District Tourists

Though Zachary was a frequent flyer seemingly from the moment he was born, Owen had yet to take an airplane -- that all changed this week, as we visited bubbie, Aunt I, and Uncle S in Maryland for bubbie's 91st birthday! Packing for four is slightly more challenging than even three, though in the end I think we had just about the right amount of clothes (particularly with a load or two of laundry thrown in at Aunt I and Uncle S's house). Zachary got to try out his new wheely suitcase in the airport, and had a great time riding it around. We also left plenty of time so the boys could enjoy themselves at the very mall-looking play area -- where they had the run of the place for part of the time, only occasionally needing to share it with other kids.

The flight itself was decent; Zachary was very excited to be back on a plane and actually took a great nap. Owen took a shorter nap and mostly just got bored despite a flurry of toys and foods. On the plus side, the plane snack packs were perfectly appropriate for both boys, with cheese (Owen tried to eat a giant cheddar wedge) and fruit. When the plane landed, Zachary smiled at me and said "one more time!"; he only got sad when we had to get off the airplane.

With the time change, we got into DC very late, then had to go grab the rental car, wait for them to sort us out, install the car seats, and then get mildly lost trying to get to our hotel -- we ended up dumped at the end of a freeway into downtown D.C., whoops. But by 12:30 or so, we were at the hotel and ready for sleep. Alas, it was a single bed (I'd asked for two doubles), and nobody was interested in trying out the sleep tent some friends had graciously loaned us. Suffice it to say, sleep was a bit elusive, though on the plus side, everyone did sleep until 8 am (5 am back home).

Uncle B and grandma also came in for Bubbie's birthday, and we all met up the next morning at Aunt I and Uncle S's house. It was Bubbie and Owen's first meeting, and they seemed to get along famously. Zachary said hi to everyone, while Owen was fascinated by "Minnie dog" (and her water bowl, and really any moderately off limits area; he spent much of the morning practicing climbing up the carpeted staircase. We all had a really nice day together, including a nice dual stroller walk.
The rest of the trip was nice (other than the sleeping -- the second night we discovered just how thin the walls of our hotel were, as our neighbors apparently had a party, and kept loudly giving driving directions over the phone as more and more people arrived) -- we took the Metro into DC and took the boys to the National Museum of Natural History, where Zachary and Owen had a very fun time looking at all of the dinosaur bones. From there, we walked over to the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which featured some stunning... flowers? Foliage? Anyway, the boys enjoyed the walk along the tidal basin, and even let mommy stop off and pick up some gifts along the way. We met up with Bubbie and Aunt I for dinner that evening (graciously picked up once more by Aunt I).

For our last full day in the area, we decided to explore Bethesda. There was an interesting-looking Playseum that turned out to likely be Zachary's favorite part of the whole trip. They've apparently solicited all of the local Bethesda businesses to set up miniature play "shops" in what was originally a bookstore. Zachary saw the fire truck and it was all over from there, he just kept checking out various stores and having a blast. Eventually both boys even ended up in a car together, playing very nicely together. After a tasty family lunch, we tried to have nap time back at the hotel (failing), and then tried to have dinner with Bubbie one last time (also failing, the boys finally did fall asleep in the car). Bright and early this morning we were off to the airport for the return flight -- Owen had a slightly rougher time on the way back, though mostly again just needing constant entertainment. Both boys did so well on a cross-country trip, we were so proud of them; but we all agree, there's no place like home, and it's good to be back!

(Full set of pictures from the trip here.)

Toeing the Line

Wednesday was a good friend's birthday, so Meh took her out for a lovely tea while I watched the boys. Z had gym class, so I was happy to be able to attend for the first time. It's a combination of running around, tumbles, balance beam, and other activities. Owen had a great time climbing around the lobby making eyes at the other parents and playing with toys, and Z clearly had a great time skipping, tumbling, and playing.

A possible explanation for Zachary's frequent wakeups over the past few days: a fever on Friday sent him home from school, and Saturday morning he had the eye goops. Sure enough, we took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with both an ear infection and pinkeye. Meredith had the foresight to ask the doctors if they could check out Owen as well, but Z had a rough time and O wasn't showing any symptoms, so we ended up bailing. Naturally, the next morning O had the same eye goops, and another trip to the doc and pharmacy later, we had matching bottles of everyone's favorite pink antibiotic. The boys' response to the medicine has been pretty diametrically opposed: Zachary hates it, generally ends up crying, and we doubt if he's actually swallowing even a tenth of it. By contrast, Owen smiled, clapped, and signed for more after I gave him his dose this afternoon.

On the plus side, it seems to be working - both boys seem markedly better today (though Z wasn't quite ready for school). We hope everyone's back to 100% soon; we've got a flight to catch in a few short days!

The sound of two teeth gnashing

Yesterday was Owen's 1-year doctor's appointment. He's already doing many of the things that the doctor and his "report card" indicated were to be looked forward to in the weeks/months to come. Here are the stats for the tiny (but tall) man:

Weight: 21 lbs, 13 oz (25-50th percentile)
Height: 31" (75-90th percentile)
OCF: 18" (25th percentile)

The only minus to the 12-month checkup is the set of shots; last night at bath time we removed three separate silver sparkly holographic bandaids, and he had a rough night sleep-wise, waking up several times. Though on the plus side, he did end up sleeping for the final round until 7:30 am. Meh noticed that he was grinding his teeth a bit when she went in this morning -- which means of course that he suddenly has two teeth. Congrats O! Zachary in the meantime had a few nightmares and ended up having daddy snooze time. While it's sad to hear him crying at night, it's pretty adorable to see him standing at his door, whispering "daddy, snuggle" before climbing back into his cozy bed.

Owen's been more frequently interested in checking out the piano lately. Here he is exploring his minimalist side.

Universal tooth

Owen continues to impressively eat a variety of foods that one would think you'd need at least two teeth to deal with. Yesterday I gave him a little bit of raw carrot, and he chomped on it amiably for quite a while. Granted, he kept working on the same piece (and occasionally taking it out to examine it), but you can't fault the effort.

He also continues to show great interest and engagement in the camera (as well as anything else we use to interact with him, as well as of course whatever Zachary happens to be playing with):

Free standing

Owen's latest accomplishment: standing up without any furniture-provided assistance. Meh saw him do this several times yesterday, and then during bath time he kept trying to demonstrate his newfound skill to me as well. Hooray, but please remain seated while in the tub!

Today I finally assembled our new toy/puzzle/book-holding cabinet that Meh had excellently chosen from our favorite Swedish flatpack store. Zachary even helped me hammer in a couple of dowels, though both boys preferred the actual packaging for entertainment.

With the cabinet complete, Meh has started the reorganization, and it's already such an improvement over the many piles and stuffed glass door cabinets in the family room. At last we can see all of the books that we've (or at least they've) been totally ignoring! The funniest part was when Zachary started to "clean up" by pulling vehicles out of the cabinet and putting them back in their old pile in the family room. He thought it was really funny when we explained that the cabinet is the new place to park the fire truck.

Get packing

And just like that, Owen demonstrated another skill for dinner on Sunday.

Owen's actual birthday (as opposed to his observed one) did end up including some fun singing and play time despite our busy schedules. Zachary celebrated with his own new 'toy': in preparation for our upcoming trip to visit bubbie, he got his very own ride-on suitcase. Here he was giving it a spin:

We're looking forward to getting to visit with bubbie, Aunt I, and Uncle S -- and grandma is flying in too! But still a tad nervous about the long flight (thankfully direct) and sleeping arrangements when we get there. Time to hunt for hotels!

Happy Birthday (observed)

Owen's first birthday falls on a Tuesday this year. Alas, between our various hectic schedules (including his - he's got swimming lessons during the day), we'll probably have all of twenty minutes to celebrate with him on his birthday proper between dinner and bathtime. So we opted to have his official party on the preceding Sunday -- as in, today. The unofficial guiding principle for birthdays is apparently to invite a number of friends equivalent to your age; we broke the rule a bit by having two guests: mima and papa.

Meh of course was in charge of the festivities and outdid herself once more. Working in an entirely new direction from a theme we used for Zachary's first birthday, she created an excellent dual-toned batch of cupcakes with a special birthday message.

We particularly enjoyed brainstorming a few objects that start with the letter "O", which Meh expertly piped as chocolate:

Like his brother before him, Owen wasn't really into the cupcakes themselves, though he did gobble up quite a few of the chocolate piped letters and decorative objects. Zachary meanwhile enjoyed eating a pile of strawberries that we'd placed adjacent to (what we felt was) an alluring cupcake on his plate. But the rest of us enjoyed the tasty cupcakes, and everyone enjoyed singing happy birthday and helping Owen blow out the candle.

Still unbelievable that he's already a year old! So many new and exciting things going on for him every day, and it's so fun to see him discover the world and smile, eat, laugh, pick up, put down, or occasionally spit up on it. While it's still technically two days away, happy happy first birthday tiny man!

Back in time

I got back late last night from a productive but exhausting conference. This morning, Zachary was up at his usual 5 am, and when I went to get him, he quietly whispered "Hiii daddy!", as if surprised that it was me and not mima or mommy that had come to fetch him. Incidentally, apparently the mima/mommy combo had gotten a little too complicated for Zachary while I was gone, so Meh has become "mama". We'll have to see if that sticks, particularly since I'm still daddy. Anyway, huge huge thanks once again to mima for staying with Meh while I was gone and helping take care of the boys -- I think the boys particularly enjoyed the bonus mima time!

And there was plenty new in Owen's world as well. First, he started making noises while pushing cars around. You can possibly just make it out (under Zachary's whining in the background):


He also started cracking himself up trying to say the word "bubbles":

In general we're noticing him trying to say words (or at least their first consonant) while pointing at objects; "buh" might mean book, ball, or if it's "buhhhh", balloon. Cute tiny man!

News worthy

For Valentine's Day this year, both Meh and I unfortunately had full days of work. Rather than try for a remote bouquet delivery, I opted to get Meredith a fun (and only mildly embarassing) gift of a singing valentine, where a local barbershop quartet went to her work and sang her a few songs in front of the apparently delighted patrons! She really liked it, and apparently it made an impression on the witnesses as well, as multiple friends and family members pointed us at the bottom of the "rants and raves" page of this weekend's Seattle Times. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it so much, and am just sorry I didn't get to hear the singers too!

Tomorrow I head to San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference -- I skipped last year due to a certain tiny man's arrival (picture at left). :) While I'll be kept very busy with three presentations and too many meetings to count, it's going to be hard to be away from Meh and the boys for the whole week. Thankfully Mima is going to be staying over and helping out - huge thanks to her in advance, and here's hoping the number of 5 am wakeups are minimal.

Sign up

The snow has returned! Thankfully it's been mostly a dusting at the house, which is enough to entertain Zachary but not enough to pin us at home. In other news, Owen is doing all sorts of new and exciting things lately. The words (or at least syllables) continue to sporadically appear. Here's a video grabbing his frequent favorite:


He's also decided he wants to try to climb the stairs. Thankfully he's stuck at the first step, but will try and try (often while saying "up!"). Time to bust out the safety gates again...


He's also started signing "milk!". It's particularly cute when I'm giving him a bottle, he'll stop drinking, look back at me, and sign while smiling. Meh says it's as if he's saying, "Look! We're having milk! Milk!!!". And lastly for today (sorry, lots of videos!), he's gotten into giving people big bear hugs, particularly if they happen to be at his height, like a certain older brother:

Who ya gonna call?

And the milestones keep on coming for both boys. Zachary is doing better and better with pottying, even going standing up as long as there's a step stool handy. And Owen has begun to actually "play", as in make-believe. He was eating pretend food (and sharing some with mommy) the other day, and yesterday began pretending to talk on his toy phone. Mommy caught this video:
And a shared milestone - while I've seen both boys laugh at me (er, hopefully with me?), today they really actually started laughing with each other and sharing a clapping game. Super cute, super silly:

Tip your waiters

We've been having a busy weekend with grandma and J! The boys have had a great time playing with them; Zachary even told what might be his first self-created "joke":

The only minus was that Owen appears to have forgotten how to take a nap; he'll get very sad and worked up if I try to put him down, even if he's rubbing his eyes and about to conk out in my arms. Hopefully it's just a brief phase, but for now it's pretty exhausting all around! Yesterday while Meh worked, we took a walk around everyone's favorite Seattle market, had a tasty lunch (at a table Zachary picked out!), and even visited the local architectural landmark masquerading as a library. Zachary had great fun riding the escalators all the way up to the top floor.

Mima and papa graciously had us all over this morning for a super-tasty brunch (featuring some extra decadent chocolate chip french toast). Owen promptly decided to make some music:


The afternoon was a bit more challenging -- after doing some arts and crafts with Zachary (which of course involved him somehow getting marker on his face), and with Owen once again nap-free all day, we opted to take a walk around our neighborhood and over to the elementary school. The boys loved getting some fresh air, though Zachary had to potty (and wonderfully announced it!) and we had to make a bit of a dash home, before heading right back out to friends J & S in the city. Owen finally fell asleep on the drive, and I successfully transferred him to the ergo. But when we got into J & S's house, Z had a total meltdown tantrum and wanted to be up as well. I ended up carrying around both boys (Owen at least stayed asleep just long enough to qualify for a "lousy" nap) in varying states of sadness while S gave grandma and J the grand tour. The boys had travelling dinner on the way home before a brief bathtime and bedtime. Whew!

Grandma and J head home early tomorrow morning - we had a wonderful time with them and hope they had a fun visit!

Balance of power

Owen has several new favorite activities - he's gotten quite good at putting things into (and taking them out of) containers. So once he has gotten past the first round of chowing on food at a restaurant, he'll switch gears and just focus on picking up and putting back. Perhaps more amusing, he's gotten into balancing objects on top of each other; again, with the love of food, this most frequently manifests as him picking up food, putting it onto the lid of his sippy cup, bringing the sippy cup toward his mouth, and slurping the well-balanced food off the top of it. Silly tiny man!


Grandma and her friend J are here to visit for the weekend. While Z was at school, Meh, Owen, and I picked them up at the airport and headed to lunch at a tasty spot we hadn't been in ages. O enjoyed some french toast while the rest of us got caught up. In the afternoon, we all had some good quality hang-out time back home, and grandma helped out with bath time too. Tomorrow night they've graciously offered to babysit so Meh and I can have a pre-Valentine's date -- hooray!

Taking it down a notch

Four new milestones for Owen today!

1. He slept straight through until 5:45 am this morning. Hard to say if he would have slept longer if Zachary hadn't started talking loudly about elephants peeing in the potty.
2. We can finally feel his first tooth just starting to come through on the bottom -- and thankfully no teething discomfort that we can tell.
3. Meh reported that he pulled himself up to standing for the first time today (first observed on our living room ottoman).
4. When I came home tonight during baffy time, he smiled, pointed at me from the tub, and said "dada!"

Speaking of which, Zachary's continuing to improve with potty training (and certainly bladder control). Today mommy took the boys to Swedish Flat-Pack Land, and despite long drives both ways and two declined offers in the public restroom, he was dry when they got home -- and prompty had a successful sit on the potty.

With Owen once again waking up and sitting up in the crib this morning, I finally took the time to drop his mattress height down to the next setting -- which is actually pretty darn low. I'm even wondering if it might soon be time to flip the mattress over to non-infant mode. Yup, life moves pretty fast -- if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Or you might just miss Owen making yet another attempt to snag one of Zachary's toy cars.

O mother where art thou

Meh's annual choir retreat is this weekend, so the boys and I said goodbye to her late yesterday morning and had about twenty four hours to ourselves. Zachary's potty training continues to improve - just one accident yesterday, though that's in part still due to frequent sits on the potty. Still, once there he's doing better and better -- we even get glimpses of how he's getting encouragement at school, as he sings such hits as "Go! Pee pee! Zachary!" and (to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle) "Pee pee, Zachary, in the toilet". We had a fun day around the house, with Zachary enjoying some quality time on the swing -- a slight logistical adventure ensued as I tried to figure out how to get him into the swing without putting down Owen on the damp ground. (The out-of-the-box solution was shoulders.)

Everything went great until late in the day, when Zachary had an accident, then a bit of a meltdown at bedtime (right after mima, who had graciously come over to help with bedtime, had headed out), and then Owen began waking up every hour or two and wouldn't take milk, and then Zachary had a nightmare, and... Suffice it to say, I still can't imagine how solo parents handle the challenges of two kids! We all three did have some nice snuggle time this morning, as well as some silliness (such as Owen deciding to play with his cup under the dining room table, often impressively balancing it on the crossbar and then screeching happily) and laughing that made it all worth it. Nonetheless, we were very happy to greet mommy when she returned early in the afternoon!

Sit up

Another pair of milestones for Owen: when he woke up at 3 am this morning and I went in to get him, he was sitting up on his tush for the first time, looking at me. Time to drop the crib a level or two! And two days ago, we started hearing his first authentic word, which was "up!". It's accompanied by him raising his arms way up in the air, as if he were Mr. Fantastic and could reach you from across the room to pick him up. After swimming yesterday, he asked mommy for "up!" in the locker room, and she had two other mothers confirm that it was an intelligible request. Way to go Owen!

On the topic of being up, the ongoing potty training for Zachary continues. It's been a challenging first few weeks; his first day back at school apparently passed without incident (mostly due to him holding it), but the second day he had a few accidents, and we've been burning through clean pants and underpants at an alarming rate (generally requiring a new load every night). At home, he loves the stamps he gets for successful dry checks, but still will often have accidents soon after picking one up. We try to have him help cleaning up, but of course Owen is trying to get in on the action as well, which adds an extra level of complexity. Owen has been incredibly inquisitive about his environment, and has found entirely new areas for us to babyproof than his older brother did. We've also had to start making sure any regular books stay off the ground, as Owen is big on the whole page tearing thing. And at night, Owen continues to wake up at 3 or 3:30 and can't get back to sleep unless he joins us. So definitely some exhausting times in our household. But also cute ones, here's Zachary doing a "dry check" while Owen tries to help:

Apparently at school today, they tried having him pee standing up (which incidentally is the theme and title of his new favorite book -- who knew our son would become so obsessed with a Belgian sculpture?) and so long as they emptied a wet washcloth into the potty, he could, um, match the action. Not yet reproduced at home, but go little man!

The Clapper

Potty training continues for Zachary, with some successes and a wish that we could summon absorbent towels from thin air. But we're all keeping at it. His favorite part remains "dry checks", where he gets rewarded for success with his choice of stamps from the fabulous mommy collection. Right now it seems that a purple apple or a red acorn are the favorites, though at one point he managed to grab the whole collection and had train stamps all over his leg before we noticed. Of course, much of the time still involves sitting on the toilet waiting for the big event to occur; it's variably spent reading stories, playing with toys, or singing songs. And last night, during a song that involved clapping, mommy started hearing clapping from another direction. She turned, and Owen was happily clapping along as well -- another big milestone! It's about a half step different from his sign for "more", but definitely has a nice satisfying clap sound to it. And speaking of which, we finally caught that sign on video:

Well done to both of our boys!

The Empty Pot

With a long school-free stretch in front of us (Zachary is off both for MLK Day Monday and a kindergarten in-service on Tuesday, plus no school on Wednesdays), we decided to make another attempt at potty training this weekend. Yesterday, after swimming, two of Zachary's teachers helped us put together a "potty party", where I, the teachers in turn, and mima spent much (most) of the day just hanging out in the petite downstairs bathroom. Z enjoyed most of the time spent there, getting tons of attention in addition to checking out a bunch of toys and activities presented just for the occasion. We also had various kids books on the subject at hand, including his favorite retro '70s (okay, 1980) book, which he hadn't read in months and was pleased to see again. Ironically his favorite book choice was a morality tale that has nothing to do with toilets -- but seems a wholly appropriate title for this blog post anyway. Because one thing Zachary demonstrated this weekend was a bladder of steel, with often hours going by between, um, "events". So hey, at least he's got decent control (if, as proven several times, poor aim). He went several times in the potty over the course of the day, but frequently kept his legs figuratively crossed well past the point of visible discomfort. This was the point where we'd ask him if he wanted more juice or milk, and he'd emphatically say yes and then guzzle it down -- so clearly that connection hasn't yet been made in his mind! Between potty trips, he got to wear some new Thomas-themed underwear that he was very excited about, and we'd check for dry underpants and give him a stamp for successes.

Today was a bit more difficult; we had an epic marathon of toilet sitting (the process had been that he stay on the potty until he went) for about four and a half hours, which ended in mutual frustration, a soaked bathroom, and a very sad mommy and Zachary. When Meh went to work (and with Owen frequently fussing), I regressed back to less toilet time and frequent underwear checks with him wearing underwear under a diaper -- most of which were similarly ending in wet underpants. But after an exhausting, underpant supply exhausting, and seemingly unproductive day, Zachary looked at me and said "want to sit on potty". He grabbed my hand, walked me over to it, and 10 minutes later he had a big success. And so what if half of it missed, it was still great to see him initiate this step. Of course, during bath time he proceeded to pee in the tub, so definitely still some work to do here. But despite the challenges and setbacks, it's still good to see him overall enjoying and talking about his time on the often empty pot.

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!