, such as the ladder to his pirate ship, plastic cups, his key, and/or one sock. Cozification also involves snuggling to keep warm, of course!

Since Chanukah starts this evening at sundown, we are thinking of making potato latkes, even though they stink up the house. Other Chanukah delicacies that I have never made before are called sufganiyot, or jelly doughnuts. These involve yeast, rising twice, and even more stinky oil frying. So instead, I made the next best thing: sufganiyot cupcakes.



Happy Chanukah!

Annie ooh

I've mentioned before that one of Zachary's favorite toys is a magnetized refrigerator 'radio', with a button to cycle through songs and a dial to choose between "classics" and a few other genres of original and arranged music. This week, Zachary discovered the dial, and is exploring songs beyond the ABC's and Old MacDonald. His favorite by far is a song called "Annie Ooh", where the happy face of LED bulbs is mirrored by his own smile and laughter at the lyrics. Here's a somewhat tame reaction I grabbed today:



The little man is 500 days old today - incredible how the time flies! He and I had a nice day running a few errands in between the earlier snow flurries this week and tonight's impending winter storm (which the National Weather Service has incidentally created a narrated powerpoint deck for, no less. That they felt the need to define what a blizzard is was my favorite part). He was especially happy at the bank, walking around and smiling up at everyone while I deposited checks -- he only made one run for it around a corner, but the teller was too amused to mind me having to momentarily duck out mid-transaction. The two of us also tried for a Costco run, but alas, that winter storm warning had everyone in the area raiding the store for supplies, and we turned around before we were even able to make it to the parking lot.

Talk to your food

Sometimes Zachary just has so much to say - I wonder what's actually on his mind and what he thinks he's communicating. Or maybe he just likes the noises he's able to verbalize with his mouth? Anyway, he was particularly talky during dinner tonight, and we captured these two fab videos in between fistfuls of messy but tasty blueberries.





More iciness on the roads tonight, so our intended date night had to unfortunately be scrapped. Even just driving a few blocks up the street for food supplies, there looked to be sheriffs assisting a car spun out in a ditch right outside the grocery store -- fun times. Tomorrow night a big winter storm is supposed to blow in; blow being the key word, with heavy winds expected in the late evening. We're concerned about losing power for the third year in a row. One of these days I'll actually succumb and pick up a generator, but for now, we'll just have to hope for a bit of luck with the gusty wind and all of our area's electric lines right up against trees...

Snow day

We had such a nice rest of mima and papa's visit - the only unfortunate part was that Zachary was indeed sick, and then Meh and I were, and apparently mima and papa got home from their flight and had it as well. We're so glad Zachary got to spend time with all of his grandparents in the past month. Meh has also prepped our decorations for Chanukah, and Zachary loves to watch a spinning dreidl. You can almost see his inner struggle every time we spin the top as to whether he should grab it or let it spin some more.



Yesterday it didn't snow during the day (and just a bit in the evening), yet the local schools were worried enough to do a preemptive school closure based on the forecast alone. But today we woke up to weather that actually justified schools being closed (though in the distance, I hear plenty of happily screaming students that made the trek to the junior high behind our house, likely for the superior hill sledding it offers). Yup, an inch or two of snow and more freezing weather means it's a snowy and icy wonderland. We're of course grounded to the house with all of the treacherous hills around here and likely poor driving conditions. This didn't stop us from introducing Zachary to snow (as well as heavy coats, hats, gloves, and when the gloves wouldn't stay on, paper clips sealing the ends of his extra long sleeved coat). He had a great time walking around in it and hearing it crunch under his feet, though I couldn't get him to take any interest in the decent snowballs I was able to make from it. He did get his own first winter driving experience, as his little mechanized schoolbus just spun its wheels on the snowy/icy porch when he walked over to it and pushed the button.

Anyway, here's one small step for Zachary-kind:

Shore leave

Mima and papa (poppa? popa? there's been some debate over the spelling, though we think we've settled on papa) came to visit for the long weekend! We've been having a wonderful time, though Zachary has at times been fighting teething, a cold, and maybe something else, leading to an extremely sad/angry first afternoon and evening with his grandparents. They actually didn't even get to see him for a few hours - first he was at class with mommy, so the three of us went out to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants and introduced papa to their always tasty tomato soup and grilled cheese. Then we came home from the restaurant and Zachary was taking his afternoon nap. And when he finally woke up, he was very unhappy for most of the afternoon and evening.

Nonetheless, mima and papa wanted us to get away for a night - so the next night (with only 24 hours of orientation, no less!), the two of us waved goodbye and headed out for an overnight trip to a lovely lodge/spa about a half hour east of the city, while mima and papa stayed and played with a very happy little man. We didn't really have any worries about the three of them having a great time together -- the morning and day had been really nice, with lots of laughing and giggling. We were more concerned with the weather forecast, which was calling for the rare Seattle snow followed by crazy cold temperatures.

It was already snowing when we headed out, though thankfully it wasn't sticking. The snow got a bit heavier as we approached the lodge - Washington's mountainous geography can make for some dramatic weather changes in less than five minutes of travel. But we arrived without incident and got settled in to our warm and cozy room with a large wood burning fireplace, which overlooked the falls. It started snowing a bit heavier and actually sticking, but when we checked in with mima and papa, it wasn't nearly as heavy back at home.

Dinner was incredible; the restaurant there has a giant cozy fireplace, and somehow we were the only ones seated in front of it. We were actually sitting at the exact table where Meh had 'proposed back' to me six and a half years ago. Some carrollers came around, and Meh asked if they had any Chanukah songs - they were all excited to respond yes, pulled out their carrolling books (of course this was the one piece they didn't have memorized :) and did a really nice arrangement of "Oh Chanukah".

The room was super cozy -- they even had a "menu" of specialized pillows you could request complimentarily (is that a word?). We got a down-filled full body pillow and a lavendar buckwheat pillow. Again, cozy. I successfully managed to start the fire without lighting the rest of the room or myself (savor the minor triumphs), and we had such a nice relaxing evening. Breakfast the next morning was amazing as well -- the restaurant served tableside hot chocolate, with super fancy chocolate, whole milk, and vanilla all heated in copper pots on the spot, before being poured into a large ceramic pot and mixed with a molinillo (Mexican chocolate frothing whisk -- talk about a specialized kitchen appliance). And yes, Meh did get to enjoy their 'honey from heaven' when she asked for honey on her biscuits, drizzled from a dizzying height above the table. (The server said usually they use a step stool to stand even higher.) Thanks so much to mima and papa for giving Meh and me such a wonderful opportunity for husband and wife time!

We returned home to a once more happy Zachary, playing with mima and papa. We had a hard time getting him to even look up and acknowledge our presence; he's quite taken at the moment with his brand new animatronic Tickle-Me Elmo "Extreme". (Who knew Sesame Street could get extreme?)

Stair Master

Zachary has conquered the art of climbing stairs! It's so cute to watch as he approaches the stairs, looks back at us, then walks/crawls up the stairs one by one, occasionally grabbing onto the railing as a break. Going down them still isn't something that interests him; even the single "step" down from our wood-burning stove's base to the ground is often enough to strand him there, where he whines until we come and help him down.



Of course with the stairs now an area of interest, we installed a gate at the top of the stairs. I only afterwards noticed the bold print on the gate's safety label saying "not for use on stairs." Ah well, it's more of a general barrier than something for him to actively push on, so until he masters (or at least shows an interest in) descent, we should be okay just keeping him supervised on the rare occasions when he's in the upstairs hallway. He's much more interested in going into upstairs rooms and closing the door behind him anyway.

New vocalizations in the past few days -- the "w" and "y" sounds have become increasingly fun for Zachary to say. He likes to say "wawa" and "aya" and hear you repeat it, but "wocka" is his favorite; is he training to be the next Fozzie Bear? Zachary has also started repeating the word 'cookie' and 'cracker' (more or less accurately) when mommy says it. Yup, he's definitely our son!

Mad about cookies

This weekend, Meh had the excellent idea to host a cookie party. I'd never heard of such a thing, but the concept is brilliant -- you and your friends all bake a bunch of cookies, then bring them all to the party and exchange recipes and cookies. Everyone got to enjoy Meh's baked goods (as well as those of our friends), so what's not to like?

Zachary apparently disagreed though; while he was happy (and seemingly all recovered from being sick earlier in the week) all morning long, as we approached the cookie party, he wouldn't go down for his afternoon nap, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening angry and needing to be held and entertained by us. Fear not, we both managed to sneak in a cookie here and there. (Meh even offered one to Zachary; he took it and fed it to her, I suspect without too much complaint on her part?) I'm hoping this is just the tail of his earlier sickness and that he'll be a happier little man again soon.

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...