Potty wars

Today was the day we made our first serious attempt to focus on potty training for Zachary. There's of course plenty of reading material on the subject (my favorite ironic title was "Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day" -- for a book that was nearly 300 pages long), and we took a few cues from friends and family as well. We also had lined up a reward system with one of his favorites (chocolate chips), including an iconic sign on the bathroom door stating "[image of child on potty] = [chocolate chip]". (Really I think the slightly melting chocolate chip in the picture looked more like, um, something that would end up in the potty, but that's just me I guess.)

Alas, it was an exhausting day of staying in the house and near a bathroom, and even then things didn't really go as planned; despite lots of drinking and occasional praised on-potty production by Zachary, Owen needed occasional attention as well, and Zachary took advantage of any lull in toilet time to go find a place to potty that wasn't the potty. The 6+ accidents (several on a carpet, and all requiring wardrobe resets and much towelling) have us thinking we may hold off until after preschool starts. On the plus side, Zachary still doesn't have negative connotations about the toilet; we've continued a tradition for the last few weeks of sitting on the potty before bathtime, which he seems to like as part of the evening routine.

To wrap up a frustrating day, I managed to shatter a glass on the floor in the kitchen, which sent an impossible number of shards and fragments into every possible room; it took multiple sweeps to get them all up, and I'll still feel better if everyone wears socks for the next day or two. Ugh!

In happier news, yesterday Zachary got a large package in the mail -- it was a welcome kit for preschool, which starts next week! Teacher K (apparently "Miss"/"Mrs."/"Ms." doesn't start until elementary school) sent along chalk, a mini-coloring book of one of Zachary's favorite stories, and a super cute series of story cards telling about the adventures Zachary will have at preschool. A sample card: "At preschool, we will have snack, circle time, free play, and recess." We've read it several times, and Zachary is already excited about recess in particular, and also states "I want to go on bus!" There was also an introductory letter for parents, and we're looking forward to open house and the start of classes next week!

It's my potty

For the past few weeks, we've been gradually getting up the courage to start potty training. First and foremost, Meh of course brought home some children's books from the library on the topic. (I'm only mildly concerned with the thoughts of just how sanitary library books on the topic are likely to be -- both before and after we're done with them.) Zachary has really enjoyed them, particularly this one by an author we've got another illustrated book by; impressively, he named the other book the first time he saw the cover of this one. Anyway, all of these potty books have got him talking about the potty when he sees it (and sometimes even when he doesn't). He also continues to call Owen's bath seat a potty -- hey, there's at least a passing resemblance. But when we've asked him if he wants to go, or suggest that we spend some time sitting on it, not so much. So it's definitely a work on progress.

One area where he has gotten a bit more comfortable is interacting with and sitting on the little potty that we'd had sitting unused in a corner of the bathroom. Meh had the brilliant idea to put it in front of his costume trunk and mirror, and he now uses it for one of his dolls to go on, as well as a seat for, um, modelling head wear. There's still always a diaper separating him from the toilet seat, but we'll take things one step at a time; our hope is that he can be at least starting down this route by the time school starts in, yikes, less than three week!

Guys night

Meh and Owen (along with friend R and her daughter E) drove down to Oregon today to participate in a Balkan music festival. Sounds like the drive actually went pretty well (recall Owen's earlier challenges with car rides), and they're visiting and staying the night with R's in-laws in Vancouver (the Washington one, not British Columbia). So while mima sat for Zachary during the day, in the evening we got to have some solo guys time. Nothing too exciting, though it was definitely different and nice to be able to spend some time with Zachary -- I think I'll steal a friend of mine's strategy to make sure to schedule solo time with each boy as they get older. The two of us had a nice dinner together before bath and bedtime; Zachary asked several times about mommy (though never about Owen - hmm...) and I explained that she was singing at a concert. Speaking of which, he's actually started singing some of her group's repertoire:

What's up, doc?

Yesterday was Zachary's 3-year wellness checkup! Alas, he seems to have formed a pretty strong opinion about the doctor at this point, bursting into tears as we entered the parking lot with a pleading "want to go upstairs". He calmed down enough to enjoy the fish in the lobby's aquarium, but as soon as we were called back there was more sadness, and the height and weight measurements ended up being estimates at best. (When he later calmed down in the exam room with toys and books present, he and I reconfirmed the height with a tape measure.) That said, here are the stats:

• 31 lbs (25th-50th percentile)
• 36" tall (25th percentile)
• BMI 16.8 (50th-75th percentile)

Interestingly, the whole head circumference thing is out the window and now they start tracking his BMI. All of the stats looked good, and he eventually even got a bit friendly with the doctor (particularly when she pulled out a Dr. Seuss book). The appointment as always ended with a pair of booster shots that made him sad (ironically not nearly as much as just walking into the building). At least as a reward he did get two purple band-aids on his upper arm that made him look like a tough guy. The little man is looking healthy and ready to tackle his third year!

Three is a magic number

Happy third birthday to Zachary -- how the heck is he already three?! Since Z has started to have friends of his own, we decided to break things up and have two separate birthday parties this year: a pizza and cupcakes event for kids (and their parents) on Saturday, and a barbecue mostly for grownup friends on Sunday. As an added bonus, grandma flew up for the weekend and got to spend some time with her two favorite grandsons. And college friends friends T, S, and their kids M, R, and A have flown up to visit as well and were able to attend the Sunday event -- we got to have some mildly more sane time with them today and look forward to more activities throughout the week.

Last year Meh had hazzarded a guess that it would be the last birthday party where she could pick the theme. This year his desired theme was pretty obvious -- Zachary's favorite models, games, television program, and summer activity are all one and the same: Thomas. Meh did some incredible planning, compiling party favors for the kids including train whistles (fairly quiet so as to not be too obnoxious), stickers, conductor caps, and goodies. And of course some very tasty blue Thomas-themed cupcakes. She even set out to create an incredible Thomas centerpiece cake, but alas, the warm weather this past week was too much for the fondant and Meh had to give up. I caught a few pictures of Thomas in progress, and the results were really impressive and super cute - Meh is the most amazing!

The weather didn't entirely cooperate, so while we'd planned to let the kids have outdoor fun with Zachary's little house, his new balance bike, toys, and a new bubble machine, the morning and afternoon rained away. Still, everyone had great fun playing in the living room and enjoying pizza and cake. We had a few parallels to last year: Zachary again managed to sleep his way through much of the party, emerging in time to decline a cupcake and instead enjoy goldfish crackers. And he still doesn't really like other people singing happy birthday, so we skipped over that bit at the party. That apparently didn't stop him from singing it himself though the next morning, on his actual birthday:


On day two of the birthday festivities (Zachary's birthday proper), the weather improved for the barbecue, allowing for some al fresco dining. Again, somehow Zachary's nap intersected with the party, though this time around his appearance was a bit earlier on. He was a big fan of the bubble machine and enjoyed trying out his new balance bike. Happy third birthday, little man!

Pomp and Circumstance

He's not even three years old yet, but Zachary is already a graduate! He'd been in a fabulous pre-preschool program for the last few months, and they have break in August and only work with kids under the age of 3, so Zachary got to "participate" (and I'll use the term loosely) in their graduation event. He wasn't actually interested in standing around, so he and mommy took a little stroll. Then mima, papa, and I watched from a distance as another toddler -- who we're all pretty sure didn't actually know him -- ran over and gave him a big hug. Both kids went down in a (thankfully smiling) tumble, which was super cute.

Participation in the graduation exercises really just involved some group sing alongs and then the kids got to walk under a balloon arch to the reason they were happy to attend: a giant party, complete with food and cake (Zachary passed on the latter, though he did enjoy some goldfish crackers), arts and crafts, play toys, and yes, a giant inflated bounce room -- which Zachary seemed to primarily enjoy by sitting down in the middle and laughing as other kids bounced around him. It was also great getting to talk once more with his teachers, all of whom clearly seemed to adore him.

It's still hard to believe our little boy is already almost three years old, and will be starting preschool (with a bus, backpack, sack lunch, and the rest) at the local elementary school next month! Congratulations little man!

Back on the ranch

The time has really flown and my wonderful month of paternity leave wrapped up yesterday; today was my first day back in the office. It will definitely take some time to get back into sync at work, though I'll be the first to admit that taking care of two boys (and solo at that when Meh was at work) is very challenging and exhausting work. Not to suggest that won't be happening again; Meh works every other weekend, so we'll get plenty of fun all boys time!

To wrap up my leave, I got to take the two boys to an excellent dinosaur-themed third birthday party for one of Zachary's friends that we met way back in an infant support group. Owen was in the wrap and Zachary alternated between enjoying some of the party snacks and playing on the playground equipment and running around the park's water spraying features. It was hilarious watching him always try to keep an inch (or less) away from getting totally soaked by the fountains, but somehow he managed!

Zoo tunes

No pun in the post title this time around; it's an actual event put on by the local zoo each summer, where a bunch of great bands are brought in to perform on the zoo's broad grassy lawn. Apparently this isn't particularly unique to Seattle, as last night's performers mentioned they'd played another zoo the night before. Anyway, when the schedule had come out a few months ago, Meh saw that a fun-sounding group of Newfoundlanders was performing Celtic music, so she'd grabbed tickets for us, mima, and papa. We successfully fought our way through evening rush hour traffic as a car caravan, and the parking karma was decent when we reached the zoo shortly before the concert. We parked our chairs (and Zachary's stroller) in what we thought was the back of the field to enjoy a lovely picnic put together by mima before the music started.

There wasn't an opening band or anything; after a brief intro by a local DJ, Great Big Sea came out and started playing -- and while it wasn't deafening, it was a pretty loud and amplified opening. Alas, both Owen and Zachary got immediately unhappy with this, and Zachary and I had to take a walk around the perimeter of the field to get adjusted to the (very fun!) music. I'd forgotten that the zoo's carousel is right there as well, so Zachary was insistingly saying "I want to go ah horse!" and nearly laid himself out when I suggested we just watch for a bit. But all's well that ends well -- after our walk, we returned to the rest of the family and both boys seemed to do better as the set progressed; Zachary chilled out eating his dinner and then snuggled on my lap while Owen smiled at everyone.

The only remaining hitch was that we apparently weren't quite far enough back; a police officer asked us to scoot back (instigated by folks who had arrived even later than us, and had sat even closer to the garbage cans). But it was all good; we switched spots with them and enjoyed the rest of the set, wrapping up our evening with a nice walk back to the car and abbreviated baffy time back at home.

The last straw

We've mentioned on a few occasions that Zachary can be a fairly selective eater -- and not just foods, but also how he interacts with beverages. Yesterday, at a trip to one of Zachary's favorite fine dining establishments, we had a huge breakthrough, as he finally drank from a straw/cup combination other than his trusted and familiar brought-from-home juice cups and sippy cups. We've been trying to expand his repertoire here for some time, and progressed to his own favorite straw in an open cup last week, and went on to trying a Thomas-themed cup with a different straw on Sunday -- Thomas won out, and Zachary strung together the impressive sentence "I want more Thomas sippy cup milk" to indicate his intentions (I think all closed cups are still "sippy" in his vocabulary).

And speaking of vocabulary...

Synchronized swimming

Today marked the beginning of Owen's non-bathtub water experiences, as he joined his brother in swim lessons! Of course, not at the same time -- though conveniently, the lessons for infants fall immediately before the class Zachary is signed up for. Owen ended up snoozing in the car on the drive in (thankfully an increasingly common occurrence, considering his earlier general dislike for cars when awake) and, while waking up on his own for class, wasn't exactly the alert smiley man that he usually is - still, no crying or tears, so we'll count that a good first lesson. I entertained Zachary for most of the delay before his own class with a walk to the nearby park, some high flying swing time, and a visit to their broad waterfall feature. He then proved to be very excited to be back in class, dunking himself frequently and then clapping while underwater.

Afterwards, we all explored the fabulous Bellevue Arts Fair, cleverly interleaved into area around the local shopping mall, with both outdoor booths and most of the ground floor of a parking structure converted into stalls for artists, jewelers, furniture makers, and other craftspeople. The boys both conked out in strollers at least for a little bit, though everyone was awake and hungry in time for us to grab lunch and sample a cupcake at the latest chic bakery to start selling $3 tasty morsels (our take on this one: decent, but a bit overpriced). Afterwards, we wandered across the street from the mall and ran into another (!) huge art fair, with an entirely separate set of arts, crafts, clothing, and food stalls. We really love this part of the Northwest; come July, there are often multiple great events happening at the same time all over the area.

When we came home, the boys had a nice afternoon both indoors and out in the new backyard; Zachary played with the sprinklers and then (at his request) dined al fresco, enjoying his dinner after climbing up into one of the large patio chairs at our umbrella-shaded table. Owen meanwhile continued to raspberry, babble, laugh (at all three of us), and generally smile any time we made eye contact. All in all, a lovely way to wrap up a beautiful weekend!

Foodie

Owen loves to smile at people, and if the smile gets big enough, sometimes the tongue gets involved as well, as demonstrated here:

A piece of trivia we emerged from Owen's four-month appointment with was that he can start trying out foods - if he shows an interest. And as mentioned in the last post, for the past week or so, Owen's been very focused on us as we eat. So after our early apple-licking experiment, yesterday was the first true food sampling: first some mashed avocado that we'd gotten with lunch, and then back at home the same apples from the early trial, presented in slightly more pureed form. The avocado was accepted (though I found bits of it on his bib later), and the applesauce was a hit. He also tried out this mesh food-sucking pacifier thing that Zachary had never really gotten into. Congrats to the tiny man on his latest milestones!

It's been a beautiful weekend here so far, and we got to finally agree to Zachary's request of "want outside!" and enjoyed some time in the newly completed back yard. Zachary really wanted to play with the sprinklers (which he adorably calls "skippy"), so we decided to let him go in his birthday suit (with a sunhat, crocs, and plenty of sunblock of course). He had a great time, and Owen was happy and smiley sitting on the deck the as well. I resisted the urge to post more of the compromising shots of him; we'll have to save those for bar mitzvah and/or wedding montage videos.

Test tones

The milestones continue for the tiniest man: following in the footsteps of his brother, Owen has begun blowing raspberries. This is extremely cute -- yes, even when he does it while you're trying to put him down for bedtime. He's also doing great at lifting his head and rolling over, and he even sat by himself for a few minutes, though we've still got to keep an eye out lest he keel over. Owen also continues to exclaim very vocally (but happily) while playing with his toys. And after showing increasing focus and interest on what mommy, daddy, and brother Zachary are eating, he's gotten his first tastes of non-milk food products. I did a quick test today, holding a slice of apple I was eating up to him, and he happily licked it multiple times. We'll have to try something more substantial soon!

Also on the topic of happy noises, Zachary's signing of songs continues to get more refined - he's gotten to about three-to-six-note melodies so far and there's a definite change of pitch; even a bit of accuracy on a song borrowed from the Frère Jacques melody. Sometimes it's hard to pick out just what song he's decided to sing based on his, ah, interpretations of the lyrics, but it's particularly cute when he takes a run at a favorite like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' or 'Take Me Out the the Ballgame'.

He thought his boiler would burst

This morning, we all got up early (or to be more accurate, I just didn't try to coax Zachary back to bed for an extra hour or two) so we could go check out the (annual?) Day Out With Thomas at the Northwest Railway Museum in lovely Snoqualmie. Meh had to be at work at noon, but I think really this time worked out best regardless - we were among the first few there, and got to enjoy the outdoor parts of the museum a bit before the crowds arrived, and before queuing up for our very own Thomas ride. The event started off very well in Zachary's eyes with a ride on a real life school bus from the overflow parking lot - he was a huge fan, and it was a nice preview of what we'll be experiencing in a few months!

Next we had a series of queues, which will of course bore most any two- or three-year-old to tears, or at least whines. Meh and Owen bravely held our spot while Zachary and I circled downtown Snoqualmie. We then inadvertently stumbled onto the full-scale Thomas train we were going to later ride, and Zachary was quite excited ("It's Thomas!"). We returned to the museum as it opened, and explored a few of the engines before queuing again for Thomas himself. Zachary got an excellent sticker, and we got to enjoy a ride in a circa 1950s passenger car. (As I understand it, the cars and one of the engines run like this all the time for the museum; Thomas was a special addition at the rear, and became the front car when the train reached the midpoint, stopped, and headed the other direction.)

After our ride (which featured some excellent views of Snoqualmie Falls and River, as well as a bunch of fun older trains along the way), we toured around a bit. There was of course an uber-Thomas gift shop (we came away with a pez dispenser, an activity book, a viewfinder, and some stamps), a puppet show and storyteller tents (alas, neither starting until 11), temporary tattoos, a giant tent of Thomas train tables, some local kids-music musician performances (Zachary enjoyed the show from the platform of an old diesel train), and photo opportunities with the Thomas train (in between its runs) and a hopefully larger-than-life-size Sir Topham Hatt (the controller in the world of Thomas). Zachary was enthralled with Sir Topham Hatt -- we didn't get a picture of it, but when I first brought him up, he actually touched his plush oversized hand. No shyness here!

Today was day three of my four-day stint solo with the boys, as Meh works her consecutive weekend shift. It's been exhausting but also a lot of fun; we went for another walk today in the mild summer weather, and Owen conked out in his sunhat while Zachary asked to get down from the stroller and ran around while I tried to keep up with him. These boys drive a grueling workout!

School Daze

It's hard to believe, but Zachary already starts preschool this fall! A few weeks ago, we received a letter in the mail from the school district inviting us to registration today. Based on the time requirements and the comments not to bring kids, I was expecting a protracted affair; Zachary and I ended up wandering around the outdoor shopping mall (not sure how a school district lands an office at the mall -- must be some kind of lease break from the city or something) while Meh and Owen headed in for paperwork and proofs of shots and the like. However, by the time Zachary and I completed our first big block of stores, I had voicemail from Meh letting me know she was already wrapped up. Hooray for at least reduced bureaucracy! So starting in September, Zachary will be able to look forward to a school bus picking him up and dropping him off (I suspect this may be a highlight of his day) September. We're so excited for him, though a little sad of course too. Granted, the school he'll be at is at best 3/4 mile away, so we can occasionally walk over to pick him up afterwards. Little man is becoming a big man so quickly!

The constant gardener

After last Monday's (mis)adventures getting the boys to bed by myself, I called in some reinforcements last night, and Mima graciously assisted. Things went a little bit better, though Owen still took a while to calm down from the getting-into-pajamas sadness. We'll master this yet!

Happy seventh anniversary to the prettiest wife and best mommy in the world! We both admitted to each other yesterday that we'd totally dropped the ball on gifts for each other. Still, other folks I've spoken to use their home improvement projects as their mutual anniversary 'gifts'. So it's completely appropriate that we've just about wrapped up our backyard relandscaping. The yard had gotten pretty rough and tumble over the past few months (I'll blame it on knowing that we were going to be relandscaping), but even before that, a combination of invasive plants, fence repairs, and digging/pacing by Korby had left our yard in not great shape. Meh made it a goal to get it reorganized, and to give us some good kitchen garden space as well. She actually even got a head start last year; our first crop of blueberries from the front yard relandscaping came in this week and were super tasty - even Zachary tried a few, though he caught a tart one and gave up on the rest.

The plans looked fabulous, and over the past month or so, we've watched as the entire backyard has been transformed (full set of pictures here), with new plants, rebuilt stone steps and wall, a "dry riverbed" feature in the back, a new sprinkler system to keep everything from dying, and an expanded kitchen garden area on the side of the house that Meh has already filled with yummy veggies, fruits, and herbs. We also got a new shed in the back corner and are looking forward to dismantling the lean-to thing that had been the "shed" when we moved into the house. All in all, a very cozy backyard addition - and wrapped up just in time for our anniversary! Now if I can just get the replanted lawn to take, we'll be good to go; Zachary's clearly impatient to go tromping around, occasionally looked out at the yard and stating 'I want go outside!'

Take a hike

Yesterday we went with mima to Olallie State Park; the weather was gorgeous, and there were reports of lovely waterfall views for Twin Falls without too steep of a hike. We had a nice time even though we inadvertently walked right past the lookout where we had intended to stop (a few more switchback-laced climbs and we decided to backtrack). Owen had a good time watching the world from the bjorn (and later the ergo). And Zachary in particular did a great job with the hike, only getting too tired after quite a bit of trekking, at which point he got to relive his glory days in the ergo (as well as riding on my shoulders or just being carried). He did on the minus side suffer his first scraped knee navigating some tree root-laden terrain.

We had the fine idea to bring Zachary's aqua socks so he could wade in the river a bit - alas, he'd already outgrown them, adding to the number of clothes that he's worn one or less times. But he did have a great time stepping gingerly around the edges of the river in his tennis shoes. Afterwards, we all stopped for lunch at the eastside branch of one of our favorite pizza places. Zachary looked on with interest as the Neapolitan pies came out, but he declined to actually try a slice, sticking with his old standards of raisins, rice cake, and crackers.

The land of a thousand mommies

The heat wave continues; today it's capped out at nearly 95 degrees so far. The car's external temperature meter even hit triple digits, though I'm not sure how much you can trust them (at which point you might ask, what's the point?) And of course we just had new grass seed put out yesterday for our relandscaped yard (pics forthcoming, if said seed survives) so it's a battle of wills (or at least remembering) to keep it watered.

Owen is four months old today, which means it was time for his checkup this morning. Zachary and I stayed at home to avoid an overly crowded exam room, but Meh reported that Owen did great and gave all sorts of smiles to the nurses and doctor, right up until he got shots in both legs. Poor tiny man!

The stats:

• Weight: 16 lbs 12 oz (75th-90th percentile)
• Length: 26 1/2 inches (90th-97th percentile)
• OFC: 16 1/2 inches (25-50th percentile)

So he's a tall and robust tiny man, but at least he doesn't have a big head about it. Ba-dum-bum.

Our doctor reminded us of something that she had also said when Zachary was this age -- object permanence isn't quite within the grasp of the four month old, so every time one of us leaves Owen's field of view, the next time we return, even though we look identical, we're a "new" version for him. This also kind of explains why he isn't bothered when one of us leaves. Thankfully he's just as friendly with the many clones of mommy and daddy -- and continues to be extra smiley with friends and family as well, with special fascination for big brother Zachary.

Won't you please shine down on me

At long last, Seattle has joined the rest of the country in the summer season -- and in a big way, with the temperature climbing into the upper 80s today and expectations for it to be even hotter tomorrow. So it was a fabulous idea when friends B, C, and daughter T invited us to join them at one of our favorite local lakes for a picnic, walk, and Zachary's first experience in a wading ("paddling") pool. Mima came along as well, and we stopped off to 'make' our picnic lunch at the local organic grocer en route. It was even B's birthday, so we certainly had to bring some mini-cupcakes, though unfortunately we didn't have time to get them from the proper venue.

It took him a while (and a long preceding stroll around maybe a third of the lake) to warm up to the idea, but once in the pool, Zachary had a fabulous time splashing, dunking his head under water, and laughing. We even had to go back for a second trip sans swimming shirt ("bye bye shirt"), and only the pool's (hourly?) evacuation for scary chemical additives ended his enjoyment.

As mentioned in earlier posts, Zachary's vocabulary continues to expand daily, along with more sophisticated statements like "I want sippy cup milk". Here he is reading one of his favorite books to me:


Not to be outdone in the vocalizations department, Owen has been making cute baby noises with ever-increasing durations and frequency. These aren't the longest in his repertoire, but of course they're cute enough on their own:


He also has a serious love of music, and seems to generally be more effectively soothed by singing than any of the "true" 5 S's.

Paternity test

Though it was preceded by an excellent three-day weekend, today is the first "official" day of my paternity leave, one of my favorite benefits offered by my employer -- a month home with the boys and, when she's not working (she went back yesterday, more on that in a moment), Meh too! This weekend we got to visit the zoo with friends B, C, and their 10-week-old daughter T (they're soon moving to the east coast - sad!). I noticed once again that there aren't a lot of exhibits well suited to the stroller-seated viewing angle, but Zachary did notice and occasionally talk about some tree-bound monkeys and the giraffes. We also got to enjoy a lovely group pizza lunch. Oh, and the boys managed to sleep through the pyromaniacal 4th of July show put on by our neighbors between 6 pm and midnight -- even a car alarm didn't interrupt them, hooray!

Yesterday I got some early solo time with the boys, since even though the 5th was the observed Fourth of July holiday for many companies, Meh's library was open for business and it was her first day back. Everything went great earlier in the day -- I even somehow managed to get both boys down for naps. We then drove to mommy's work to meet her there for Owen's afternoon snack. He was extra smiley for everyone, and Zachary happily counted the stairs up to the second floor and said "Hiii mommy!" when he saw her -- super cute. Owen even cooperated by not getting angry on either end of the car ride. We even had a nice afternoon walk when we got back; Zachary had a great time watching the construction vehicles that are helping build the new "environmental" junior high school (though I noted with irony that this so-called environmental high school features clear cutting of a bunch of old growth trees, with some even going straight into a chipper!).

Supper time was about when things started to unravel a bit. Owen likes to take a late afternoon cat nap, but he wasn't interested for me, and started getting fussy (despite some heroic distractions). On the plus side, Zachary has started imitating us and saying "It's okay Owie" when he hears him cry. Of course, once we progressed to bathtime and I had Zachary in the tub, I was even less effective, and by bedtime, Owen was more or less hysterical. So I left Zachary to read a few books to himself while I calmed Owen down and got him into his pajamas. At which point Zachary decided to try to escape downstairs, and in the end I had two boys who were both pretty unhappy to be going to bed.

The evening was salvaged a bit when Owen woke up an hour later (angry once again) and I was able to calm him into finally accepting a bottle. But all in all a challenging test for daddy, and I totally understand why Meh has often called to make sure I'm on my way home in time for bath and bedtime -- it's definitely a job for two!

Oh say can you see

Owen continues to most enjoy looking at people, in particular his brother and parents. He smiles (often with his tongue sticking out) and laughs when he catches our eye, and one of our favorite father-son activities is when I help him with baby pull-ups and baby leg crunches, smiling and laughing as I count up the reps. He of course also has plenty to say to his dangling jingling toys:


Proof positive that Zachary understands far more than he lets on - mima and Meh were chatting on a car ride today, and the topics of dogs came up. Suddenly from the back seat, Zachary contributed the comment "barking noises" (a reference to one of his favorite books). Smart little man!

And on the topic of previously unknown vocabulary, today was a nap-free day for the little man (and a nap-light one for tiny man). By late afternoon, Zachary was getting a bit... shall we say beyond. Meh reported that he was walking around the house singing "Ohhhh... the [object]", looking around and picking a new object to sing about for every 'verse'. Here's a video she captured:

The best was when he couldn't find a new object quickly enough - then there was an extra long 'ohhhhhhh' while he tried to sort out something to sing about. On the plus side, we learned that he knows the word 'rug', and enjoyed his 'pih-nah-nuh' (piano). I arrived home to catch the late act and then got him upstairs for his bath and bed time. Later on it registered for us that "Oh the" was more likely actually "All done", since toward the end of the evening he started mixing it with "Night night [object]" - silly labelling man.

Everyone says I love you

A big milestone for a tiny man - Meh watched him roll from back to tummy twice in bed this morning! I still haven't witnessed anything closer than the video we took a few days ago, but congrats to a tiny man on his early mobility!

When we put Zachary to bed, he's gotten more consistent about saying "na na" (night night) to various things in his room, mostly the last book we read and then the stuffed animals and blankie that he snuggles with. Occasionally, he will even say a very cute "na na, dah-dee". But last night after I said "night night Zachary" back, he put his hand on my face and said something approximating "I love you". So endearing! I don't think Meh believed me, but today she was having an exhausting day with two non-napping boys, and right when she thought she was near the end of her rope, Zachary looked at her and said "I love you". Such a good and sweet little man!

Zachary goes to the beach

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day, and luckily we got to spend the morning at a local beach. ("Beach" in Seattle is a bit of a misleading term, as sandy beaches are pretty rare. Rocky ones on the other hand...) Zachary loved walking on the bumpy rocks in his Thomas boots, while Owen mostly slept, covered by both the ergo and his cute sunhat.

The Seattle Aquarium has generously had naturalists coming out to the local beaches at low tide, so we wandered over to see what they'd found, and got to check out a jellyfish, a purple starfish, some crabs, and these almost litter-looking moon snail "sand collars" (egg casings). Zachary was most excited by the Sound itself ("wah wah!"), looking up at passing sea planes ("bye bye ah-pah!"), and just stomping around on the squishy beach. A passing horn-blaring train certainly didn't hurt either.

Today mommy's choir had a performance at the local library. She had to go an hour early for warmups, so the boys and I headed over a little while later, picking up mima on the way. Determined to avoid a repeat of the boys' opening act for the last performance (and to make sure mima at least got to hear it this time!), I wore a sleeping Owen and strolled Zachary strategically near the door. The ladies did a fabulous job, and Zachary enjoyed looking on and munching on fish crackers like he was at a movie. We only had to stroll out of the room once or twice (due to insistent but appropriately volumed "push!" requests from Zachary). And Owen slept right through the applause that had startled him awake back at the last concert. Meh and my favorite part was when Zachary pointed directly at her during a song, smiled, and said "want mommy!"

Afterwards, another first - Owen's been doing such a great job of holding up his head that when he woke up, I turned him around in the bjorn so he could face out. He proceeded to give everyone giant smiles and even a few laughs; mommy then took him around for show and tell while Zachary and I headed home for well-deserved nap time.

Fluid plans

Meh has adopted the descriptive adjective of "juicy" when describing Owen's recurring (some would say constant) habit of spitting up, often in impressive quantities. She's convinced that on occasion he's managed to spit up more than he's actually eaten. In trying to remember the specific adjective, I myself coined the phrase "Mister Moist", though really that describes me more than Owen by the time I'm done holding him for an hour; when I went out to mow the lawn today after having snuggled tiny man, I had some lovely damp patterns on my shoulders.

Alas, it was Zachary who took the fluid-generation award on an adventure with mommy and mima on Thursday. His pre-preschool class was off for the day, so they decided to go check out the zoo. Unfortunately, by the time Owen woke up from his morning nap and they got out the door, they were quickly approaching Zachary's nap time. They walked around for a bit looking at animals, but Zachary was ready to be "all done", so they exited the zoo and walked over to a nearby restaurant, where Zachary needed a diaper change. And in the women's room (with of course no changing table in sight), the standing up diaper change went horribly wrong. Zachary emerged dry, but mommy, the baby carrier, and a great deal of floor had no such luck. Oh, and the electronic automated paper towel dispenser was low on batteries, so cleanup was particularly slow going. Poor Meh!

The fourth trimester

Owen is three months old today! The time has really flown (well, and/or stood still, depending on whether we're reflecting on this while awake in the middle of the night), and it's amazing to see the changes coming so quickly: social smiling, talking/cooing, the beginning of rolling, lifting his head, using the bathtub, starting to have an actual bedtime, and beginning to interact a bit more with the world around him. I know time flew for Zachary as well but whether from the passage of time or sleep deprivation, we'd kind of forgotten what happened when, and have occasionally consulted blog entries from Zachary's second month as well to try to recall what was going on.

Sunday was Zachary's toddler group's end-of-the-year picnic. They again brought the narrow gauge little train to the park, which Zachary was again delighted to ride, though not quite as excited to watch (see last year's great train chase). He was much more into the playground though, running up and down the stairs and slide, and wanting to play something approaching hand-tag with me via the railing. In the meantime, Owen spent most of the time sleeping on mommy, but occasionally woke up to check out the surroundings.

Heads up

In the last few days, Owen has been actively picking up his head. When he's in his play area or chair, this is really cute. When he's in his car seat, it just looks a bit uncomfortable, and he tries to sit up through half the drive home (alas, the other half is often still spent crying). Did I mention he's also already outgrown the size 2 diapers? I ordered a crate of size "2-3"s; the next full size up, 3's, only come in 'Cruisers', and actual Owen movement still seems a ways off.

That said, this morning Owen has jumped past head lifting, and was already trying quite dramatically to roll over! He gets about 2/3 of the way so far.

We tried the opposite (getting him to roll off his tummy), but he wasn't so into that yet. Owen also continues to talk up a storm - here he is hanging out with his sheep:

Synchronized swimming

Earlier this week, Zachary and Owen had their first shared bath time! Owen had previously gotten baths in the little sink-bound tub down in the kitchen, but as he's started going to bed (well, at least the first attempt of the night) at the same time as Zachary, it made sense to try to merge baths -- at least when Meh and I are both at home. So on Monday night, after a particularly voluminous spit-up-filled day, it was time for brotherly baffy time! Zachary thought it was very fun to play footsie with his brother, and other than that just seemed to treat it like a regular bath. Owen meanwhile continued his long-running fascination with his brother, looking on with big eyes, smiles, and occasional happy startles as mommy washed him and Zachary splashed or talked about his Salty, Thomas, Percy, and Bobby Ducky bath toys.

On the topic of water, Owen will be joining Zachary next month in the pool, with the boys in (hopefully; registration is tomorrow morning at the lovely hour of 6:30 am) back-to-back swimming classes. Hard to believe they start the program at 4 months of age, but as Owen already loves the water I'm hoping it will be as fun an experience for him as it has been for Zachary.