Head case

I wish I could say that every time we travel it gets a bit easier to sort out the logistics. More accurate would be to say every time the logistics change a bit; on this trip, I thoughtfully attached that stroller converter wheely thing to Zachary's carseat so we could wheel him around the airport, only to have to disassemble it at security and add an extra fifteen minutes to our checkpoint experience. But one thing that I have figured out (to the apparent amusement of fellow air travellers) is that when the wheels are attached, the most effective way to lug around his car seat is perched on my head. This actually gives me back both of my hands for bags, and I only really lose a minor bit of peripheral vision. This even works when boarding the plane, though checking row numbers is a bit of a challenge.

This background is offered as a preface to our return trip from Florida. Again, we connected through Houston (thankfully thunderstorm- and delay-free this time). Zachary of course had waited to fall asleep until 30 minutes before the previous flight had landed, and somehow he remained asleep through the entire taxi to the gate. When he was still asleep as Meh pulled him out of his carseat, I became that dad, lugging four bags on my shoulders and the car seat on my head as Meh carried sleeping Zachary and a backpack through the terminal heading for our connection - naturally at the furthest possible gate. Impressively, he continued to sleep solidly through the entire intervening time, as well as the boarding, takeoff, flight, and landing. Only when we left the jetway and entered SeaTac airport did he wake up and start a round of loud 'Dah!'s as he looked around happy but bleary-eyed. I think it'll be a few days before the jet-lag wears off; after collecting our luggage and car, we got back to the house at 1:30 in the morning, and he was up by 4:30. Good times. But all in all, Zachary was an incredibly good travelling little man on this trip!

Incidentally, the return trip set a new record for questions and compliments about that Travelmate seat adapter -- I think we may have single-handedly sold a dozen more of them, if the company wants to send along a finders fee...

We had a wonderful rest of our trip to Florida, spending some excellent time with mima and papa and enjoying some quality beach time (where Zachary could quite possibly have slept all day if we hadn't decided that a 4-hour visit was about enough) and excellently kid-friendly parks in southern Florida. At one park in particular (which we visited twice, it was so enjoyable for the little man), Zachary got to walk a nature trail (really more of an interpretive walk based on the way he kept doubling back and zigging back and forth), controlled an enormously complex mechanical lego ferris wheel contraption, rode a carousel with papa and myself (he loved it, we'll have to get mima and papa's pictures!), and ran around a giant wooden castle-like structure with water features in the middle. But of course, his favorite feature remained their giant swingsets. Consistency, consistency.

A very clean shot

We've long debated the merits of our digital camera. It's a handheld and very convenient to take with us, but we don't experience the excellent focus and crisp quality that our D-SLR-bearing friends get. Not to mention our camera (along with most other non-professional/non-prosumer cameras) doesn't even take photos in a standard print ratio, leading to partially cropped images when we send them out to get printed. (My favorite new feature of the photo-printing sites is the option to actually print in a 'native' ratio, even though that's like 4" x 5.3")

The thing about a camera being able to fit in your pocket is that, well, it will occasionally be found in said pocket. This morning, Meh went to do some laundry, and both of us forgot that the camera was still in the pocket of a pair of shorts that ended up in the washing machine. By the time I realized, it was already in the spin cycle. Papa had the excellent idea to use a hair dryer to help dry it out, but there was liquid behind the screen and it wasn't responsive. I've been occasionally trying out the camera during the day as it dries off, and for a while, each time something more happened: a quiet buzzing noise; all of the indicator lights coming on; the lense partially opening; and at long last, the screen allowing me to view pictures on the memory card (those at least seem wholly intact), though with a very retro vertically rolling screen. But it hasn't gotten beyond that, and I think we may indeed have to move on to the next family camera soon. For now, it'll be up to mima and papa to document the continuation of our Florida adventure, which has been very fun for the little man, us, and his grandparents alike!

Alas poor PowerShot, we knew thee well. Here's what could be its final picture, little man doing his silly little upward-squinting 'smile' in response to the camera and mommy's high-pitched "smile!" suggestion.

Medical tourist

Zachary has had a cold since, um, his first birthday? It's not quite that bad, but he's definitely gone from cold to cold - sometimes a cough, sometimes a fever, sometimes a runny nose, sometimes a stuffy nose. We've taken him in to the doctor after a few of the rougher days and nights, but they've generally said he just needs to keep getting rest and liquids. A few weeks ago, he actually got something different - an ear infection (in both ears actually) - and he got to do a round of antibiotics. As he recovered from that, he developed another cold and cough, which seemed to be on the mend until just before our marathon travel day on Friday. Then the nose began running again, and the, um, productive sneezes resumed. We exhausted at least a box of tissues before leaving for the airport, and it continued into our Florida trip.

After another rough evening last night, we decided it would be best to get him checked out to make sure the ear infection hadn't come back. So today we went to the pediatrician that one of mima's coworkers uses. I knew we'd approve from the moment we walked in the door; the lobby was set up like a cute little main street, with a sign saying 'Well St.' in one corner and 'Sick Ave.' in another, and cartoonish storefronts and traffic lights on the walls. (I actually incidentally sat with Zachary in the middle of Sick Avenue before I even noticed it, though I did notice another parent with a coughing kid sitting on Well Street.) And Aladdin on the TV screens for us to sing along with while Zachary smiled in our laps.

When we were led back to the exam room, the main street theme continued - the central nurse station was decorated like a giant truck (to Zachary's approval), and the room we waited in was brightly colored. Oh, and the theme of oranges was everywhere -- now I know oranges are a major Florida product and symbol, but would you walk into a doctor's office in Seattle and expect to see coffee beans or Microsoft logos even on the information signs? (Incidentally, nice rendering of steaming and heavy-looking briefs.) The little man wasn't happy to be weighed or measured, and hollered every time the stethoscope came near him, but the friendly doctor was happy to report it was just another cold that rest and liquids would help cure. The trip did give us the opportunity to update Zachary's stats - up 2 oz. and 1" since his last visit. (And yes, the doctor reassured us that it's perfectly fine that his weight is fairly stable for the last few visits.)

Taking the need for good old fashioned home remedies to heart, mima and papa took us to one of my favorite New York-transplanted kosher delis for lunch afterwards; true to form, Zachary declined both soup and a tasty looking potato latke. I'll admit it, I forced myself to finish the latke for him - yum!

A Minor Diversion

We're in Florida! Zachary, Meh, and I braved the journey to scenic West Palm Beach to visit Mima and Papa, as well as (let's see if I can enumerate them fully) nanny (Zachary's great-grandmother), poppy (Zachary's great-grandfather), Aunt K, Uncle H, and Aunt M. Oh, and we met cousin E as well, as part of a gala family barbecue dinner at mima and papa's house this evening. But first, on to the epic adventure that was our journey to the Sunshine State.

Unfortunately, none of the airlines seem interested in plotting a direct route from Seattle to the Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale airports. Not that these are gigantic hub cities or anything, but still - shouldn't every other city in the country have a direct line to beaches and sunshine? The only real 'direct' option is Miami, which is still about 2 hours to Mima and Papa's house, and has fares that truly reflect the non-competition, going for $650+ when I checked months in advance. So every time we visit, we get to enjoy a different airline's hub city and a few extra hours tacked onto the journey. Sometimes this is actually a nice break. Not so this time.

One big problem I have with the hub and spoke model is that you end up flying to arbitrary locations that may or may not be even remotely close to a straight arc from departure to arrival city. We at least are usually able to avoid the ones that are obviously in the wrong direction (though a friend once explained how this is a great way to exploit the airlines via mileage runs. Honestly, I fly enough that I don't want to invent additional flights just to get more miles.) This time, we picked scenic George Bush Airport in Houston. Unfortunately, we also picked a week where the airport would apparently be fully shut down multiple times due to thunderstorms -- and yup, we got to enjoy one of these events.

Zachary for his part was amazing on the flights - happy, talking up a storm, playing with his toys, and eating occasional snacks in between walking up and down the aisles with us. We did have a wardrobe malfunction, where his outfit leaked onto mommy pretty early into the first flight, creating some early stress (only one backup outfit) and discomfort (no backup outfit for mommy) that was a good preview of the stress of the extended delays that would ensue. As we approached Houston (on time), the captain came on the PA, announcing Houston was closed due to thunderstorms, and we were going to do circles for the next 30+ minutes waiting for it to open. When it didn't in 60 minutes, we were rerouted to Austin to refuel. Of course, every other plane heading for Houston had been rerouted as well, so we sat on the tarmac waiting for the 2 fuel trucks on duty that day to deal with the thirty planes sitting around us. 90 minutes later, we were done refueling, and had to wait for clearance to land in Houston before we could take off. 30 minutes later, we were back in the air for the short flight back to Houston.

By this time, the crew had exhausted most of the onboard supplies (not to mention themselves; an attendant had to waive his right to go off duty 16 hours after starting his shift, in order for the flight to not get scrubbed in Austin), including drinkable water. So Zachary got his first taste of fizzy water with a splash of juice. The faces were precious puckers and shivers of surprise(unfortunately not photographed), but he clearly wasn't a fan. We landed in Houston to an obvious state of bedlam - lots of cancelled, delayed, and still-not-arrived flights. And here came the second problem of the hub & spoke model: when every flight connects through a single city, late incoming flights mean later outgoing flights. Our own outgoing flight (due to leave two hours before we'd landed) hadn't even arrived yet.

Zachary still handled things pretty well, first strolling around in his car seat's wheeled adapter and then taking the adapter itself for a push around the terminal. But even he was totally fried and eventually needed to be held by mommy while she sang the same song over and over. The flight finally arrived, unloaded, re-boarded, and left, and Zachary again did very well and even slept a bit (in between more wokka wokka-ing) as our now long haul to Florida wrapped up a little after 3 am, more than 4.5 hours after we'd been scheduled to arrive, and 15+ hours after we'd headed to the airport. Oh, and here's a time lapse set of videos of Zachary's in-flight commentaries:





We all slept pretty late today; even Zachary wasn't up until 10 am. He's been very happy to see mima and papa, and has played a lot with them and their fun toys (including a toy piano that he plays and sings along with in a very cute way). And when the family arrived for the barbecue this evening, they brought his new favorites of this trip: pushable cars and trucks (did you expect something else?), both finger-sized and Zachary-sized! Through most of dinner he was pushing his Spiderman pushcart around the patio, to the delight of the guests. He was still pretty exhausted and was ready to crash before folks had left, though I think we'll get to see nanny and poppy again later in the week. A wild and full first day!

Home is where the hearth is

At last, our long-term fireplace remodel project is wrapped up! This was the one feature of the house that Meh really wanted to replace when we bought it; the previous owners (or perhaps two or three owners ago?) had turned their fireplace into some kind of altar/shrine thing (see below), complete with pipe organ-looking tile and a giant but only mildly effective wood-burning stove.

Various other projects (many invisible - crawl space, insulation, etc.) had distracted us, but finally Meh put her foot down and we got things rolling back in, um, Feburary. Unfortunately, when they went to install the new gas fireplace insert, the company that makes the inserts had gone bankrupt, and the model we'd planned on using was nowhere to be found. A futile search ensued (since other models were more expensive), but we finally switched models to one that was nice-looking but not bank-breaking, which thankfully didn't require the fireplace to be re-reframed first. Then the fabrication of the hearth and sides, then the mantel, and finally repainting.



The construction crew wrapped up the final paint touchups on Tuesday morning, and we enjoyed a cozy fire that night that warmed up the entire downstairs. Zachary isn't quite sure what to make of it; Meh says he'll hover just beyond the hearth and smile at the insert before running off in the other direction.

The birds and the weeds

Our neighbors tore down their fence in preparation for building a new one. This did two things: made me mortified that the dishevelled state of our backyard is now on display, and allowed me to get at some of the weeds and brush near the property line. While Zachary swung happily this afternoon, I raked old leaves and dead brush. While I was working, a tiny bird flew suddenly out of the stone wall. When I peered at the place she had been, I saw a nest with three tiny eggs in it.

Friend T showed me a website that helped me identify the bird as a dark-eyed junco.

I have spent Zachary's nap time for the past two days doing yard work and weeding the front garden. It's no fun. It was even less fun since the neighbors hired three professionals to do it for them. So, as they quickly and efficiently tidied the neighbors' yard, I yanked weeds pitifully with my tuchus in the air, making little progress. One of them actually asked me "who was winning." So tonight, I decided to take revenge. We ate the weeds. Dipped them in honey mustard and ranch. So there.

We didn't take a photo, they were gone too fast!

Baby's First Revisionist History Board Book

One of the fun things about being a parent is getting to introduce Zachary to things that we remember and enjoyed from our own childhoods: going to the beach (as we look forward to next week with mima and papa!), meeting fun animals at the zoo, enjoying a trip to the park, swinging, and most especially reading books that we recall our own parents reading to us. (Indeed, as I've mentioned some of the books we read to Zachary's grandma, she can drop right into a rote recitation of them; clearly Zachary isn't the only one who likes to hear the same book repeated ad nauseum!) Of course, all of Zachary's experiences are unique, and his perspectives and memories of them will be different than ours were. But at least the core content of the experience is the same, right?

Apparently not -- the books of our youth look to have been subtly changed from under us. Meh registered for one of her favorite children's books as a birthday gift, but the artwork had been dramatically updated and the text itself is labelled as a 'retelling'. And Meh thought she noticed a few updates to Zachary's current favorite Richard Scarry book (about trucks, of course), and while I chuckled at some of the dated vehicles (fuel oil trucks, anyone?), I didn't realize that his entire series has actually been politically corrected in the last few years; check out this fascinating before (1963) and after (1991) comparison of another book in his series.

On the same topic, as we discovered at Passover seder, even the classic haggaddah of our youth was updated last decade -- though the most major thing I noticed was that some of the archaic English language translations were updated. Is nothing sacred? :)

Please shine down on me

Someone found the 'summer' light switch for Seattle and flipped it on this weekend, skipping right past spring; Sunday through today have been glorious and in the 70s. Of course you know it can't last; we're supposed to be back down into the 50s and cloudy by tomorrow, and rainy by Friday.

But in the meantime, we've been enjoying the great weather! Zachary and I played at our favorite local park on Sunday -- he ran around and around the play area, talking loudly to himself, and then enjoyed a stroller ride the long way home. When the great weather continued yesterday, the two of us drove over to a
local state park, which has the most incredible kids play area, with some kind of oddly Bavarian-themed towers, slides, and swings. (Apparently everything there was donated and constructed by local community members.) He was pretty pooped by the time play time wrapped up, and conked out for a mini-nap at home before having more afternoon play time and a giant dinner featuring his favorite, extra-messy blueberries. This picture, believe it or not, was taken after I wiped his mouth, while he was singing to his cup of water:

Trust falls

Zachary has a new favorite activity at the local mall's play area. He climbs up the multiple levels of the faux ferry boat, looks back at us, smiles, and then steps/leans off into our arms. I'm mostly worried for the day when he doesn't notice that we're not there and attempts this feat; we try to at least instruct him to wait, and then count to three (taking the lessons he's learned from swimming time, where he doesn't go in the pool until mommy says it's okay). For now, it seems like he's all ready for a Ropes course or something.

The little man has been super high energy so far this weekend, and was yelling and hollering as we enjoyed the play aream, after happily chatting his way through lunch at our local kaiten sushi restaurant with friends K, J, and visiting LA friend E. And speaking of his trust falls, K and J have been taking their 2-year-old daughter N to this kids' gymnastics studio - it looks fabulous, and we'll certainly have to have Zachary check it out at some point in the near future. Perhaps the jumping off high surfaces thing will be the start of a career in male gymnastic tumbling?

A moment of silence

Whether it's CDs, portable media players, or mix tapes, there's always a clear delineation between tracks of music. We like to call it 'silence', and it often lasts up to one or two seconds. Zachary prefers to think of it as the end of the world; as a track ends, he'll look at us and frantically sign 'more' (and depending on his mood, perhaps accompany this with a good whine), only relaxing and enjoying the music again when the next track kicks in.

Zachary still really does love his music. He even sings (and not just in the way illustrated in last week's swing song), doing little descending two note melodies. (Is it a melody when it's only two notes?)

I keep meaning to bring this up, but I've found the music he's exposed to in kids' toys continues to be a little... uneven. Okay, now I feel like a music snob. :) (And this after I just got back from speaking at a conference where I learned that a now highly successful game audio director got started with the sound for Teddy Ruxpin!)

I remember chatting with T about this when we were in Arizona, and she agreed. Though then again, she was another music major, so we're not getting a great sampling here. Anyway, it just seems mildly sinister that "London Bridge is Falling Down" is present in multiple toys with the same incorrect added note ("...my fair ley-EY-dee"). Did just one person notate the song and then all of the toy manufacturers grabbed the same program? Zachary once had a mobile that had some interestingly incorrect rhythms and notes for some pretty well-known classical music. His Passover board book (one of his favorites, and just in time for the holiday!) provides music for the Four Questions melody but misaligns the lyrics. The Chanukah board book has a bunch of wrong note values. And then there's a toy we had that has knobs to play music by Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven, but it actually plays Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring for the Mozart option. Whoops.

Granted, none of this matters to the little man, who loves all music. When we get in the car and I ask him if he'd like to listen to music, he makes a happy little 'huh' sound and smiles when the tunes start to play. At home, he'll run over to the stereo system and lean on the plastic fence in front of it, waiting for the first song to start. Sometimes he'll even run over to the piano and plunk out some notes while looking at us and smiling. Even the end of meal time is accompanied by the "Zachary's Done" song, which generates smiles and laughs from Zachary. Such a little music man!

Swing song

I think this video really says it all (or at least Zachary does):

Four score and seven wokkas

Most mornings, when we hear Zachary wake up, we bring him into bed with us for a bit of snuggling before we properly wake up. Sometimes he makes a few cute noises or says "Dah!". Yesterday though, he gave a ten minute soliloquy only using the word "wokka". As I've said before, he's clearly a Fozzie Bear in training.

The last few nights, he's been waking up very angry a few times a night - definitely a change of behavior. While we were usually able to comfort him with snuggles and rocking in his rocking chair, something seemed a bit off. Meh noticed that one of his ears was a bit red, and we figured out that it was an ear infection. One of the home remedies for this is warmed olive oil, so Zachary smelled like a yummy pasta dish as I put him to bed last night. Meh took him to the doctor this morning, and sure enough, he has his very first (and hopefully only) ear infection - in both ears. Poor little man! He's now on the same outrageously pink amoxicillin that grandma mentioned my brother and I spent much of our childhoods taking while fighting off strep throat.

This week's new activity: clapping. The claps are usually pretty silent, and occasionally degenerate into 'all done' or 'more' signing -- no particular rhyme or reason to when he claps, but it's still pretty darn cute.

Build up

We were mildly concerned at Zachary's doctor appointment last month when the nurse asked a series of questions about which activities Zachary was currently capable of doing and we had to say no to many of the asks. The doctor dispelled our worries by explaining that these are all just milestones, and they wouldn't be worth asking about (or would be cause for actual concern) if they were things that all kids his age were capable of doing -- everyone does them in his or her own time.

Which leads us to the last two days - one of those questions had been "does he stack blocks?". On Friday or Saturday, Meh had flipped over his trainset toy tabletop, which has one of those oversized Lego-like things on the underside. On Saturday, he was picking up the legos and slamming them down on the table, only occasionally getting them settled in a 'correct' position. Yesterday, he was having more success, and when I looked over, he was suddenly building towers nearly as tall as himself! He got more and more accurate and sophisticated with his lego placement, fixing blocks that were misbalanced, and built several precarious towers over the course of the afternoon, getting very upset when one would accidentally get knocked over before he was done, and mildly frustrated when the rounded dog- and cat-faced top pieces (which don't have the connectors on top to continue to build up) couldn't be stacked on each other. Quite the change from when he used to be all about knocking blocks over. Oh, and he's still managing to reach under the table and play with the upside-down train track toys too. Now where's the milestone for playing upside down?

Gut check

Meh taught Zachary a new trick this past week:



He still hasn't done it for me in person, though we do have the video proof. This week Zachary has another cold -- this time he's got a little frog in his throat, which sounds very sad indeed. He also partially woke up a few nights ago when he was extra-congested; we listened over the monitor to the sad sniffles and mouth breathing, though he was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly.

Mommy braved getting Zachary his second haircut yesterday; this time there was no delay before he got very unhappy with the scissors and clippers. Meh said that multiple staff at the kids' barber tried to assist with distractions, but he still ended up having to be on mommy's lap and little man hair got everywhere. Hopefully next time I'll take him so we can spread around the, ah, fun a bit.

Part of Zachary's morning routine involves running up to the front windows of the house (or the door to the back deck), pulling up the shades if they're still down, and then looking out of the window while holding the sill for several minutes at a time. While at times he'll just quietly watch the world go by, other times he discusses his feelings about how the day is looking:



Even as I type this, he's doing just that, watching the hail/freezing rain (in Seattle, and in March?!?) falling -- but thankfully not sticking -- in the front yard.

Da is the word (still)

(Here's a post from the first go round of this magic word.)

The other morning, Zachary added to the truck/plane snuggling complexity, by really wanting to also snuggle with his dog pull toy. I'm starting to run out of lap real estate (let alone hands).

Mommy works this weekend, so Zachary and I have been brainstorming fun things to do. He said "dah!" yesterday, and I agreed that it was a good idea to meet friends J & S (and J's visiting parents) for lunch at what's quickly becoming Zachary's second-most popular restaurant choice. Afterwards, we of course went up to that Kids' Cove play area on the top floor of the mall. Even though it's usually the most packed on weekends, Zachary always manages to find plenty of space to play. Occasionally that space is at the bottom of a slide that kids want to slide down, but he's generally pretty easy to redirect.

Evening bathtime continues to be one of Zachary's favorite activities of the day, between grabbing at the faucet (as the shower/faucet toggle switch is right on the faucet, I'm convinced that one day he'll flip the filling tub over to shower mode and give himself a good startle), splashing (thankfully not too much yet), chewing on/playing with toys, and talking about his day. He also really appreciates it when I put in my own feedback; here's a pretty good recap of the week that we co-authored:



As seen in the video, Meh picked up some bubble bath last week, and he's been enjoying his fluffy nearly nightly bubbles, splashing and giggling when he gets a bubble beard.

Truck stop

Zachary has a new favorite pasttime: he encourages one of us to sit on the ground (preferably with his favorite blanket), gathers up and brings us his toy truck and toy airplane, and then climbs into our lap for snuggle time while holding his toys and kicking his feet happily. Super cute! Though it makes it a bit harder to multi-task when the little man requires our laps' full attention. The only interlude occurs if we send his truck out for a short push into the hallway; then he'll get up, race after it, and bring it back to us with a big smile on his face. Meh caught this first-person perspective video:



Fear not, the wipeout was minor and he was laughing the whole time.

Immersive reading

Grandma flew into town yesterday morning for a weekend visit! The two of us picked up Zachary from his nanny, and he burst into a big smile when he saw grandma. We came home and he had to introduce her to his favorite toys, including climbing into his cute treasure chest of books while she read him a story.

Of course grandma had a flurry of fun gifts for him. His favorite at the moment is a squishy red ball -- he waits for grandma to throw/roll it to him (apparently mommy or daddy just don't do it correctly), then he picks it up, and waits for a cheer from grandma before running the ball back to her ecstatically. Witness a round of this challenging sport here:



Meh is at a scrapbooking retreat today, so grandma, Zachary, and I went to the mall first thing in the morning to play and then grab some lunch. Well, Zachary spoiled those plans by setting a new in-car napping record of 2 1/2 hours. Crazy sleeping man! Thankfully we both had books to read, and it did help us all build up a bit of an appetite; when he woke up, we had a nice time having lunch together at this high-end dining establishment. Then we took the little man up to the children's area, where he ran around, talked, climbed, and played with all of the interesting toys around the circumference of the squishy climbing toys, while occasionally checking back in on all of the mall goings on below.

Back home for more playtime with the now infamous red squishy ball, books, music, outdoor swing, pushcart, bus driving time - a jam-packed day for Zachary, and one that left all three of us pretty exhausted!

Law of averages

This morning was Zachary's 18-month checkup! He had great fun in the waiting room playing with toys and looking at the aquarium of fish (but of course not tapping on the glass; there used to be a great sign in there asking children not to be a Darla). But for the first time, he actively got upset and cried from the moment we brought him into the exam room. He was fairly hard to console; I'm not sure if he was remembering previous shots or was just unhappy to be taken away from the fish. He was occasionally distractable, and even gave the doctor a smile or two, though as soon as the stethoscope and otoscope came out, he was right back at the hollering. Somehow between the crying and kicking (and that was before the shot, which is ostensibly the last one for the next few appointments, hooray!), they managed to get his vitals:

Weight: 25 lbs. 1 oz. (25-50th percentile)
Height: 32" (25-50th percentile)
Head circumference: 19" (50th percentile)

So right down the middle for all of his stats. In addition to talking to Zachary (in between his tears of course), the doctor had some excellent explanatory reasons for his love of the same book over and over -- it's potentially a case of comfort through object permanence and routine. This makes sense, though it still won't stop us from occasionally hiding one of his books after we read it for him the tenth time that morning. Incidentally, his book preferences have changed over time; his favorites at the moment are a Doctor Seuss alphabet book (he echoes the 'H, h, h' when we get to that letter's page) and a fun book about mice and colors, though he also brings us some of his classics from time to time; Goodnight Moon remains a favorite bedtime volume.

Little Britain

I'm just back from a trip to the UK, where I got to meet up with several of Zachary's young friends (well, two of whom I don't believe he's actually met yet) in between participating in this conference.

The night I arrived, I got to visit with friends N & S and their boys J & R. R was the first to arrive home from the evening activities, and is a very happy and mellow 8-month-old. We played and he smiled at my silly accent. J is 3, and full of energy - he was very happy to see me (I think he maybe vaguely remembered me from my last visit?) and kept chatting and wanting me to lift him up in the air for crazy gymnastic jumps; apparently his favorite character is Sportacus from an Icelandic kids TV program called LazyTown. (I haven't yet seen it across the Atlantic, though how much Nickelodeon do I really watch?) We had a lovely baffy time (the two boys share a bath; R is extremely cute and smiley in his little bath seat while J madly plays with toys around his brother) and bed time, and then N's parents watched the boys while the three of us went out for a lovely kosher Indian dinner.

The next evening, I was so glad to be invited to visit with T & B and their son T, who had moved back to the UK nearly a year ago, having been good friends from Zachary's parenting class. T is several days older than Zachary, but of course has a completely different skill set and personality. He was happy and talky, and knows a bunch of animal and vehicle sounds. He also uses utensils a bit and kicks a football (an American one at that; B is a 49ers fan), and eats a fair number of fairly sophisticated/adventurous foods. We all had a really nice time, and then the adults had a wonderful dinner together, including a delicious British sticky banana pudding for dessert.

The conference dominated the next few days, but my last night before leaving, I was back at N & S's home for a lovely family Friday night dinner, this time with S's parents (it's wonderful that both of the boys' sets of grandparents live so close by). J was absolutely adorable, helping to light the Sabbath candles and then leading all of us in rousing song after song -- he really does enjoy his Jewish traditions!

It was so good to catch up with our friends and their children, and I thank them all so much for their wonderful hospitality. I'm also looking forward to hopefully welcoming them back to Seattle soon!

While the trip was productive and it was lovely to catch up with our friends, I was still very happy to be back home yesterday afternoon. I arrived during Zachary's dinner time, and he had a giant smile on his face and seemed very happy to see me - though he was also sad to see his temporary nanny leave; we stood in front of the window and he waved as she walked to her car. So cute!

Swing kid

It took many months, and multiple trips to the hardware store, but Zachary finally has a functional swing of his very own! Seriously, with how much he loves his swings, I feel bad for not installing it sooner. Meh had gotten the actual swing several months ago, and I lamely hadn't done the research or gone to the store to figure out how to attach it. Meh took it upon herself to hop over to the hardware store and pick up what looked like the correct parts. Upon closer reading of the directions and looking at all of the parts together, we had to return to the hardware store (and of course, as always, multiple times; the required hole was large enough that I had to switch from drill bit to spade), but finally had the right stuff for tool time.

The apple tree in the middle of our yard has the perfect branch for a swing - nearly horizontal, fairly thick, and out of the way of things to swing into. When Zachary saw the swing nearly complete, he got very excited - and then vocally objected when I still had to tighten a few bolts before the ride could begin. But a few minutes later, he was secured in his new swing and very happy to be rocking back and forth:



We've already used it multiple times. I'm hoping that this will give Meh one more tool to entertain the little man while I'm out of town at a conference in London all of this week (I fly out tonight). It's tough to be away from them for so long, though I'm sure much more difficult for Meh. Thankfully friends have offered to help watch him a few times, and my company's backup care will be providing a nanny for the days Meh works. But I'll still miss them very much and be happy when I get to come back!

Put a fork in it

More firsts for the little man! First, he decided he wanted to go for a drive; Meh watched him climb into his school bus all by himself.


Next, he ran around talking up a storm for Meh. Of course he quieted down as soon as the camera started rolling, but Meh did catch him saying several of his new favorite words; "H" and "wokka" are among his favorites.


And lastly (and the subject of today's post), while we've gotten him to eat off a spoon or fork that we've held out to him, he wasn't interested when Meh offered him sweet potatoes on a fork tonight. Until she tried handing him the whole fork:

Hooray for Zachary's first self-silverware-fed food!

Open door policy

When getting Zachary ready for baffy time in the evening, I often let him run around a bit upstairs ("let" generally means he escapes in varying states of undress) while I get out his pajamas, get the tub running, and so on. He often plays with toys in his own room, brings me books to read, comes to check on the tub and make sure the water is filling (he loves to put his hands on the edge of the tub and peer in, often even bouncing with excitement about baffy time), or plays with the sliding hallway closet doors. Of course, as he is a curious little monkey, if any of the other hallway doors are inadvertently left open, he's off to explore. A few times he's ended up in the bedroom going through our drawers, or in the office playing on the computer keyboard or music keyboard.

So to help keep him out of too much trouble, I generally check to make sure all of the doors in the upstairs hallway are closed. Last night, he ended up in the office for the first time in a few days, and I just shrugged it off as not looking closely enough to make sure the door was actually closed. But this morning, Meh brought him up stairs, and she heard him grabbing the office doorknob and and opening the door himself! Oh no, is any room safe anymore? Is it time to invest in more of those baby gates that even grownups can't open? Though he's been thoughtfully eyeing and fiddling with those as well...

Friends and Family Plan

It's been a non-stop last couple of days for the little man. From Phoenix, we headed onward to Tucson -- stopping en route at a very cute farm-owned restaurant (as apparently featured on Food Network) to meet up with Zachary's Uncle Josh and Meh's college friend J for brunch. We got there a bit early, so Meh and I took turns walking with Zachary around the green manicured lawn between the restaurant and its smaller coffee shop counterpart. Many people apparently bring their dogs to this restaurant (there's tons of picnic table dining right outside in front), and Zachary made friends with at least three dogs. Here he is meeting one cute dog that was all yappy until Zachary got close, then wagged and gave him kisses.

We met up with J and Zachary's Uncle Josh, and all ordered our tasty lunches and sat down to eat. Zachary's newest trick is eating entire sticks (or at least half-sticks) of cheese. A few days before, we'd noticed he was rejecting the cut up cheese squares, and Meh offered him a half stick only to watch it disappear into his mouth - nope, no bites, he just keeps shoving it in and chews it up. Brunch was super yummy, with scrambles made with all local (mostly on-site) ingredients and apple fritters. Zachary of course finished before us, so we took turns walking around the grassy area with him; eventually I wheeled him around in the stroller until he conked out for a short morning nap. It was so good to see Uncle Josh and catch up with J, even just for such a brief time.

Then we were off to Tucson. The hope was that the little man would sleep on the drive, but not so much - he was up and talky, though he was happy to listen to music. It's funny, we made a new Zachary mix CD (I think his third or fourth at this point) to bring along on the trip and give to our friends, and Zachary seems to clearly dislike the tracks on there that he wasn't already familiar with. Kind of a misnamed CD when he vetoes half the tracks!

We arrived at friends T & P's house, and Zachary immediately made himself at home playing with his new friend J's toys while we brought in the luggage. J for his part was happy with the new company and perfectly willing to share all of his toys. The two boys were so cute - when I'd read a book, they'd both come over and watch together. J even called out the names (in Czech) for some of the objects in the book. At one point, he was so happy with the story that he gave Zachary a big hug. The two boys then went tumbling to the ground and both were crying - it was sad but so cute and sweet! They were right as rain quickly enough though, and had a really nice afternoon together while the grown-ups got caught up. Well, the moms at least -- my ear hadn't really unpopped from the plane descent and I was getting concerned about what to do if it was still blocked on our flight out, so P graciously took me over to the local urgent care center to get it checked out. Not much more than an hour later, I was grabbing 4 tasty prescriptions at the local pharmacy - functional health care, crazy!

There was even shared baffy time on the first night, though Zachary was clearly exhausted from the trip and didn't always have his happy face on despite all of the fun bubbles and some familiar-looking bath toys. That leads us into the one challenge for Zachary on the second leg of our trip -- I think there were so many fun toys and exciting places to explore that he wasn't really interested in the whole sleeping thing. In fact, he would only take his nap sitting in J's stroller out in T & P's back yard! But we all had such a nice time together, and it was so good for the boys to get to play with each other.

The boys were both up bright and early on Monday, so we took them to the park after breakfast. As usual, Zachary's favorite part was the swing, as illustrated by this excellent picture T got of him. Then T & J, Meh, Zachary, and I drove into the city to eat at mommy's favorite college sandwich shop. The food was still as excellent as Meh had remembered, even if she noticed the prices had gone up a bit. The boys enjoyed their own lunches, though of course Zachary wrapped up before us and wanted to walk around the parking lot and alleys behind the restaurant. From here, we met up with my old college friend C and her young daughter T at a neat outdoor park. Being a public park in Arizona, it actually had a giant water feature area, with buttons you'd press that would apparently turn on a bunch of sprinklers and dumping water buckets and such. However, it being 'winter' even here (and actually a bit chilly with all of the wind), the water was shut off for the season. Still, the boys had a great time running around the playground and up and down the stairs and slides.

We had grandiose ideas about taking T, P, and J out for dinner, but Zachary's aforementioned napping challenges caught up with him and he was ready for bed early. So after (solo) baffy time and some quiet snuggling and reading time, he was out cold, and we ordered in pizza and had a nice "grown-up" (e.g. silverware-free :)dinner together. The next morning it was already time to head back up to Phoenix to catch our flight -- after one more visit to the playground, where Zachary began to master going *down* stairs while holding onto a rail. He slept most of the drive up to the airport, which we knew meant we were in for an awake flight home.

For some reason we can't quite figure out, Zachary loves driving in shuttles and buses. Phoenix has this enormous overgrown separate rental car center connected to the airport by bus service, and he was smiling and laughing from his car seat as we took the bus both ways. I've also got to share one of my favorite moments of the entire trip - on our way back to the airport, every time the bus stopped for a traffic light or stop sign, Zachary would sign 'more', and then get a big smile when the bus started moving again. So cute!

The return flight was pretty exhausting, with a little man who wanted to be moving around and/or entertained from the moment we approached security to our flight touching down. He did let me put his cute new headphones on him for a good 5 seconds before he pulled them off; the rest of the flight time was trading off between mommy singing, daddy changing, mommy feeding, daddy feeding, mommy playing, daddy playing, mommy reading, and daddy reading.

While we had a wonderful trip and were so glad to get to see our family and friends, we were all grateful to be back in Seattle and ready to be home. This morning, the little man even went back to sleep when I brought him to bed at 6 am, and we all slept in until a little bit after 8 am. Such a luxury!

Home Suite Home

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).