Cooking by the book

One of Zachary's (and now Owen's) favorite book series is the Frances the Badger series. Meh even scored points with the boys by discovering the audio book rendition of a few stories from the series, delivered fabulously by the actress who played the suffragette mother Mrs. Banks in the Mary Poppins film. Now almost every time we get in the car, Zachary happily asks for "Frances stories!"

So clearly the book and CD gets a lot of mileage, and we've always thought the description of the "chompo bar" Frances gets her sister for her birthday sounded pretty darn yummy. Earlier this week, Meh decided to actually make it - and the results were indeed extra tasty. For those keeping score at home, it's nougat (I'm a particular fan of the UK pronunciation "noo-gah") covered in caramel covered in chocolate covered in nuts - like some kind of nutty Milky Way. And of course Meh made it all from scratch. Zachary still hasn't ventured a bite, though Owen is a huge fan. Hooray for the amazing concoctions of Meh, and thanks to author Russell Hoban for inventing the concept!

You should see the other guy

Zachary was so happy to be back at school yesterday (after a week absence with teacher in-services and Memorial Day) that he was almost out the door before I could even get my shoes on to walk him out. My favorite is still when he runs on board and picks his seat. While it used to almost always be the same third row driver's side window seat, lately he's been mixing it up, including passenger side seats and even the occasional aisle. Craziness.
Mystery of mysteries: yesterday afternoon Z came off the bus with a few knicks and scratches on his face. Meh called his teachers, who reported no incidents or injuries at school, so best we can tell he either got himself or got clawed by another bus passenger -- the bus driver didn't hear him get upset, and for his part, he himself seemed like he could care less, smiling when mommy got him off the bus, and ticklishly giggling when she cleaned the scrapes.

Recount

Lately Zachary has been working on his counting, often commenting on toys, cars, flowers, cookies, and so on. Usually he does a fabulous job, pointing at each item, saying the number, and moving on to the next item. But sometimes he gets into a bit of a loop and comes back to the same objects. The other day he had something like 16 gears that he was playing with (by the way, hooray for that daddy favorite toy coming back into vogue after a long absence!), and decided to count them.

Z: "...twenty eight, twenty nine, twenty ten, twenty eleven..." (Again, actual number: sixteen.)

Super cute though. The weather has finally been starting to turn to "spring" on occasion here, so the boys spend increasing time playing out in the yard. Owen likes the swing on occasion (not nearly as much as Zachary), though he much prefers to climb up and down the mildly treacherous-looking stone stairs between the upper and lower yard.
He also decided that rocks looked interesting enough to try to eat; once I explained (and he had sampled one before I fished it out), he decided to instead pick them up and give them to daddy. Zachary for his part has rediscovered his collection of outdoor vehicles; occasionally there's even some nice sharing, though there are plenty of, um, "teaching moments". But by and large, they're having a great time in the great outdoors, and it's wonderful for the boys to get some good unrestricted outdoor play time in between our frequent stroller-constrained neighborhood loops.

Walkout

First, Owen set a new sequential steps record this past week:

In more recent news, it's Memorial Day weekend, which means the Northwest Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center! Meh's Balkan women's choir had performances both yesterday and today. (You can hear yesterday's here - scroll down to Dunava.) The boys, mima, and I accompanied her yesterday, hoping to have an improved experience over last year's rendition, where poor mima had to cut across the entire auditorium with a crying Owen right as the set started. This year things went much better; the occasionally sad kids were not Owen, and mima and he had a great time smiling and listening to mommy's group rock the Balkan house.

Zachary, on the other hand, wasn't a fan of the venue and decided as they were getting ready to start that he wanted to go "this way!", pointing toward the exit. So he and I ended up spending most of the set roaming around the outdoor food areas, watching the monorail arrive and depart, and listening to the bagpipes (which he liked much better) -- I did walk him back inside twice, but both times he insistently pointed back towards the great outdoors.

While Meh's group had been warming up, mima and I hunted for lunch with the boys. The "faire food" has certainly improved in quality there in recent years, and this time we stumbled upon a shockingly good vegetarian food cart. Unfortunately it's based in Oregon, so I may never find out the secret of their amazingly good vegan cheesesteak - I'm tempted to e-mail them and ask for the recipe. I was wearing Owen while we strolled Zachary, and he started making like a little bird when he saw me eating it -- I offered him some, and he proceeded to chow down on several goodly sized bites of mima and my shared sandwich (we also split a decent veggie reuben).

Tell us about it

The milestones keep coming fast and furious for Mister O. He's discovered the pushcart and likes to cart it around:
And he's taking more and more steps in a row -- 3, 4, even 5 on occasion.
He's also getting more and more communicative and expressive, picking up bits of words (my favorite, though I know it shouldn't be, is his "neh" with head shaking, which means "no"), pointing at various things and taking about them, crowing when he finds and removes his shoes and socks while in the car seat, giggling at my faces, and talking emphatically about Zachary ("zjada!") whenever he see him. I'm still quite particular to the way he smiles and says "mama" when he sees mommy after a day (or period of 10 minutes, whichever comes first) without her.

Meanwhile, Z continues to sing some pretty darn adorable songs that we don't entirely recognize, whether in the car, on the couch, in the bath, or at the dining room table. Some come from the boys' nanny, others from school, and occasionally they turn out to be songs we know but just didn't pick up on Z's artistic interpretation until he starts singing along with the music in the car. This one comes from school -- we think:

(You can also hear his rendition of the beginning of this song here.)

A Ferry Good Time

Meredith's choir had a special concert today out in Port Townsend -- and a ferry opportunity isn't one the boys like to miss, so we all came along. It definitely didn't disappoint, and both boys were excited by the combination of lots of vehicles, driving onto a boat, and getting to move real fast. The destination even added a trip across another of Washington's floating bridges (who knew they had more -- and apparently this one's the third longest in the world?).

The performance itself was a little more challenging, kicking off after we'd been there for a bit and the boys were starting to get antsy. Zachary was in particular displeased with both the applause and the other kids playing with toys that he'd claimed as his own, so there was a fair amount of juggling to try to hear bits of the concert without meltdowns and pushing. But all in all, the boys had a great time, and as usual, the girls were fabulous - we're looking forward to hearing more at Northwest Folklife later this month!

Mommy's Day

Happy belated mother's day to all of our motherly readers! Meh and mima had a busy (but hopefully fun?) one with the boys. Things kicked off nicely for the weekend with Zachary coming home with a card and flower that he'd made in school.

On Saturday, Z had swimming lessons, where he's now moved up to the class level where the parents no longer go in the pool with them. While he's been a little upset (so has the other little boy) at the beginning of the first few classes, he's been doing great once he gets over the initial transition. He does enjoy glancing out of the pool, making sure I'm around, and saying "Hi Daddy" (barely intelligible in the below):

On Mother's Day proper, mima and papa had us over for a lovely brunch before Meh had to work. The boys had a great time suh-nuggling with mima while she read one of Z's favorites. It was a very lovely time!

I'll close with this video of Owen, who continues to covet coziness enough to leave little doubt as to whose son he might be:

Stacking up

In addition to starting to occasionally walk (or just standing up in the middle of the floor and swaying), Owen has started stacking blocks -- and then energetically scattering them while saying "bah!". This has unfortunately coincided with Zachary rediscovering these same blocks and wanting to construct bridges and such from them at the same time. Ah, brothers. But regardless, Owen has impressively gotten stacks six or seven high.

Big step

Nobody can deny that Owen's "tucked in leg"-style crawl is super adorable:

But today he topped it by, just in time for Meh's birthday, taking his first true unassisted steps! And impressively, he didn't start from holding onto a chair or anything; he just stood right up in the middle of the room, smiled at mommy, and headed the one or two steps in our direction necessary ot make it. No capture on the camera as of yet, though here's a video from soon after.

Since Meh's birthday proper will be tomorrow, which is a late workday for her and orchestra for me, mima and papa came over tonight to surprise her with balloons (the boys were pleased, with Owen pointing and saying "bvvvv!"), decorations, and a very tasty dinner! I supplied the dessert, a surprisingly decent flourless chocolate cake. Happy happy birthday pretty wife!

Who Let the Dogs Out

What a difference a night (and a change of venue) makes! Tonight we went to the second Passover seder at the home of friends K & J (and their daughters N and A). Other than an early faceplant going headfirst down their fun play slide, Z had a fabulous time. He interspersed playing and running around the house (generally while singing "Dayenu" or the first question and a half of "Mah Nishtanah") with sitting very politely at the table next to mima and across from us, smiling while eating (ahem) non-passover cookies and crackers. Ah well.

Beyond an encore of the one page haggadah and plague-themed finger puppets (courtesy of grandma), one of the highlights of the evening was the point where, while Zachary and many of the kids were off playing, several hundred pounds of pooch (K & J have both a black lab and a burmese mountain dog) came hurtling into the seder. They'd been outside, but Zachary apparently decided it was a good idea to let them in. He was still standing at the door and smiling when the dogs were ordered back outside - silly man. And yes, it did happen one additional time a little while later; really I think he just liked to see how quickly the dogs could fly in and then back out of the house.

Owen turned into a pumpkin fairly early into the proceedings, so Meh and he headed out somewhat earlyish. And many of the other kids in attendance (this seder had a fair number) fell apart towards the end. But Zachary was in a fabulous mood from the beginning to the very end, and we even had a nice father/son drive home together listening to some of his music and singing along with "Hands are for Clapping". Such a good Passover man!

In other news, while he's always had fun with us covering his eyes and then saying "peekaboo", Owen has discovered the joys of self-initiated hide and seek. Here's his new favorite spot:

Why is this knight different...

Happy Passover! Tonight we hosted a seder for friends and family. Unfortunately friend S ended up being sick, so her husband D was only able to stay for a moment and drop off some of foods they'd made; we at least made them up a takeout container, but hope she feels better soon! Anyway, we still had a packed living room and a nice convivial seder. Plus we got to use my (in)famous one-page haggadah, which hopefully made the evening a bit more duration-appropriate for our several younger guests -- though Owen was pretty much down before things even started. Meanwhile, Zachary has been practicing the Four Questions for the past few weeks -- really he only gets through the first question and a half, them loops back to the beginning, but still it's quite impressive and extremely cute. Alas, when we got to that part of the seder, he got all shy and ducked out -- though he did smile at everyone while we sang it together. A little ways into the actual festive meal, Z had a bit of a meltdown, and soon joined O in upstairs sleepy land while we wrapped up a very tasty and hugely varied dinner and dessert. Meh once more outdid herself with sheer quality and variety, and our guests all brought epic amounts of homemade gefilte fish (thanks mima and papa!), yummy kugels, roasted vegetables, charoset, wine, and even a tasty faux ice cream made of halva. It was wonderful to fill the house with friends, food, and tradition - and of course the leftovers certainly won't hurt as we work through a week without breads!

Changing of the Guard's Pajamas

While my Europe trip was mostly running around catching trains, flights, taxis, and subways, I did get a morning off to do some shopping. I picked up an excellent cookbook recommended by friend J, which is not yet available here -- Meh has already made some fabulous meals from it, and we've both enjoyed some of the divergences of cooking language ("blending" in the UK is apparently "whizzing") and metric conversions. Of course I restocked our depleted tea collection. And on the morning of my flight, I hopped over to the Royal Mews to pick up these excellent pajamas (pyjamas) for Zachary. Sorry, no bearskin hat this time. The collar is a pretty snug fit for our big American heads, so Meh may need to do some surgery on it to make it easier to get on. But such a cute little royal solider man; we anticipate he will be fully engaged for the royal wedding in a few weeks.

Facial recognition

I got back from the UK yesterday evening, clearing customs and picking up my car just in time to get home for Zachary's story time (Owen was already asleep). Z was up at his typical early time, and we got to have some good snuggles together - definitely good to be home! But when Meh brought Owen downstairs and he saw me, there was no familiar open-mouthed smile; he retained his shy reserved self. After a little bit I was able to get him to crack a little grin, but there was definitely the possibility that he didn't recognize his own daddy at first sight. Oh no! But never fear, today we get some father/son catch up time; Meh has work, so the boys and I will be figuring out things to do on a dreary overcast day while I fight the jet lag.

If the shoe fits

We're still recovering from our trip to DC, but I'm already packed for another trip; I head to Europe later tonight for a week of meetings and a conference. But we did have a lovely family day today, heading to the mall for some shopping and lunch. The main stop on the shopping trip was for shoes; Zachary had once again outgrown his, and we decided it was time for O to get his own first pair of actual non-soft-soled ones. Z ended up choosing a pair that was identical to the shoes he'd had before his current pair ("want blue shoes"). Owen thought getting his feet measured was funny, but wasn't as much of a fan of actually trying on these toe movement constricting things.

He is, however, most certainly a fan of mommy's cooking and baking:

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!