Cold front

Poor Owen has just been getting bug after bug; he's once again congested and coughing, but still somehow stays happy despite it -- even when he's got a an extra drippy nose. He also does so well at trying to keep himself asleep once he's down at night, despite the tiny coughs we occasionally hear over the monitor. But he does eventually wake up, at which point he stubbornly stays awake until in bed with us, at which point we've occasionally had some fairly sleep-light nights. Sometimes he wakes up at 2 am, sometimes 4:30 (the luxury days), but we're all still waiting and hoping for the night that the tiny man sleeps through. Meanwhile, his big brother isn't always having a perfect time of it either; a few nights ago he was crying at 1 in the morning. I snuggled him and he went back to sleep - but again at 6 he was upset. When I got into his room, he was asking for blankie -- which I found halfway across the room and draped on his stuffed bear chair. That's quite an arm for a half asleep little man!

Of course, sleepless nights mean a need for extra nap time during the day, and Zachary has been known to curl up in the most random positions when you turn your back. He still occasionally conks out (or at least will veg out) in his cozy tent surrounded by plush toys. Owen of course still loves whatever Zachary is doing, meaning I've caught him climbing into the tent on several occasions. Someday we'll have to arrange for an everybody nap in the tent!

Owen will occasionally babble a bit, and I've been noticing some suspiciously consistent consonants - mah's around mommy, nah's when he's displeased, and buh's for the ball he and I occasionally kind-of-sort-of play catch with. It's a bit early yet, but I think this kid might talk at some point.

Keeping it clean

In addition to his ongoing love affair with food (his latest: tasty Indian food from one of our favorite restaurants), Owen continues to love bathtime, spending much of it taking a giant yellow mug and screeching into it, then drinking from it (mmm, tasty bath water) until he sputters out water. Silly tiny man. Zachary has taken to imitating Owen in the bath, putting various toys in his mouth and then saying '[don't] eat it!' While it's sometimes challenging keeping the two boys in their own personal space, they definitely both love their baffy time, playing with (or in Owen's case, chomping on) toys, reading floaty books, and of course splashing. But Owen's favorite part lately is getting lifted out of the tub in his soft brown towel, giving mommy a big hug, and then planting a giant wide-mouthed kiss on her face or shoulder and raspberrying to his heart's content.

Cruising for a bruising

With crawling now more or less mastered, Owen is exploring the whole house, and we're finding all sorts of interesting things that we never thought to childproof (or had since de-childproofed) when Zachary first got mobile. In particular, he found the stair down to the mud room yesterday; his landing was cushioned by a box of blocks, but it's still time to close a few more doors. Similarly, many of Zachary's toys aren't exactly baby friendly, so we (and Zachary) are starting to do a more thorough job of clearing a path for the mouth-sized-toy- and book-focused tiny man. At the same time, standing while holding onto furniture has been gradually giving way to actual tentative cruising (particularly if there's something interesting further around the side of the table/couch/ottoman/etc.) Again, this sometimes ends with plops, spins, bangs, and swerves. Owen's got a few bruises to show for his efforts, but he happily gets right back to it after some mommy and daddy snuggling.

Since Owen passed his cold onto the rest of the family (how exactly is patient zero the one person who ostensibly isn't exposed to anything other than our house?), mima graciously helped watch the boys today, and I even got to take a little nap along the way. Thank you so much mima! In addition to fun play time with mima, Owen and I discovered a new game; for a few weeks now, he's actively shaken his head to indicate a food or toy he doesn't want. Today I shook my head back at him and he thought it was really funny, shaking his head back at me. This monkey see/monkey do continued for a good 10 minutes, which had him in stitches. Here's his repeat performance for mommy:

Floor exercises

It's official - Owen is crawling! He still doesn't quite use both legs at the same time, but he gets round quite well, and continues to focus most of his energy on getting to whatever Zachary is playing with, or just heading towards his big brother directly.
On the minus side, Owen appears to have picked up a bug of some sort - congestion plus fever over the weekend, thankfully knocked down to just a stuffed nose for the last few days. The doctor said they've seen the same symptoms going around and it's just rest, liquids, and Tylenol for now. And to his credit, other than being tired, Owen's still maintained a pretty happy mood during the day. But he's definitely snotty and a bit uncomfortable, particularly at night. Poor tiny man -- here's hoping he feels better soon!

Color commentary

With Zachary off school for last and this week, we've gotten a great opportunity to spend more time with him. It's been fabulous to see how much he's grown verbally even since the school year started. He'll occasionally ask about the yellow bus, and when we explained that there's no school for a few weeks, he asked if we were going to gym. (That's the activity he does on the one weekday when he doesn't have school.) Such schedule/routine awareness! He also continues to sing (or sometimes hum to himself) songs that he's picked up at school or around the house -- last week, nearly three years after the song's composition by mommy, he started singing the "Baffy Time" song. He sang it the whole walk up the stairs and while the tub was filling. He's also been interacting with his increasingly curious little brother, keeping an eye on his favorite toys when Owen approaches. (Note: any toy that Owen approaches tends to become a Zachary 'favorite'.) In the bath a few nights ago, Zachary grabbed a toy from Owen while stating "Owen share". Owen for his part doesn't get upset, but just continues to persist in reaching for whatever's got Zachary's interest. This is going to get interesting...

Stand by me

Owen has gradually progressed from scooting backwards to slowly wiggling forward -- not really crawling yet, and he needs a surface with traction (e.g. carpet rather than our hardwood floors) to make much progress, but definitely starting to get mobile. Of course, the primary goal for movement tends to be Zachary's toys. Zachary will occasionally be the gracious big brother and give Owen the toy of interest before moving onto another one, but not always; Zachary's collection of toy vehicles was a constant target for Owen today, so Zachary moved them at least twice before mommy wisely suggested he move the cars and trucks to his tent. The tent continues to be a popular respite for Zachary, often accompanied by requests for milk, juice, and/or mommy/daddy snuggles within its plush toy-filled confines.

Owen has also started showing some major interest in pulling himself up - he can't quite do it himself yet, but he's very determined and it likely won't be too long. With assistance, he'll stand, crow happily at his new perspective on the world, and even make the first tentative attempts to play with a toy while still holding on for dear life (this mostly still ends with him parked back on his butt). He's also been enjoying the riding toys in our house - the red plastic Swedish rocker, the toy rocket, and most particularly the combination car and pushcart he got from mima and papa for Chanukah:

Meh saw the sign

Owen had his 9-month wellness visit today! It was at the same time that Zachary's bus comes, so Meh and Owen went to the doctor and I got to walk Zachary out to the bus. It continues to be super cute watching how happy he is to see the bus turn the corner and drive down our street, as well as how he somehow manages to scale a step that must be half his height. He also is very interested in buckling at least part of the seatbelt by himself. Meh had made these amazing chocolate treats for all of Z's teachers and the bus driver, so we had an extra little surprise delivery to give to bus driver G.

Owen had actually just been at the doctor last week, since we noticed him getting a little unexpectedly fussy and Meh correctly guessed at what turned out to be a double ear infection. But a regiment of pink stuff doses later (which only seems to dribble out and stain his clothes about half the time), and he's right as rain; the doctor confirmed that his ears are looking much better. On to the stats:

• Weight: 20 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile)
• Length: 29 1/2 inches (90th percentile)
• OFC: 18 inches (50th percentile)

So he's quite the tall man, clearly expressing his dad's genetics. Or something.

In other big news, Meh reports that Owen signed for the first time today! As with his brother, we've introduced and modeled several basic signs - more, all done, milk, and water. He already clearly understands them, getting all happy and smiley when we ask if he wants water (he loves playing with sippy cups and dribbling water out of his mouth), and sometimes grunting in agreement when we ask if he wants more of a food (incidentally, he's a strong supporter of all grown up foods we've offered to him!). This morning he turned the latter around and signed that he did indeed want more -- nice job, Owen!

[Updated 12/20: Whoops, no - he hasn't shrunk. Length corrected to 29 1/2 inches, not 24 1/2]

Make a run for the border

Uncle B had a really nice rest of his visit with the boys, but his flight departed Wednesday morning. Never fear, the parade of visiting relatives continues -- that same evening, Uncle J arrived! He's been having a nice visit with the boys (though somehow I haven't gotten any pictures of them interacting yet); it was actually his first opportunity to meet Owen, who of course adores him and gives him great big smiles. Of course I also got to introduce Josh to that little project I've been working on for the past little while, and we had a fun evening doing punches, kicks, jumps, and the like.

Meh's Balkan women's choir was invited to participate at a folk dance event up in Vancouver this weekend. Originally, we were researching options for the four of us to make the trip up, but then realized that Meh would still end up going to her evening concert all alone (while I'd likely be sitting in a quiet and probably dark room with two possibly sleeping sons). Mima, papa, and Uncle J then volunteered to stay at our place and watch the boys so we could have an evening away -- it was a wonderful and very generous gift from them!

We stayed at a very cozy B&B in the Kerrisdale neighbourhood, walking around a bit before heading to a lovely afternoon tea. The B&B proprietor mentioned that it's actually her nieces who operate the tea room -- and it was wonderful, with a live harpist, a three tiered tray of sandwiches, crackers, scones, gingerbread, and other yummy foods, and of course excellent tea (I had the creamy earl grey). We then popped off to meet Seattle friends S & J, who happened to be up the same weekend for a craft event, for gelato at the crazy 200+ flavor place near downtown.

In the evening was the folk dance party, which was a lot of fun - there was a great band that went practically non-stop, while Meh's group popped in with a huge variety of large and small ensemble pieces while everyone danced around them. (Yes, I made an attempt or two at the folk dancing, mostly just stumbling as I watched other people's feet. But at the very least definitely enjoyed the music and atmosphere!)

The next morning we had an amazing breakfast at the B&B and hit Granville Island for a brief visit before heading home, perusing the public farmers market (with these interesting precariously pyramid-stacked cherries) and picking up some small toys for the boys. We did incidentally spend much of our trip talking about the boys and what Zachary would have to say about the various things we saw, but it was so nice to get to spend some quiet time just the two of us!

The Winter of Our Disc Tent

With Chanukah here, the boys have been getting a flurry of generous presents from friends and family alike! Owen will occasionally grab for a box (though far more frequently, he'll start scooting for something Zachary is actively playing with -- on rare occasions, such as the picture to the left, he's holding a toy that Zachary will actually gently give him, before moving onto another one - so cute!), but Zachary hasn't really been interested in the box until he sees the wrapping paper fall off -- often exposing something Thomas-themed underneath. Of course then it's a race to try to get the present unwrapped and extricated while he eagerly says 'open' and 'help'; so-called "security wrapping" has gotten pretty ridiculous at this point. One present's instructions even specifically called out the required use of a phillips head screwdriver to remove it from the box!

One of Zachary's favorite presents came last night from mima and papa - a collapsible circular tent! He climbed inside and was having a great time just hanging out; we'd only occasionally see a hand emerge holding an empty glass of milk for us to refill or dispose of. Today, Meh had the excellent idea to consolidate it with his (literal) pile of plush toys, filling the tent with the coziness. Zachary climbed inside early in the afternoon after swim time, and proceeded to fall asleep -- for more than two and a half hours! I caught this picture right before he conked out; when I checked back a few minutes later, there was just a pile of plush toys with a little sock sticking out.

Our visit with Uncle B continues to be a fun time all around -- while Meh was at a craft fair yesterday, B and I took the boys for Z's long-overdue haircut (still sadness, despite me even bringing a Thomas DVD) followed by a walk around the local shopping mall and a nice kaiten sushi lunch. Zachary sat in the booth itself (which he insisted was a "couch") rather than a high chair, and Owen squawked (mostly happily) at the parade of passing sushi plates. Uncle B also came to swimming with Zachary and myself this morning -- Zachary would occasionally look over to the edge of the pool where uncle B was sitting and say "Hiiii Uncle B" and give him a big smile before resuming his dunking and paddling exercises.

Say uncle

The boys' uncle B is visiting from New York! It's been a very fun trip so far; he's been having a great time playing with them (though I had to make fun of him for needing a nap after today's activities!) and of course it's been wonderful having him in town with us just to hang out and spend time together; he's even wanted to gear up with the bjorn and wear Owen around, as seen in this picture from a Costco excursion. And tonight he's even generously volunteered to babysit while Meh and I head to my work group's holiday dinner and then our business unit's huge holiday party -- here's hoping for a smooth night of sleep from the boys!

Chanukah started the night before Uncle B arrived. Mima and papa came bearing presents for the boys, as well as for us (thanks for the Superman cufflinks!); Zachary was thrilled with his excellent Caterpillar-approved heavy loader, complete with multiple engine noises, mechanized lifter, forward and backward movement (though Zachary somehow already managed to immobilize that part) and a music button that Meh insists reflects what must be construction workers' musical tastes when "on break". We got him Thomas pez dispensers, which he was eager to introduce to his Wonder Woman and Miss Piggy ones.

Across the room, Owen got a fun combination ride-on/push cart from mima and papa. Once papa had figured out the extensive assembly instructions, Owen was off and running (or at least grabbing) with it. Here's how he looked in ride-on mode, before we flipped it to push cart, which he of course scoots over to and plays with (generally trying to somehow fit various corners of the cart into his mouth). Owen continues to gradually scoot more and more, often leaving a path of disassembled play mat in his wake. Lately he's been somehow scooting himself half under the couch -- if he ever disappears from sight, I think that's the first place we'll have to check!

Mobile operator

Over the last few days, we've witnessed Owen transitioning from fully stationary to somewhat mobile. I wouldn't say he's crawling precisely yet -- more leaning, grabbing onto things, and adopting (to continue the bad punnage from this post's title) a pull model. We'll park him in the center of his playmat, and a minute later, he'll be to one side of it, often disassembling and chomping on its foam pieces. If he reaches any kind of large device (his toy piano, or more recently his jumper), he'll drag it (and/or himself) around -- probably some good resistance training exercise right there.


Yesterday mommy worked, but the boys and I had a fun morning all playing together. And indeed another transition I've been seeing lately is for Zachary to actually occasionally pay attention to and even (gasp) interact with his brother. He kept sampling Owen's toys -- and by sampling, I mean putting them in his mouth and saying 'Eat it!'. Owen for his part continues to be fascinated by his brother; when he comes into view after not being seeng for a few minutes, Owen gives a giant smile, often a laugh, and sometimes even a mildly piercing scream/grunt of happiness.

Bird is the word

Happy Turkey Day! We had a nice gathering of friends and family for the holiday, and of course ended up eating way too much and still having crazy leftovers. In the morning, I took Zachary sledding once more before the snow was due to start melting. We got to use the excellent new coaster that Mima and Papa had picked up, and made about four runs down the fresh layer of snow on the hill, only totally losing control and spinning out once. Zachary loved every moment of it -- except when I asked if he was ready to go down the hill and he presumed 'down' meant 'get off the coaster', which resulted in an objecting 'Nooo!'. But once he understood, there was much giggling, clapping, and smiles.

When we got back, we all pitched in to straighten the house out a bit; Zachary helped swiffer, Owen helped hide things in his mouth, and mommy set up the incredible table decorations for both the adults and the kids. Of course Meh had outdone herself, even creating little turkey finger puppets for the three kids in attendance (alas, I neglected to grab any pictures of them). Owen and Zachary weren't so big into their naps, but we did get them into their Thanksgiving finery; Zachary even sported his first (clip-on) tie.

And in the afternoon, mima, papa, the H family, and friends S & J came over to celebrate the holiday. We all had a great time -- the H family boys of course enjoyed and played very nicely with all of Zachary and Owen's toys, it was wonderful to catch up with everyone, and much tasty food was made, brought, cooked, and eaten. Even Owen got in on the act, chowing down on challah, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, green beans, and more! The full album of festivities can be found here -- thanks to our friends and family for making this such a great Thanksgiving!

Snow day

The automated phone message came through last night that Zachary's school was cancelled for today (we actually just got another one this evening indicating the school district is off tomorrow too, though Z doesn't actually have class Wednesdays anyway), so we all got to have a family day at home today -- and a good thing too, since the roads were still icy and littered with abandoned cars when we ventured out in the afternoon. But in the morning, we had family play time, both indoors and outdoors. The local walking distance junior high has an excellent hill for sledding, so we bundled everyone up and headed over with a cookie sheet in tow. (Mima and Papa stopped by later in the afternoon with an honest-to-goodness coaster that we can use for future sledding -- thanks Mima and Papa!)

There were already a few other families sledding, and a nice dad offered us his spare plastic toboggan, which had ample room for both a very well-bundled-up Zachary and a parent; Meh and I each had a turn riding down the hill with Z. Here's my run; he had a great time until he went flying past mommy, at which point you can hear the beginnings of some whining.

All in all, a great time for everyone. We came home for hot cocoa and a cozy afternoon indoors, only briefly heading out to grab supplies for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner. We hope the roads are safe enough for our guests to actually attend! In other news, we finally captured the elusive Owen wave on film -- er, compact flash card:

White out

While I could swear this was a rare event when I first moved out here, we once again got snow today -- actually had a dusting last night that didn't stick, but by this morning, the flurries were back, surprising even the local weather folks. Zachary kept looking out the window at the white stuff, and was very excited to get to wear his Thomas boots on the walk out to the school bus; Owen was a little less aware of it, more interested in continuing to chew thoughtfully on his foam playmat.

Unfortunately, Meh still had work this afternoon, and bravely stuck with it until all of the rest of her coworkers started clearing out near the evening closing time (many of them heading for local hotels). Her drive home wasn't the three hours that some of my coworkers reported, but was very scary nonetheless, with plenty of snow, ice, and inexperienced winter weather drivers; the road she was driving down was suddenly closed with police cones and signs, and as she slowed down to see if it was safe to turn around, another car slid out of control and sideswiped her car's back corner. She was okay but shaken up; the other driver was very nice and offered a ride (though with the control his car had demonstrated, it was probably good that Meh stuck with her own car). Eventually she did manage to get home, driving through a mess of an earlier accident involving two buses and twenty or more cars. I'm very very glad that she's safe and sound, and I think we'll all be sticking around here tomorrow.

Back it up

Grandma is in town for the weekend! She's been having a wonderful time with the boys, and was rewarded by an "I love you gah-ma" from Zachary during stories tonight. Meh and mima also took her out for her upcoming birthday at the most excellent high tea in Seattle, which I think she really enjoyed. And she let Meh and me have a date night tonight; we enjoyed a casual dinner and a movie - it was nice to get an evening to ourselves. Thanks grandma!

Owen is ever so slowly starting to get a little mobile. Right now he's at a point where if there's something that interests him, he'll stretch as far as he can and even perhaps pull himself along a little bit. And this morning, I watched him squirm around, first in a full circle pivot, and then backwards a few inches. Like his brother, I think backward crawling may precede going forwards.

Zachary's swimming lessons continue to be a highlight of our Sundays, and he continues to love them. He often gets a bit ahead of the teacher, saying "ready", taking a deep breath, and then dunking his own head under the water. His favorite is when the floaties come out and he can go off and be independent, swimming, kicking, self-dunking, and occasionally even going all mellow/peaceful and backfloating around the pool.

New Wave

First a picture of our Halloween giraffe -- seeing as he slept through all of the costumed shots on the actual holiday.

It's not entirely consistent yet, but Owen has begun to occasionally wave at us -- it's very cute to see! We haven't yet been able to grab a video of him doing it, but will keep encouraging him. He also continues to squeak and speak happily, particularly when there's food or his big brother within visual range. And he's got a fabulous laugh that he uses for everything from tickles and zerbers to silly noises to hide and seek. Such a good tiny man!

Meanwhile, I'm very glad to be back from my conferences in SF. While it was exciting and rewarding to give my first keynote and both events went well, it was difficult to be away for so long, and both boys were fighting colds to boot. Though the airport was hectic and all flights overbooked, I did somehow manage to beg and plead my way onto an earlier flight; I still missed the boys' bedtime, but was very happy to see them the next morning, even if it was before 5 am!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and The Giraffe

It's Halloween! This year's costumes of choice were a giraffe for Owen and a cute cowboy outfit for Zachary, mostly composed of items inherited from his uncle Josh at the same age. Of course he had to try out a bunch of different hats along the way, though the cowboy-appropriate one did win out in the end.

To avoid some of the challenges we had in past years (it getting too late for Zachary, yet too early for anyone to answer the door and give him candy), we decided to try doing what one of my distant cousins calls a "truck or treat", where you drive to a central location hosting a Halloween party with a bunch of people giving out candy. In this case, we packed up the car with the boys, mima, and papa, and went to the Bothell Country Village, which turned out to be fairly jam-packed with people. (High percentage costumes this year were Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy.) Still, Zachary did fabulously and even selected candy when offered -- though he remains only interested in eating "piece of chocolate" that conforms to certain dimensions and taste (e.g. those little Dove square chocolates). Owen dutifully conked out just before we arrived, so there was a sleeping little giraffe being carried along behind the cute cowboy. Meh did an impressive job putting together some last minute cowboy-like costumes for us as well, and mima and papa went as "Floridians trying to cope with the cold weather". Zachary had a great time, though he kept having to deal with sagging chaps and his hat falling into his line of sight. Still, he had a great time and finally had a crying-free Halloween -- hooray! Full set of pictures here.

Alas, we're still not into crying-free Halloween yet; Owen continues to fight a cold, and melted down a bit on the way home from an early dinner with mima and papa. Still, a huge milestone for Zachary and he even took our cues (sort of), saying "Hi trick or treat!" (as if trick or treat was a person). Both boys are so cute and good!

Breaking bread

Owen continues to love music, and has even started to make some of his own:

Both boys continue to encourage mommy to sing and daddy to bust out with the viola -- Zachary will even say "more music! viola!" when I stop playing between pieces. Sometimes I take requests, which generally fall into the 'Wheels on the Bus' or 'Thomas and Friends' theme song categories.

While Owen continues to try everything in sight (this kid even eats those vegetable medley jarred baby foods), Zachary continues to typically be very selective. We continue to serve up a variety of interesting and tasty foods to him, but he's generally declined, ignored, or actively said 'no!' to foods that fall outside of his comfort zone. So it was huge news in the world of Zachary dining today to see him take one thoughtful bite of my famous challah! The two of us were sitting and having lunch, and he saw me eating a piece. He then picked up the piece I'd given him on his lunch plate, smelled it, touched it to his lips, said "good job!" (I think that's what our nanny has been saying when he eats something), and then ate it. The rest of the challah remained on the plate, but still a huge thing to see him try something new -- good job indeed!

Incidentally, delayed pictures from Zachary's 3rd birthday party have been posted here. I of course had been preoccupied with grilling and watching the birthday boy, and promptly forgot to use the camera. Visiting friends T and S covered it though, and got some great shots!

Guess who's coming to dinner

Mima and Papa had the four of us and our friends J & S over for shabbat dinner last night. I of course brought the homemade challah (seriously, I'd perhaps try to break out into other dishes if I didn't have to confront the downcast faces if I show up somewhere without fresh loaves of bread!), and Meh made this amazing peanut butter and chocolate cake of extra tastiness:

The boys did really well despite dinner rolling well into their bedtime; Owen even sampled his very first matzoh ball! Meanwhile, Zachary was shushing Lola and J & S's dog Max when they barked at each other -- Lola in particular was looking rather ferocious trying to protect her property, though the two did somehow manage to coexist. It was a fabulous multi-course dinner, though the boys did turn into pumpkins as we advanced to the later courses. Still, we managed to finish dinner, get home, the boys bathed, and to sleep without sadness - I'll call that a success!

And speaking of pumpkins, today we went with mima to a local pumpkin patch and corn maze (though this year's maze was about the saddest thing we've seen - there's a whole description on their website about hordes of crows repeatedly digging up and eating their crop). Zachary waded through the "p says pah, pah -- pumpkin!" patch. He didn't exactly pick out a pumpkin, but he was happy to see us take one home. We also ran into some old friends attending a birthday party at the farm; it was great to see them and get to briefly catch up!

A private concert

It's a Meh work weekend, so I've been getting to enjoy some quality time with the boys. They continue to occasionally play in parallel; Owen definitely watches and often happily screeches at Zachary. Zachary mostly responds when Owen starts playing with one of Zachary's old music toys, at which point he wants to play with it himself. The boys and I had a full day adventure with mima and papa yesterday -- first we checked out what turned out to be an enormous annual festival at a local farm/park. They had pony rides, bunny rabbits that you could pet (Owen smiled as I helped him with his first real-life opportunity to pat the bunny), and a bunch of stands with arts and crafts activities. Unfortunately, the weather didn't follow the forecast and clear up, so we all got pretty wet and weren't really into waiting in long lines. Still, Zachary was happy to see and talk about the chickens, and we were impressed with the staff that were teaching goats to go through something resembling an obstacle course or an equestrian run. From there we decided to get warmed up by grabbing sushi lunch at a local kaiten place, which was super tasty if a bit challenging (Owen was continually trying to reach for rolls, chopsticks, soy sauce holders, and my glass).

And finally we headed to a certain local library to see our favorite Seattle a cappella group perform. Of course, our favorite librarian was staffing the event, so everyone was happy and smiley to get to see mommy on one of her work weekends. As an added bonus, the group that was opening for the Baudboys (an opening act at a library? Fancy!) was warming up, saw Zachary hanging out in the stroller, and decided to serenade him. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first, grabbing mommy's hand, but he enjoyed their four-part harmony renditions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and another kids song. For the concert itself, Owen was smiley in Mima's lap while Zachary preferred to remain in the stroller -- it was a great show, and particularly fun to meet and hear some of the newest members of the Bauds.

Teacher's Pet

Zachary continues to come home from school talking about his activities, his many friends, and singing songs and reciting stories that he hears there. Talk about a kid who gets excited about school, here he's literally clamoring at the door to go outside and wait for the bus:

Tonight we got to connect some of the dots, as his class held an evening pumpkin decorating activity, with parents invited! We met more of his classmates, and talked with his teachers to help decode the names of fellow students he's been singing about. (Example: "Ah-mel-mel" turned out to be "Amelio") He was a little unsure of why we were back at school at 5 pm, but was excited to show us the way to his classroom. Unfortunately, the activity was actually in the cafeteria, so Zachary didn't know what was happening when we took a literal left turn. Eventually he came in and painted a fabulous pumpkin (mostly a Halloween appropriate blood red), and decorated black construction paper with chalk (spiderwebs?) and paper spiders stuck on with a big glue stick.

Meanwhile, it turned out that the teachers themselves were super excited to catch up with the mom behind some of the most impressively creative lunches they'd seen packed for school. Meh makes them in these cute little bento boxes, and always gives Zachary a nice variety of options. She outdid herself today actually, putting together this fun little hard boiled egg, apple, and quesadilla number.

Four letter words

The other morning, Owen was happily playing with his toys and then something made him sad, he mumbled a bit, and then out came "mama!" Meh ran right over to him with smiles and hugs, and was delighted that (even if inadvertent) her name beat out both mine and "cookie" (Zachary's first real word if we remember correctly). And today, Owen in his babbling looked at me and said "dada". Again, it's all likely just random babbling at this point, but still super cute.

Meanwhile, the tiny man is no longer so tiny; the exersaucer indicates that you should adjust the seat up to the next height if the baby's feet can touch the ground flat. Well, Owen's feet can touch flat, and the exersaucer is already in the top position. Looks like another toy that will be forced into an early retirement!

Just eat it

Owen continues to be our family fresser, eagerly at least trying a whole range of tasty well-pureed foods. The other day, Meh got him into his highchair for supper time, and he immediately opened his mouth wide and just sat there, jaws unhinged, waiting for her to finish prepping dinner. He particularly likes oatmeal, mashed fruits, sweet potato (Zachary and his first shared dish), carrots, and yogurt, but he'll occasionally even try a bit of banana yogurt. Oh, and he loves his mum mums, though I dispute the product's claim that it "doesn't leave a mess"; there are generally bits of rice/cabbage/whatever cracker all over his hands, face, seat, and local floorspace by the time he's done. But it's all well worth it to watch him shove a mum mum into his mouth and gum it for a bit, all while smiling at us - super cute!