Zack-o-lantern

Today was the 12th annual Pumpkin Push, a 5K race around Seward Park benefiting the Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Centers. Meh, feeling that having a baby a little over two months ago wasn't nearly enough of a workout, ran the race with friends R and S (of J and S). J, Zachary, and I people-watched from the sidelines, and cheered the girls on in the home stretch. The race (there's also a 2.5K walk option) is always a lot of fun - most runners show up in increasingly creative Halloween costumes; Meh was a princess (complete with tiara of course), S was a fairy, and R was a cat. Oh, and Zachary totally stole the show as an adorable pumpkin (costume courtesy of grandma). Other costume highlights included someone dressed as the furry Chewbacca (kids were posing with him for pictures after the race), a girl wearing the ultra-red Wendys hair, a family with a Superman dad and Spiderman and Boba Fett kids, and most impressively, a double-stroller dressed up as a pirate ship (the Jolly Jogger), with a family of scallywags pushing it through the race.

I'm always impressed with the early finishers, many of whom are in heavy-duty full-on costumes and dragging along strollers and other gear; this year there was even a guy with his dog in the top ten - the dog looked more winded than his owner. As a completely random non sequitur, you know it's already campaign season when, as the race concluded, a prop plane flew over the park and lake dragging a sign saying to vote for Ron Paul. Wha-?

Zachary was, um, less than happy throughout most of the race, as best depicted by this hilarious pre-race picture. But he did conk out as Mommy finished, and then slept as we all went out for a nice lunch (meeting up with friends D & D and their son N). In the afternoon, we got to video chat with grandma and her visitors from Maryland, great-aunt Ilene and bubbie. Zachary was smiley and seemed entranced with the images on the screen, though his own pictures were uploading in another window, so maybe he was just focused on himself? Anyway, it was great for Bubbie to be able to talk to and see him again - it's so much more 'real' than still pictures can convey!

In the evening, to top off a very full day, we went to a lovely charity concert that our friend L was putting on with several other classical singers. Zachary unfortunately started squeaking during the pre-concert announcements, so he and I spent the first half out in the hall, listening in through a cracked door (we actually got a pretty good view through a backstage door, though he developed the hiccups and loud, er, bottom-side noises that kept us from venturing back into the hall). During the second half, I was able to find a few hallway light switches, turned them off, and then he was able to fall asleep. We snuck back in to catch the last quarter of the concert; the clapping didn't really wake him up too much, and he sat there asleep and/or half awake, absorbing the lovely opera and Broadway pieces that wrapped up the concert. Now we're back home and exhausted, so I'm going to wrap this up - here's hoping he'll sleep well tonight with the long day of activities!

This hand is my hand

Zachary's developmental progress continues, with new milestones and emerging behaviors every day. He's able to hold himself up for extended periods, and wriggles in a practically-crawling manner. And the hand-eye coordination (or at this point, I guess just knowledge that hands exist and you have some degree of control over them) is quickly progressing - Meh gave him one of his favorite toys yesterday (hanging up above him in the picture below), and he grabbed onto it tightly and swung it around a bit. Meh also purchased some wrist-velcroed rattles that Zachary really seems to like; he gets a little jingle when he shakes his arm.

Meanwhile, daddy's developmental progress continues as well (though at an admittedly much slower pace): last night I managed to successfully give him a bath in which drying time didn't degrade into crying time. He actually started laughing as I was drying him off -- he sneezed, and when I said 'bless you', he thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

Sleeping through the night is still a challenge; he's generally "up" one to two times a night, where "up" sometimes means wide awake and looking around/making happy noises, and other times means still asleep but making loud grunting/discomfort noises that get Meh or me up to check on him. Either way, the 3 am soothe is still a challenge, sometimes taking upwards of an hour to get him back down. We hear from a few friends with similarly aged babies that are already sleeping for 8, 9, or even 10 hours straight. Every baby sorts out their sleep schedule themselves I assume, but wouldn't 10 hours be swell?

Lastly, Zachary's big brother Korby continues his naughty ways -- trying to eat foods placed impossibly far back on the countertops, as well as things that aren't even remotely close to food products (packaging, a wicker basket, mail, etc.), knocking over garbage and recycling (causing us to switch to under-the-sink garbage, and garage-located recycling), and finding ever new and creative ways to escape into the neighbor's yard. Sure, you could blame it on older sibling syndrome, but it's a challenge trying to fix the behaviors. At least he seems to be starting to acknowledge Zachary's existence, occasionally sniffing and even hanging out near him (if only because that's also near us).

Bjorn to shop

A month ago, when we were first figuring out the best ways to carry Zachary while maintaining at least some individual hand control (and without completely destroying our arms, wrists, and backs), we tried out a few different options.

• The Maya Wrap was disliked by Zachary, even though it was accompanied by a comically retro PBS-looking DVD (that didn't really help explain the product). [Revisiting their website to grab the link, it looks like they've actually taken their wraps off the market due to the crucial ring breaking in some scenarios. Yikes.]


• The baby bjorn seemed interesting, but it's only really recommended once the baby can hold his or her head up straight. And even though Zachary had good neck strength early on, he mainly got angry when we made attempts to use it.


• The moby wrap worked fabulously, and became a mainstay of our hands-free Zachary operating procedures. (Incidentally, there's apparently now even a video for doing yoga while wearing the wrap. Scary.) The only minus to it is that it's cursed to get dirty; it's a giantly long piece of fabric that simply must hit the floor/ground when you put it on, and it's also a prime target for Zachary to spit up on. The wrap has spent as much time in the wash as in use -- though I suppose we could say that about anything else placed in his vicinity!

So today we decided to give the baby bjorn another go, since he's a bit older and sturdier, and we haven't figured out the positioning on the moby wrap to let the baby sit facing outwards anyway. Wow, such a difference! He didn't fuss when he was dropped in, and had the big wide-open eyes as we started taking a spin around the house. Then he discovered part of the carrier in close proximity to his face and started sucking on it. It was totally damp by the time I noticed what he was doing, ew. Bib inserted between baby and bjorn, he remained a drooler, but definitely seemed to like being able to look out, even making some happy giggling noises at times. He quickly demonstrated that it's his absolute favorite way to get around (see below). For now, at least.
With another dreary Seattle day in the forecast, we decided to take an excursion out to an outlet mall -- big open spaces, forgiving of potential crying, and of course lots of sense-engagement (for both Zachary and, um, mommy :-), without the beyond-hectic crowds of the local 'regular' malls (where the parking process alone often makes Meh car sick). On the way up to Burlington, we actually stumbled on an even more spectacularly promising outlet mall near one of the Native American casinos, right off the side of the freeway, and stopped to investigate. Zachary was cozy in his car seat, so to start we strolled with the, um, stroller. But when he got unhappy, we moved to the bjorn, and he just started smiling and laughing for a good twenty-five minutes! It was perhaps the cutest thing ever, and definitely among the happiest long-term periods we've observed in Zachary.

We ended up having a nicely successful shopping excursion in addition to just getting outside for a bit. Zachary apparently fits into some 9-month-old sizes now, so we grabbed a few new sleepers and such to keep him comfortably asleep at night. When we got home, Meh started organizing the new clothes and realized we already had received an identical style and sized item as a gift. Whoops! Time to review his full wardrobe, particularly the sizes that we thought he couldn't possibly be ready for yet. It's the amazing growing baby!

Blowin' in the wind

Strangely, the entire US seems to be subject to these kinds of things at the exact same time, but yesterday was another big (and apparently now annual) Pacific Northwest windstorm. We don't get tornadoes here, just crazy gusty winds. (And the occasional volcanic eruption or earthquake, but let's focus on one natural disaster at a time here.) Last year's (pictured to right) storm (70 mph in the city/115 mph in the mountain passes) knocked down fences, trees, and most importantly, caused some serious powerline damage all around the mainlines just outside of our neighborhood. (Incidentally, I find it hilarious that the Washington State historians have elected to call it the 'Hannukah Eve' storm, considering that Jewish holidays actually start at sunset, plus the minimal relative size of the Seattle Jewish community. Case in point: note that the spelling at the top of that article is 'Hunnukah'. Good stuff.) Plus it was really cold, so we were huddling in the dark -- wood-burning stoves with electric fans apparently aren't all that effective or safe without the fan running -- for a few nights before moving into the graciously offered house of some local friends who were out of town. In the end, power to our place wasn't restored for more than a week. And did I mention Meh was pregnant during this adventure as well?

So I was warily watching the swirling winds at my office yesterday morning (which generally has it much better than our house, which is near the lake and on a hill). Our building had a roughly 1 minute outage (should I be worried that MS doesn't invest in immediate switchover generators or at least UPSs for a completely electricity dependent company?) during our morning meeting, but other than that, I just saw things getting blown around the parking lot for the most part.

The drive home was where the fun began (as it was also during some of the heaviest winds of the day, which apparently topped off at 'only' 60 mph) - downed branches and giant piles of swirling leaves and debris grew in frequency as I headed up toward our place. Then I entered the 'live fire' zone, where branches were actively whipping off of trees and onto the sidewalks, roads, and cars. At one point I heard a giant thump right above me - I guess a branch or something went onto and bounced off my roof (didn't seem to leave a trace luckily). Traffic was snarled, cars were dodging falling branches and driving around the ones that were already down, and you could hear loud cracks every few minutes of a weaker tree giving up the ghost.

I made it home intact, where Meh and Zachary were having bathy (sorry, baffy) time after a tough traffic jammed drive of their own. Some of our heavy lawn furniture (already theoretically tarped down for the winter) had been tossed around like toys, so I tried to pick everything up in the still gusty winds. We started prepping to hunker down for the night, when a loud boom preceded all power in the house going bye-bye. D'oh, so much for making dinner for Meh. Our friends J & S graciously offered to bring us over some food - we have such supportive friends!

As it was still light outside, and Korby was moderately insane for a walk, he and I went out to investigate. The main power pole that feeds our neighborhood had been blown down into the road, and there were several spaghetti-looking strings of live wires covering various parts of the road and sidewalk. Luckily, the sheriffs had already blocked off the road north of us with flares, and were diverting people to the south - but I figured we should abort the dinner run based on the traffic situation (J & S, thank you guys so much!!). The neighbors' generators all spun up quite quickly; looks like folks learned from last year - where there were about 3 then, I counted at least 6 as Korby and I walked around. Our next door neighbors (who have two young kids) were extremely kind and generous, coming by to make sure we were okay and offering us a movie and/or warm place to hang out with them. In the end, we just ended up going to bed early (after a canned/dry food dinner, and after watching a little bit of a DVD on my battery-powered laptop), but Zachary was up and down throughout the night without his rain-noise-generator to keep him asleep. I occasionally heard large construction vehicles/machinery out on the main road, and then a few chainsaws, and (quite impressively considering the damage I'd seen) the power came back on at 3:40 am. Zachary slept a bit better with his white noise, though he was still up quite early in the morning.

Things seem a bit calmer wind-wise today, though now the wind has just been replaced with torrential downpours. (For the non-Seattle-ites: Yes, it rains here in the winter. But usually it just mists for months on end; 'heavy' rain is pretty rare.) In response to last year's storms, the local power company has put together a live updating map of outages; looks like we were quite lucky, as most of our general area was actually still out as of this morning (note all of the big red X's clumped in the northeast corner of Lake Washington). There are some impressive pics of some of the local area damage here. Thankfully we had our own trees trimmed fairly recently, but I really should start researching portable generators if this is going to be happening so frequently.

Songs in the key of Z

(Want more pics and info on Zachary's adventures in the maize maze? Check out K & M's excellent blog entry on the event!)

We've already discussed to some length Zachary's current music listening habits; his dancing time in the morning is often one of the best ways to calm down any fussiness, and we're actually getting pretty good at singing along with his tunes (even the foreign language world music songs). But I haven't covered our current Zachary-themed "original" compositions, both of which appear to be able to lodge themselves in your head for extended periods. I remember an NPR story a year or so back about these kinds of 'ear worms' (songs that get stuck in your head), I think translated from some German scientists who were studying the phenomenon. (Incidentally, there are apparently even websites specifically geared to suggesting songs that cancel these Ohrwurms out of your head.)

Song #1: Zachary David (Music and Constantly Changing Lyrics by Scoot)
I made this one up pretty soon after he was born. I envision it as a Blues Traveler kind of acoustic thing, with guitar and perhaps a harmonica. Or something. Someday maybe I'll even record it so we can *really* embarass him (and/or me). The rhythm also works with the name Korben Dallas, so if Korby is looking at me with the sad eyes that say he isn't getting enough attention during a performance of the song, I sometimes include him in the lyrics as well. Wow, that makes me feel like it's a lounge lizard act or something. Anyway, the (default) lyrics are:

Zachary David is a good good boy,
Zachary David, he's my pride and joy,
Zachary David is my little man,
Zachary David, he's as cute as he can [be],
Zachary David, is a good good boy (optional: "well uh-huh")

Incidentally, the lyrics are totally flexible and change frequently. This seems to be the version that I always come back to though, even with that totally weak rhyme on the fourth line. Should I be worried that my song essentially fits the standard limerick rhyming scheme?

Song #2: Bathy Time (Music and Lyrics by Meh)
This one has become Zachary's power ballad, particularly in the moments leading up to, well, evening bathy time. I caught Mima singing it, and I too hum it on occasion out of nowhere. Meh sung it to me yesterday on the phone, and apparently even Zachary got confused when he heard it while the tub wasn't being filled with water. Pure brilliance, demonstrating a true economy of language (only three words):

Naked bathy time!
Naked bathy time!
Naked time, bathy time,
Naked bathy time!

I think the melody really carries this one, with a nice ascending line at the end. Wow, music dorkiness at its finest. But it totally works; I sang it to him last night as we got ready for the bath, and he had one of the happiest, mellowest baths yet. I think he practically fell asleep. Of course I still suck at the towel drying bit, so he got good and angry with me before I was able to get him swaddled and to bed. I'll have to learn more soothing tunes from the master, and/or prepare a new song for the occasion ("Naked Towel Time"?)

My little monkey!

Hmmm...




Okay, so that's an ape. He's still my baby monkey boy!!!

Mr. Cranky the Cry Baby

Many of you have marvelled at how happy Zachary must be, I mean, look at how he smiles in all his photos! That's because we didn't take pictures of him when he was anything but adorably smiley...until now. Behold, Mr. Cranky!



Yes, Zachary becomes Mr. Cranky sometimes. Actually, more than sometimes. But, less than always! What I don't like is that with strangers, whether he is being Mr. Cranky or not seems to correlate with whether he is a "good baby" or not. "What a well-behaved baby he is!" they say when we are out and he is sleeping/quiet alert. So, if he was fussing, would that make him a "bad baby?" He's two months old, he doesn't know good from bad! In fact, he won't understand the concept of guilt until he is at least two years old. Anyway, his Mr. Cranky pout is beyond adorable. And nothing is as sweet (yet sad) as his tiny baby tears!

Here's to our very vocal, but still "good" baby!

Child of the corn

Today, Mima, Meh, and I took Zachary to his first ever pumpkin patch and corn maze, meeting up with friends K and M as we start to get ready for Halloween (arguably mommy's favorite holiday). The weather was glorious, perhaps even a bit too sunny at times (we'd forgotten Zachary's hat, but a nice thick cooking/crafting magazine [featuring impressively sculpted pumpkins] that K was giving to Meh served double-duty as a sun shade). The maze was pretty fun for row after row of corn - not too muddy, and large enough to get good and lost in. There were 'hints' sprinkled throughout (featuring the "history" of/thinly veiled product placement for a local Ford dealership, presumably the corn maze sponsor) that tried to help, though they were pretty sparse and I'm pretty sure some of them were just leading back towards the way we'd come in. We threw caution to the wind and wandered for a bit, before getting lost enough that I pulled a pamphlet off the ground that had the map on it and used it to help us get the rest of the way through. There were a fair number of more creative routes not reflected on the map that some wanderer had decided to plow through solid walls of corn, but so it goes. There was also a large crane in the middle of the field that kept going up and down; we figured it was offering views of the fields, but when we finally got to it, the teen up at the top wouldn't come down and said it wasn't available for public viewing. They apparently do a spooky version of the maze at night, which I think could be pretty darn creepy.

Afterwards, we wandered into the adjacent pumpkin patch and looked for the perfect family pumpkins. There were a wide selection of gourds and pumpkins in colors from yellow and white to green and of course classic orange. (Some of them were huge and/or rather sickly, and I kept finding excellent candidates for Pumpkin Darkly possessed pumpkins, should that novel ever need a film adaptation...) We eventually settled on 3 of increasing size ("baby, mommy, and daddy" said Meh) before Zachary started to fuss and it was time to head home.

Also today, we wrapped up the initial stage of decorations in Zachary's room. A fun set of alphabet cards (with a dizzying number of potential corresponding objects on each card - I've actually e-mailed the artist to see if there's a "key" listing which flowers, trees, etc. are represented by more obscure letters) adorn the wall behind his dresser/changing table. There's also a fun new mobile (one of the kinds with objects hanging in perfect balance from long impossibly thin horizontal rods) with cute dogs -- Zachary was mesmerized during his first change as they spun overhead (and one hit me in the head - time to move them up a little bit higher). We also put more traditional block letters of his name behind his crib, which Meh had painted and I vainly attempted to align in a zig-zag using a laser level (the notched holes in them were apparently less accurate, and a bit misbalanced, so it has that fun semi-chaotic kids look to it). But Zachary's room is now mostly done until he decides he needs to redecorate a few years down the road!

Tonight is another milestone; Zachary gets his very first babysitter! Mima has graciously volunteered to watch him while mommy and daddy go out to dinner and try vainly to recollect what this phrase "date night" means. :)

The full monty

Good lord, four days between posts? We're totally slacking off here - hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come, with yet another dead-end out-of-date blog. Incidentally, this week, we've been getting back in touch with all of the other new parent participants in the pre-birth class we took a few months before Zachary. The original class actually had a scheduled reunion, but it was right around the time Zachary showed up (we were apparently the last due date in the class, and were then too shy to point out to the instructor that the reunion likely wouldn't work for us), so we didn't get to catch up with them then. It's fun to see pictures of all of the other babies and discover that they're all blogging about them as well -- sounds like they're going to try for a reunion next weekend, which should be nice if we can make it.

Zachary is often the most happy when he's naked. He'll be fussing or crying, and if I start to get him ready for a diaper change, he's suddenly happy and smiling in that head-turned way that we all love -- even if the diaper turns out to be completely spotless. We've also mentioned how he loves bath time (and again, only yells at me when I start to cover him up afterwards). So Meh has been giving him a little bit of naked time every day -- and yesterday's session included a photo shoot in the buff. While I'm all for collecting embarassing photos to be shown to family, friends (particularly his, once he's a teenager), partners, spouses, etc., I'm not entirely sure what to make of Meh's minor obsession with Zachary's tush. The photos are cute and all, but I think we'll reserve them from public viewing (well, except for the one I actually posted, as above) for the time being.

Last night, Zachary went to his second 'concert'; Meh's Balkan women's choir was performing as part of the monthly evening Kirkland Art Walk at one of the local galleries. As with the sukkot (and orchestra in the park) experience, the music began (the style is often loud and bright, though some songs fall into the more 'soothing' category), and he zoned out then conked out, even sleeping through the frequent applause breaks. During the second set, he got a bit more fussy though, so we hung out outside of the gallery as he listened, wide-eyed and occasionally smiling. He continues to be so friendly and happy with strangers (Meh insists moreso than with her), cracking big smiles when he meets someone new.

Later in the evening, Mima arrived to visit for the weekend. Of course, she was accompanied by several cute new outfits sporting the latest in baby couture, that we look forward to Zachary modelling in the next few days. And it sounds like Meh, Mima, and Zachary are out perusing more activewear this morning! We're looking forward to a nice fairly low-key weekend, checking out a local farm's giant corn maze (maize maze?), having shabbat dinner with friends tonight, and Mima has graciously offered to babysit one evening so Meh and I can go have a (brief) date night out.

Big man on campus

Zachary turns 2 months old today! And, perfect timing, today was also his 2-month checkup. While we were of course a little worried about the 4 immunization shots that accompany this appointment, we were definitely interested in seeing how he's progressed in the doctor's eyes, and Meh and I even had side bets going about his current weight. (Meh wins, off by only 5 ounces.)

• Weight: 13 lbs 8 oz (90th percentile)
• Height: 24" (75th-90th percentile)
• Head circumference: 39.8 cm (50th percentile)

So it's not just my imagination, the muscle strain is indeed partially due to him getting bigger! But before you start working on the basketball scholarship applications, the doctor noted that baby growth patterns have nothing to do with adult size. It's too bad babies aren't a little more like puppies (well, in this *one* way at least), where you can sort of guess at adult size by the proportions and size of their puppy paws.

He did great, cooing and smiling at the nurse and doctor. We also learned that he really likes sparkly things, not just straight high-contrast lines. The doctor was again fabulous, friendly, and engaging quite a bit directly with Zachary; we got another wellness sheet afterwards with comments about his expected developments in the next few months, along with some suggested reading. (I don't think I'd mentioned this before, but on the suggested reading list, I saw that our doctor actually has written a book or two on the subject!)

The shots themselves of course made Zachary sad, but he brightened up again pretty quickly with a snack, and was happily looking at the corner of his car seat on the drive home. And on the plus side, he got these super cute camoflauge circular bandaids where he'd gotten his shots. We're all back home now, where he's enjoying a brief nap with (what else but) his sheep.

Laugh track

As mentioned before, Zachary's giggles and laughs have been somewhat unpredictable and tough to catch on tape (er, flash memory, but whatever). But on a hunch, I ran the field recorder while we were playing with his sheep this morning, and got at least one distinct giggle.

Unfortunately the rest of the day (and most of last night) was anything but giggling, so both Meh and Zachary are taking a nap at the moment. Well, he's occasionally still opening his eyes and looking around - last I checked, he was somewhere between dozing and reading the shockingly poorly worded warnings printed on the inside of the pack-n-play. (Examples: wild overuse of colons, horrendously inconsistent capitalization, terrible run-on sentences, and outright typos like "If you are without and owner's manual...".) It always boggles my mind how many companies will go ahead and pay to fabricate millions of units without running a basic spell check on their printing. Granted, in some cases (and likely the pack-n-play is one of them), they're actually just missing a native English speaker to begin with - reminds me of the often humorously translated English seen in Japan, or the Chinese efforts to clean up their English signage before the Olympics.

Anyway, the great challenge while anyone is sleeping in this house is trying to get other individuals to avoid disrupting the precious nap: keeping Zachary snoozing (or quiet and happy) while Meh sleeps, encouraging Meh to sleep when Zachary sleeps, and keeping the whining, barking, and pawing Korby away from both of them in either scenario. Today we've managed to juggle it so I think Meh and Zachary are hopefully getting some well-deserved rest, while Korby is distracted by repeated trips out into the yard, pats, dinner, and a nice long walk. Hopefully this will help give mommy and son a little respite from the long and tiring previous night.

He makes bath time lots of fun

I can't believe how time flies, but Zachary is already 8 weeks old today! Of course, one of the first things we learned during the pregnancy is that 8 weeks is not 2 months; that would be closer to 9 weeks (and his 2-month checkup is indeed next week). We've still been trying to more predictably replicate those first laughs/giggles, but he seems to find the most random things funny at the moment - a light, a face, his mobile... He definitely still does love his sheep though.

Another of Zachary's favorite activities is bath time, which we've tried to schedule at least most nights, since it definitely helps him chill out and sleep better for the first stretch. We have a small plastic tub (I think it could actually be used in a kitchen sink, but the concept of bathing a baby there still seems a bit weird to me), which we've used in the bathtub itself -- a tub within a tub, as it were. He looks around with big eyes and is generally quiet and happy through the scrubbing process. However, he seems to especially love when mommy or daddy join in and take a bath with him. Yesterday he and I played in the tub - we used a fun flashing disco rubber ducky that some friends got us, along with the more standard bath essentials (washcloths and soap), and he was totally smiley the whole time, and making silly faces and noises while floating around. The only part I haven't been able to figure out yet is how to get him dried off before he starts getting mad and hollering at me (I'm guessing he just gets too cold). I tried the immediate towel, the towel then wrapped in a second towel, and even the transfer from towel A to towel B when the first one is damp, but he still gets unhappy with me in the meantime. The next step is to try to coordinate the logistics of throwing a towel in the dryer beforehand to get it nice and toasty, though timing that to occur while filling the tub, and then rolling it up and getting it upstairs sounds like a world of trouble.

In furniture news, one of the two pack-n-play's is likely to come down this week; he's already outgrowing furniture (in addition to a growing pile of too-tiny clothes)! Well, maybe not outgrowing so much as the more 'official' crib is taking the place of the pack-n-play as his sleeping area. Still, it'll be the first major appliance to go into storage for the short term, so a momentous occasion for Zachary.

One funny event I had to share from earlier today -- we of course sort and fold clothes after washing them. (Incidentally, washing occurs much more frequently now than before Zachary.) Anyway, Meredith finished folding the jeans, picked up the pile to bring upstairs, and showed me that on the top of the pile she had placed a teeny tiny pair of Zachary's own little denim jeans, folded just like ours. Very cute (1-2-3-awww...).

The most unlikely Selfon

I've been continuing the genealogy research in my free time, and have been having way too much fun trying to find Selfons around the country (and indeed the world -- found a couple living in England in the 1830s, who are the oldest Selfons in the collection thus far). There have been nice e-mail conversations with the grandmother and parents of the 'other' Zachary Selfon, who sent along this picture (Zachary is second from the left). Since this ongoing search is likely of primary interest to me (and perhaps the other Selfons I've found, now tallying more than 100!), I'll spare our blog most of the details.

Except for this one bit of trivia:

My research has uncovered a series of potential relatives who are purebred dogs. Yes, a line of brussels griffons named Selfon -- one named "Selfon's Best Effort", and her mother is "Selfon's Bo A Number 10". The "Ch" before the mom's (and dad's) names apparently indicates they're champions, though of what competitions I can't tell.
For those wondering, no, I don't think they're any relation to Korby or Uncle Gus. Okay fine, maybe like twentieth cousins or something. Alas, Geni.com doesn't seem to support entering pedigree dogs as your relatives in their family entry system.

Zachary the booth babe

(Not sure how widespread the term 'booth babe' is outside of the video game [and automobile] industry, where it's thankfully a vocation in the decline.)

Zachary has had an active (and very Jewish!) weekend. Well, we've been active; he's been slowed down just a bit by his very tiny (but still congesting) cold that Meh mentioned yesterday. On Friday night, we hosted an informal shabbat dinner for friends K, J, and baby N. Everyone was well behaved, and N even got to try out our fancy new baby chair/booster seat. N is nearly 6 months old, but weighs only slightly more than Zachary (she was a premie, and is in the 3rd percentile for her age; by comparison, Zachary was in the 75th at his last appointment) -- still, the developmental advances are quite noticeable, as she looked around at us and perhaps most dramatically, has started eating some real food (once she remembers what eating is about -- the confused look on her face when the avocado first went in was priceless).

Saturday morning, we met friends D, D, and their son N for breakfast at an excellent pancake place fairly close by. Again, it was neat to see the developmental progress of N, who's nearly 2, even though I think the amount of energy required to keep up is just going to expand exponentially! In the afternoon, we went to some friends' sukkah (a temporary outdoor booth used to celebrate the festival of Sukkot -- see, I was getting to the 'booth babe' reference). It was a lot of fun, they'd asked everyone to bring something to hang in the sukkah. We arrived to find cards, toys, a pair of glasses, and yes, even the occasional gourd, dangling from the s'khakh. We added to the collection with an excellent keychain-sized Ouji Board that had been sitting in a cupboard for years going unused.

In typical Seattle fashion, it was raining, so we actually spent most of the time indoors, where friends of the hosts were playing fun klezmer-ish music on clarinet and accordion. It was fairly loud and high enery, which naturally meant that Zachary zoned out and went to sleep listening to it.

After coming home for a brief nap, we kept the active day going by meeting friends K and M (who again took some fine pictures) for our favorite kaiten sushi restaurant, where Zachary managed to sleep through the whole meal.

This morning was another milestone -- Zachary was sitting in mommy's lap in our room, spied one of our (of course high-contrast) bedroom wall ornaments, and started smiling at it -- then giggled several times. These were definitely his first laughs, and we're totally hooked!

Breastmilk is best...for pink eye?

My friend C told me about this great parenting magazine called Mothering Magazine (or, if you prefer, MEH-thering MEH-gazine). It has a natural perspective, and I found two fascinating articles there: Your Walking Medicine Chest and More Ways to Use Breastmilk. Turns out, the "medicine chest" really is on your chest. Some alternative uses for breastmilk (besides as nourishment) include treating:

eye and ear infections

minor skin injuries

diaper rash

sore throats

stuffy noses

acne

burns and sunburn

chapped lips

cold sores and fever blisters

insect bites

skin rash

warts

I started feeling sniffly last week, and prayed Zachary wouldn't catch my cold, but of course he started to sniffle two days after I did. He absolutely detested the saline drops we put in his nostrils, let alone when we tried to use the bulb syringe to clear his tiny nose. I remembered these articles, and also heard that breastmilk would help from the leader of my new parents' support group. Scott managed to procure a tiny syringe, and I squirted some of my precious commodity (don't say it's not precious until you've been hooked up to a pump for 30 minutes and produced a measly 2 ounces) into his gurgly little nostrils. Now, I did this right before Zachary went to bed last night, and he slept for 5 hours, and only woke twice last night in all. I heard no sniffling until around 6:30am. Coincidence? Perhaps...

Whether or not I will try this remedy on anything else is yet to be seen. I just keep having this image of someone cutting themselves and then a new mother running over exclaiming, "Put away the Neosporin! I have something even better!" as she fumbles with her shirt buttons.

The human body is truly amazing, but that is just creepy.

The Clan Selfon

(Hm, as a "clan", perhaps we should develop our own tartan or something?)

Mima's coworker was able to get us the contact information for the other Zachary Selfon's mom and dad, so I sent off an e-mail on Tuesday night. Wednesday, I was amazed to be greeted with multiple Selfon e-mails, hearing directly from no less than four relatives, and learning of many more! The topper was a great picture of the other Zachary, his newborn sister, and his parents. (I'll ask them if it's okay for me to post it up on our blog.)

The fact that our branch of the Selfon tree hasn't had a girl in 50+ years was more than made up for by four girl cousins (and one boy) in my generation in the Philadelphia Selfon branch. I needed to start building up a family tree just to keep track of everyone; Zachary even already has several relatives in his generation (the other Zachary is about 2 1/2, has a newborn sister, and there's another newborn cousin in New York). If I'm keeping count correctly, among the various rediscovered relatives are at least 9 currently with the actual last name Selfon (many others have gotten married and taken on hopefully less mangle-able last names). The top fun and/or ironic twists thus far include:

• The 'other' Zachary Selfon, and his sister Ella Selfon (Ella was also on our list for girl names!)


• Multiple Selfons living quite close to my brother in the NY metropolitan area


• A Selfon who married a Scott from Seattle (!) and now lives in Los Angeles. (She actually ran across our old wedding registry while setting hers up, and was convinced they'd mixed up her maiden name with her now-husband's last name.)

My current working theory is that, in relation to my generation, our great-grandparents were brothers. If I understand kinship rules properly, I think that would make everyone in my generation a third cousin, and in my parents' generation a second cousin once removed from me.

Even though it's designed more for diagramming fancy business processes and such, Visio actually worked decently well for constructing a respectable family tree thing without having to shell out for crazy expensive custom software. Right now I've put together at least partial reconstructions of the two branches, we just need to figure out how to hook them together.

Saturday morning, Meh's library is having a book club program. Zachary and I are planning to go along, and if I'm feeling industrious, I know that Meh's library has access to the scanned-in turn of the century census records, so we could do a better job reconstructing the Selfons of that generation. Hooray for rediscovered family members!

Crib assembly: Ikea it ain't

A long time ago, in a pre-baby family far far away, we ordered a crib and a dresser. We did a bunch of research, read all of the reviews, saw an enormous array of options in a Florida visit to see mima and papa (perhaps before they had even settled on those grandparent names?), and were disappointed and/or sticker-shocked by most of the options available in Seattle, but finally found the crib we loved, and a lovely dresser to match. This was in mid-June.

The crib itself was available immediately, but the dresser (and the bed's conversion kit) had a bit of a wait time (8-12 weeks). Okay, we thought, no worries; we're not putting baby stuff in the house beforehand anyway, plus the baby wouldn't be able to use it for a month or so. Zoom ahead to after Zachary, where piles of clothes are crammed into a shelf and we're desperate for storage space. My bi-weekly (that's once every two weeks, right?) phone calls to the store asking for an ETA have been answered "2 weeks", "2 weeks", "1 week", and finally "later this week". Finally they have it in stock, but the delivery company they use is "backed up" and it might take a bit longer, "...but you can find your own deliverers if you like". Thankfully, the delivery company actually gets back to me later in the week and schedules us to deliver it between 2 and 5 pm yesterday.

Yesterday I worked from home, and at (you guessed it) 5:40 pm, the delivery folks showed up. They actually did a fine job shlepping everything upstairs, and I was eager to get the crib assembled before Zachary's bedtime. Checking out the manifest, it didn't look too bad - 5 pieces of wood and a bunch of bolts with an allen wrench. I got to work.

Now for some reason, ready-to-assemble furniture has always been fun for me - desks, cabinets, dressers, CD storage carousels, I think the interior of my old townhouse was perhaps composed of 90% pressed veneered Swedish particle board. So, I jumped right in with assembly, noting a few typos in the instructions, but nothing too major. Then, disaster struck: one of the pre-drilled holes was misplaced, by like a half inch. I couldn't believe it -- this stuff has got to be assembly lined, plus it's supposed to be checked by both the manufacturer and the store we bought it from for defects. But sure enough, two pieces that should've been mirror images were not, and the bolts would not be coaxed to make up the difference. Defeated, I had to wait to contact customer support this morning. First, the crib manufacturer: "Sorry, you'll need to get the store to order you replacement parts." What? Why even offer a 1-800 number then? Next, I tried the store: "Hm, our warehouse manager isn't here, we can have him get back to you tomorrow." To which I replied, "Our baby needs some place to sleep. I'm drilling another hole. You'll work out a replacement part ASAP please?"

This evening after work, I bit the bullet, drilled the hole and completed assembly. In the process, I found another pre-drilled hole that hadn't been drilled all the way through. And a third that had been covered up by the lacquer/finish. Oh, and Meredith discovered that the dresser cabinet likes to pop open. But at least the furniture looks beautiful -- and the craftsmanship appears wonderful throughout, just some questionable finishing touches. And most importantly, Zachary now has a changing table that's at a comfortable height (pack 'n plays, while convenient, really get to your back after a bit), storage for his many cute clothes (including a new batch acquired this weekend with friends J & S), and a bed that's wonderfully cute and cozy! He's sleeping in it right now.

It don't matter if it's black or white

...or red. The general idea is that babies see (or are at least most interested in) these three high-contrast colors, which Zachary has proven time and again (well, the light/dark bit at least) -- his eyes lock onto and follow lights, shutters, our black picture frames, and of course his beloved sheep. Granted, scientific studies say this is all hooey:

Recent studies at the University of California in Berkeley have shown that infants as young as 2 weeks of age have color vision and can distinguish a red object from a green one even when these are perfectly matched in brightness. Infants' color vision is not likely to be as rich and sensitive as adult color vision since the receptors and nerves in the eye that are most sensitive to color (again, in the fovea) are not yet mature.
(http://www.ski.org/Vision/babyvision.html)

Whatever the studies say, he does love his high contrast colors. Of course, designers take advantage of this information to try to sell you the black, white, and red bedding that babies will "be able to get the most visual data out of". I think it looks a little Tim Burton / Addams Family for a bedroom, but hey, whatever floats your boat (or fovea). On the other hand, a book of common shapes that are presented in black and white sounds a bit more interesting, so Meredith had to grab the well-executed Black on White board book, along with its natural companion White on Black. (I'm going to pitch a sequel to the publisher that I'm titling "White on White". I think most of the cost would go into the binding; the printing would be negligible to convey the white polar bear in a blizzard. If you're wondering, Black on Black is already covered, though apparently re-envisioned as some kind of sci-fi series. I wonder how much input the illustrator had on that one.) Though the images all feel to me like either 70s-style silhouettes or rorschach tests (particularly that black butterfly on white background), Zachary definitely can stare at pages from the book for minutes at a time, as you can see. He's clearly the son of a librarian!

Easy Listening

We haven't really discussed the soundtrack of Zachary's world yet. But since we posted his own sounds yesterday, and he (and therefore we) spent Tuesday night sleeping to the melodious white noise tones of a radio played at decent volume while tuned to an empty FM station of static, let's discuss his current auditory repertoire.

First, there are the sleeping sounds. That "Happiest Baby" CD we got that I was making fun of? Totally works. Well, I can still make fun of tracks 1-3, which seem like weird low-fidelity scratched record loops for 10 minutes a pop, and don't appear to have any effect on Zachary. But tracks 4 (hair dryer) and 5 (rain falling on a roof) rule. We even brought the CD to Michigan and demonstrated its use in grandma's car. On multiple occasions. The hair dryer sound works wonders for calming him down when he's upset, particularly in situations where we can't really pick him up and do the shushing that Happiest Baby prescribes (e.g. when in a moving vehicle, and therefore strapped into a car seat). And the rain falling sound helps keep him calm and even asleep once he's fully mesmerized. Granted, both of these often have to be practically blasting (often volume "45" or higher in the car -- I know volume values are pretty arbitrary, but it's darn loud). So much for conversation on the road, but at least we've found a way to soothe him without having to repeatedly pull over. That CD has also found an honored place in the nursery, where the rain now helps keep him sleeping a bit longer at night. At least he lives in the right city for that particular sound effect!

Next, the awake and active sounds. Every day Meh brings out a few more CDs for Zachary to sample and dance to. Of course he listens to our own eclectic favorites; the "chill" tracks we played to soothe him during the first few weeks were English Renaissance chant (see, we're teaching him Latin already), a CD of classical lullabies, music from the Curious George soundtrack, and a CD of famous pop-music dads singing songs for their kids (often covering each other's tunes, which seemed kind of odd). And of course he's gotten a good dose of Balkan women's music (both via CD and then earlier this week via his attendance at his very first Dunava rehearsal. Meh reports that he spent his time there alternating between sleeping and flirting/smiling with all of the singers.)

On to the actual "kids" music, the Putumayo Kids world music series has some fun ditties (some recognizable, others downright obscure, like a 1960s Italian version of Old McDonald. I kid you not). Our personal favorite thus far is an excellent Laurie Berkner (I dig the website) CD sent to us by Zachary's Uncle Brian. This singer really seems to have mastered the children's-music-that-doesn't-drive-adults-insane formula, which as far as I can tell is:

1. Peppy without being overly artificially cheerful. Like she's actually having a good time and maybe even performing as much for the parents as the kids. They're the kind of tunes where if you were awoken to them at 5 am at sleep away camp, you wouldn't possibly think of bringing bodily harm to the counselor, cuz they're just so fun!


2. Participatory - lots of silly noises and words. I bet they'd sound even better in an accent with rolled r's. Perhaps Scottish?


3. Extensible [wow, weird to see an actual, legitimate use for an overused software term.] - if the CD isn't playing and you sing the song with your kids, you could easily see yourself making up 20 more verses on the spot.


4. Repetitive, within reason - keeping the song easy to remember, but not mind-numbingly droll (and eventually boring even for the kids).


5. Mildly intelligent / humorous for the adults - One of Berkner's songs, for no reason we can discern, has different names in each verse that we realized are the characters from Seinfeld. (We were tipped off when, a few verses in, the doodlebug "Elaine" goes to see her friend "Kramer".)


6. Surprising - just when you see where the song is going, and the kids' attention might wander (see #4), the song goes off into left field. Example: Berkner's got a tune that's all about farm animals, and it's chugging along, and just when you're comfortable, she suddenly throws in a lion and an elephant. Brilliant! Kids, like everyone else, are total suckers for the big five, regardless of if they're actually at the zoo or on safari.

You and me and the bottle makes three tonight

Last night, in honor of Zachary's 6-week (and Meh's 6-week-since-any-continuous-sleep) anniversary, we made our first attempt at a late-night bottle feeding. At around 4 in the morning, Zachary was squirming for food, so he and I headed downstairs, where I gave him a tasty bottle. He loved it! Didn't even need to do all of that craziness with warming it up or anything. On the plus side, it seemed to work quite well: no fussing, minimal extra air, quick to make some nice burps afterwards, and we could let mommy sleep. Well, for a good ten minutes at least; on the minus side, this kid has a serious appetite - he drained the bottle and still wanted more, so after a quick costume change (which made him even more vocal), back up to mommy we had to go. But as a proof of concept, the bottle worked out quite smoothly; we'll gradually start to expand this as we get closer to Meh heading back to work.

In the mornings, Zachary is sometimes fussy, but often quiet and alert. Well, alert at any rate; you can be the judge of how quiet he is from his newest audio recording (definitely a departure from his previous in-vitro record album, which was made in his amplified percussive electronica phase, when he was the artist known as "Ziggy"). This is him having 'tummy time' on his playmat, alternately looking at/calling to his favorite little stuffed lion and the cute little boy in the reflective mirror, all while trying to simultaneously crawl towards both objects at the same time (on opposite sides of him). While I don't think he'll have much success going in two directions at once, I suspect this kid is going to be mobile sooner rather than later.