Heigh-ho, heigh-ho

Yes, today it was back to work I go -- er, went. After briefly playing with Zachary and Meh in the morning, I was off to the office. I started off the day with around 400 unread e-mails. After beginning the process of reengaging on many different topics I'd been working on before (and occasionally during) my parental leave, and actively cleaning out my inbox, I finished the day with close to 450 unread e-mails. Hm, wrong direction. Maybe more progress tomorrow?

The final countdown

It's not much of a countdown when the counter reads "zero", but anyway, today was my last day of parental leave. As with Meh about seven weeks ago, it's going to definitely be a difficult adjustment to head back to work and only get to see Zachary in the mornings and evenings. Granted, it's not so terrible; I'll be with him on weekends and one afternoon a week, but it's still going to be hard not taking daily walks with him and Korby, singing and dancing with him in the afternoons, and seeing him smile and laugh when he looks at me at random moments throughout the day.

This morning we went to what may be my final parent-child class with Zachary; in a few weeks he transitions up to the 6-month-old sessions anyway, which occur on a day Meh has off work. But there were lots of wistful goodbyes -- oh, and finally another dad to briefly chat with after class! Next week's class involves music for babies, so I'd still like to attend if my work schedule will allow...

We popped over to Costco to grab lunch first for daddy and then to bring to mommy, and then headed over to visit mommy for lunch. As before, it was bittersweet to realize that this will be our last lunchtime visit -- though again, in retrospect, I don't see why we wouldn't visit her on weekends and maybe even Monday afternoons. Then we headed home and read, played, and danced the afternoon away, as we had done so many times over the past 6 weeks. (The CD from one of Zachary's first favorite movies arrived in the mail, and he kept laughing and smiling as we danced to it.) I've noticed that he's become talkative and happy more and more as the weeks progress, becoming such a little boy! Well, other than that whole mobility thing, which I'm sure will come soon enough, particularly once he's spending time with another fairly mobile baby at his new nanny's.

Quickly enough though, it was time for his bath and bedtime ritual. Meh got home, put him to sleep, and that basically concluded my parental leave. I know, it's good for everyone to get into more of a routine, and for Zachary to be with other grown ups, and for the two of us to have our professional lives outside of our family life. And I am supremely grateful that I got this extended opportunity to be with and care for our son. But I'm sure going to miss all of the time we spent together dancing, reading, walking, rocking him to sleep, and otherwise playing. I'll just have to cherish those early mornings and weekends that much more!

I like to ite...

Zachary has watched with increasing interest over the past few weeks when mommy and daddy are sitting/standing at the table eating, so we decided that this morning (for posterity, that's at 172 days of age) it was time to try his first solid food. Well, 'solid' isn't really an accurate term when you puree a banana to about a step beyond a smoothie, but you get the idea.

As with everything else about raising a baby, the advice comes fast, furious, and completely contradictory when talking about first foods. Some say to start with rice cereal, since it's easy to digest and is a pretty smooth transition when started as basically breast milk with bits o' rice in it. Others say that's lame and was only used because when they tried to feed newborn infants, that was one of the few things that wouldn't cause them digestive distress. Yet others say you should start right in with the core foods that you eat.

We decided to bypass the whole first argument by starting with the aforementioned banana, which seems to be almost universally okayed as a first food. (Though there's another argument that if you start with fruits, the kids will never eat veggies. Jeez, people!) We get a nice bunch of organic bananas in our bi-weekly fruit/veggie order, so 1/2 banana went into the Cuisinart, and a few tablespoons of banana puree came out a few minutes later.

Zachary also got to try out his new high chair for the first time, which already seems in some ways a little cramped for him, but I'm hoping once he's fully upright it will be all good. As to the banana, he seemed to like it, though lately he's all giggly when you tickle his tongue with your finger, so maybe he didn't even notice there was banana paste on our fingers. Still, everything we offered seemed to go down (though some of it came back up later in the morning), even if 'everything' comprised maybe a teaspoon of what we'd blended.

Hooray for Zachary's first culinary introduction! Next up, what do folks think of a lovely blending of peanuts, shellfish, kiwi, honey, whole grain, lactose, and maybe some MSG, caffeine, and taurine, just to spice things up a bit?

Zachary's Ferry Tale

Zachary's already got planes (10 flights) and automobiles (countless trips -- and thankfully they're more and more frequently crying-free) covered, so we figured it was time to move onto more exotic forms of transportation - namely, the Washington State Ferry system. Meh's women's choir is in the midst of producing a CD, which is being recorded out in Port Orchard at a very unique home/recording studio/work shed.

We met up at the ferry about an hour before it was scheduled to depart. The gate attendant teased us for showing up earlier than the ferry ride itself takes (about 40 minutes), and recommended we check out the excellent bakery a few blocks away if we wanted to kill some time. First we got in line (we were car #2 mind you), and Meh noticed a large flying shape alight on the dock tower -- a beautiful bald eagle. Alas, my camera's zoom is pretty lame, but the bird itself was spectacular, and hung around for a long time on the left, um, spire?

Next we met up with most of the rest of the choir and set off on foot for that highly recommended bakery. It didn't disappoint, with a wide array of tasty goodies on display, including (I kid you not) a giant doughnut cut in half and filled with buttercream. Perhaps a little heavy duty for brunch, so we settled on a bear claw for Meh and a blueberry turnover thing for me. Then back to the ferry in time to load 'em up and head out.

I'm always impressed with how they're able to pack so many cars into these things; one of the advantages/disadvantages to being the #2 car in line was that we got to drive most of the way through the boat and get one of the front-most spots. "Disadvantage" because the ferries use raised ramps along the sides to fit more cars, and we ended up on the treacherously steep incline back down to the deck of the ship. With our e-brake, ferry-supplied parking blocks, and prayers for no big waves to tip our car into the sound all firmly in place, we headed up to the passenger area for the short trip.

Zachary didn't seem to notice/mind any chop, though he later spotted a few following seagulls coasting alongside us, and appeared to get a little afraid of them for a moment. But other than that, he and fellow baby E had a nice time on the ferry. We docked, drove off, and headed to the recording studio/house.

The building is large but very cozy, with a wide-open floor plan and even a guest 'room'/loft that's reached via a ladder bolted to a back wall. Of course, the wide-open floor plan means that visitors to recording sessions have to remain quiet, which Zachary and E were likely going to occasionally disagree with. So our entourage, consisting of E (with her dad and grandmother) and Zachary (with me), headed out to a coffee shop a few miles away to hang out for a few hours. I was expecting a small quaint little coffee shop, but of course it was a Tully's; even out on the peninsula, the chains have made their presence known. Zachary napped for a bit, then we walked around the shop looking at what to me looked like a large number of left-over Christmas coffee flavors and paraphernalia. (I guess some of them still qualify as 'winter'?)

Back to the recording studio for Zachary's lunch (though he delayed that by sleeping for a good 45+ minutes in the parked car; there was a steady drizzle of rain that I think perhaps simulated his rain-on-the-roof CD), then we headed back out once more to let the group get some more recording in. This time I aimed for 'downtown' Port Orchard, which has a cute little strip of shops and of course a waterfront (hence the name 'port'); I stopped in front of a cute promising-looking bakery, and we all went in and checked out more goodies, plus some impressively decorated cakes that I know Meh and other Ace of Cakes fans would appreciate. I ended up picking up a tasty fresh loaf of rosemary bread. Zachary also got to meet another young boy who I eventually determined was the 4-month-old son of two of the employees (owners?) of the bakery. While I'm sure it's not always ideal, it sounds so appealing to be able to take your infant to work with you every day and just have them around; a few folks at Meh's work have jokingly suggested that we do the same - would patrons really mind a cute little boy smiling (or even sticking out his tongue) at them while receiving excellent service?

A series of nearly unfortunate events

(With apologies to Lemony Snicket, whose new short book is incidentally excellent - thanks again to B and J for it!)

Today was almost my first absolute parental meltdown. (Here the word "meltdown" means "it's-too-much-for-one-parent-to-possibly-handle".) And no, it wasn't caused by the child you might think...

Everything started off well enough; a typically full schedule of day's activities, plus planning for a Friday night dinner we were hosting for friends. Meh was working, so she had prepared several yummy desserts ahead of time, and I was of course on the books for making the always-demanded challah bread. The first glitch of the day was that the morning got off to a bit of a slow start and Meh had to cruise to work, so the brisket was left in my (capable?) hands to make.

Meh and I have philosophically different cooking styles; I prefer detailed recipes (even if I adjust ingredients or improvise a few extra spices). Meh is happy enough to often make it up as she goes along, eyeball some ingredients, substitute others, and it always comes out incredibly tasty. We thankfully balance each other quite well, with her being the amazing pastry chef and me painstakingly following through recipes for cooking and bread-making. (Yes, I do keep my challah recipe out and in front of me even though I likely have it memorized by now. Once I didn't use it, and I forgot to add salt -- you see?)

Anyway, back to the brisket, no prob, I found a recipe online that called for the ingredients Meh has used before -- chuck them all (including an unlikely but surprisingly effective can of soda pop) into the crock pot for 8 hours, and you're good to go with an excellently tender brisket. I checked on it through the morning and it seemed to be doing well. Zachary watched happily as I discussed the preparation; I often do a little cooking show for him and he seems enthralled.

Next, he and I went off to run some errands and then to meet mommy for lunch. He gave her a big smile and again was back to sticking his tongue out with happiness, and cooing with delight. Zachary said 'ooooh!', which here means something like "I'm making a super poopy diaper", and sure enough, we found out one of the reasons for the happy noises when something started to leak through his outfit. Yup, a blowout - Meh thinks this was his first, er, solid event in several days, and boy did he make the most of it. Then while Meh was changing him, there were multiple angles of, ehm, counterattack, and we exhausted our portable wipe supply (along with his outfit of course) in the free-for-all that ensued.

Zachary and I headed home with an increasing laundry list (a literal one), plus I had to finish up the dinner prep, and try to get Zachary to take a nap, and take care of the dog... First things first - nap time. Upstairs we went, and he was getting mellowed out and heavy-lidded when I heard an enormous crash. At first I thought another tree or power line had come down, some kind of delayed windstorm or ice-induced branch snapping off. Then I realized in horror what else might cause that kind of crash on a smaller and closer scale.

I dashed downstairs with Zachary still in hand to find my fears realized; Korby had somehow managed to pull the entire crock pot down from the counter, where it had crashed onto the floor and sprayed brisket and juices everywhere. I think the initial noise had startled even our selectively deaf dog, as he was just now starting to lick up the corner of a giant steaming pool of gravy and tomatoes. This was where the conundrum started -- Zachary sensed I was slightly upset, and started crying. Korby ignored my scolding and one-handed attempts to pry him away from the gravy. I ended up having to half-drag him across the kitchen and into his house, then soothe Zachary for a few minutes, before depositing the latter in his jumperoo and the former outside on his leash to try to salvage the mess that was our dinner for four.

Thankfully, the brisket itself seemed intact, and we'd just had the floors cleaned a few days earlier in the week. Plus it was still going to be cooking for a few more hours, so I logicked that the cooking would implicitly resterilize it or something. I then had a go at cleaning the floors, though I knew that no matter how thorough I was, Korby would still get a second go at it when he came in. Sure enough, despite multiple passes with mops, paper towels, and yes, cleaning agents, Korby spent the rest of the day licking various surfaces of our kitchen. I later found drops sprayed on our refrigerator, on the opposite wall of the kitchen. Oh, and the crock pot now has a nice dent in one side (with a matching one in the kitchen floor), though it still seems perfectly functional.

Somehow I did manage to find the time to finish Zachary's washloads, set the table, run the dishwasher, bake the challah, keep the dog at least somewhat in check, and keep Zachary entertained, but I was definitely pretty frazzled by the end of the day. This stay-at-home parenting stuff is hard! Anyway, I did warn our guests, but the brisket came out tasting pretty decent -- though I think the interruption (and the loss/recreation of sauce I had to create) made it a little drier than intended.

Note to self: always barricade all sources of food (and even the most far-fetched questionably food-like substances) when Korby will be around.

But can you touch your nose with it?

In the last week, Zachary has suddenly become Michael Jordan. Or more specifically, he sticks out his tongue whenever he's happy or playful. (I haven't seen him do it during a dunk yet, but who knows?) Sometimes it's just barely out, other times he seems to be emulating big brother Korby's, which is often used to get crumbs out from those difficult-to-reach corners in the kitchen.

Zachary doesn't really raspberry along with this, it's just an indicator that he's in a happy-go-lucky kind of good mood.

The tongue has accompanied many other play-time activities, so it's definitely not just a matter of imitation. It has almost replaced the fist in the mouth as his favorite activity. Fear not, the fist still wins out most of the time; I'm waiting for him to try and attempt both at the same time.

Hippie diapers

One result of Zachary's continuing rapid growth (we're pretty sure he's well over 18 pounds now; we'll find out more definitively at his 6-month checkup in a few weeks) is that he has progressed fairly quickly through diaper sizes. I still remember when we were on the size N's (for newborn), and now we've gotten past 1's and 2's and onto some kind of weird in-between, non-documented "2-3" size (only carried at a few larger stores).

The size changes were okay when the brand/style of diapers could keep up, but for some reason we just ran out of sizes; the next size moves into what they call 'Cruisers', though I don't think he'll be cruising anywhere for the short term. Hopefully they still work well when the baby is, er, inert? Anyway, since we made the move to his current brand (after the other leading brand* simply didn't work for him), we haven't really had much trouble with leaks and accidents (other than when you're in the middle of changing him and he decides to make one of several possible, um, counterarguments). So naturally, we approached this latest move with some trepidation; we'd tried an alternate brand of size 2s previously without success - he leaked right through.

Off we went to the large baby superstore chain, looking to get some 3's. Unfortunately, the type we were planning to try upgrading to was only available in extra-large crates (what I'll call "landfill size"). We weren't quite ready to make that big of a plunge without at least testing them out first, but no dice - there weren't any smaller packs. The only brand that was available with a reasonable number of diapers was the more eco-friendly, chlorine-free one, which comes complete with a Native American philosophical quote on the packaging. So fine, we were up for trying to be ecological, picked up the pack, and headed home (in the hybrid car no less).

The diapers felt a little bit more, er, papery, and were a tannish-brown instead of that (chlorine-bleached?) cottony white that we were used to, but other than that they looked okay. So we popped Zachary into them and he seemed happy enough. At least until he went to the bathroom (right in time for dinner with mommy), at which point we all knew about it, since he had soaked through multiple layers of clothing. That night we reverted to his old size for bedtime, and I hoped that we'd just accidentally not fit them snugly enough or something. But sure enough, yesterday I knew every time he went to the bathroom, because he was soaking wet. Oh, and the other kind of potty event also caused a blowout that totally soaked him through, which of course made for even more of a mess.

Net result: 2 extra washloads of soiled clothes (in 1 day!), five costume changes, and four completely failed diapers of the handful he wore. Of the 40-pack of diapers we bought, more that 30 are going into the garbage -- no, we're not actually that ecologically destructive; I'll take them to the parent-child class tomorrow and see if anyone else wants them.

So later yesterday evening, after dinner with mommy, Zachary and I went to the store and bought the landfill size of the brand we'd been thinking of to begin with. No major disasters with them so far, other than the impending environmental one. *sigh*


*-At this time, Zachary chooses not to officially endorse any particular brand of diapers, but certainly not these.

Organic humor

Every other week, we get a box of fresh organic fruits and veggies delivered - it's been great because this means we actually end up buying (and sometimes, *gasp*, even eating!) produce rather than just, er, Triscuits or something. (Incidentally, every time a friend signs up for the service and uses us as their reference, we get a free box. Score.) The running joke is that the growers seem to almost always want to include chard (you can actually set up exclusions [items you never want] and/or adjust the specific order beforehand, so long as you actually remember to do it), which we tend to have a hard time bringning ourselves to prepare and eat before it wilts.

Anyway, back to the Zachary angle -- Meh says I used to be almost childishly eager to open the produce box and compare all of the fruit and veggies against the shipping manifest. I was doing something along those lines yesterday, and showing each fruit to Zachary as I pulled it out of the box. He found this to be the funniest thing in the world. Meh captured these two videos:

It's a Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom World

Several readers are falling out of their seats right now, knowing my prolific, long term, and totally inexplicable use of the phrase 'your mom' for no good reason. Not even bothering with good 'your mom' jokes, just the words themselves and countless variants (your dog's cat's mom, etc.) that typically result in something approaching Pee Wee's Playhouse Secret Word-style pandemonium. But I digress...

I suppose it's actually a dad world, or at least still a very gender role-based one. I've talked about how I'm the sole dad currently attending our parent-baby group (representing all men any time a daddy or husband subject comes up - no pressure!) -- and I possibly won't be there as often after my parental leave wraps up. (Incidentally, yesterday was another good class, though again the men-folk who had been 'waiting for another dad to come' still didn't join me to discuss, I dunno, the Patriots or something.) Now granted, the class is at 9:30 am, so many working parents -- moms or dads -- wouldn't be able to attend that.

But on Monday, I took Zachary to the doctor to get a few minor ailments (cough, rash, etc.) checked out. This was around mid-day, and I'm guessing many of the other kids that would be there at this time would be sick; wellness appointments are usually early in the morning. So one would expect a few dads to be there to take the children to the doctor. Nope. In a packed room (where I tried to keep Zachary in a corner while kids coughed away, too young to know to cover their mouths) with more than a dozen moms (cue the bells and whistles), I was again the sole guy over the age of four.

I'm not trying to pass judgment or anything, nor does it make me feel particularly uncomfortable to be in what is apparently a 'rare' role, but it does make me realize just how much society still appears to place so many expectations on mothers. Sure, many families offer mothers the opportunity to be able to choose between working and staying at home, or even balancing the two with part-time, job-sharing, telecommuting, etc. But beyond a short parental leave, do many dads seriously consider these same options?

Sorry to wax philosophical, I'm just starting to wonder how I can manage to spend this much quality time with Zachary (and supporting Meh) once I'm back full-time at work in a few short weeks. Thankfully my job is very generous and flexible on hours and such, but it's still going to be a challenge to find a path to what them corporate folk call a 'work/life balance'.

It's beginning to feel a lot like... Chanukah?

Yes, stranger than fiction, a local radio station that has a Tuesday evening show of new orchestral music decided to broadcast my Chanukah Glow recording tonight, during the prime listening window of 11:40 pm. Score. Still, it's exciting to think that my piece may be heard by... er, what's the station's wattage again?

Anyway, we had grandiose plans of possibly staying up to hear it, but we're both pretty exhausted, so I doubt we'll make it. Next time I'll have to figure out how to record a streaming broadcast and I can just set the timer or something.

Laugh-o-matic

I ask you: what other audience would laugh so hysterically when all you have to do is run back and forth in front of them?

Lines may be longer than they appear

Zachary seemed to sleep much better last night, thank goodness. Today was our last day in Los Angeles, and the city apparently saved its nastiest for last. But we also had a lovely (heh, it's been a posting, so I can use that adjective again!) morning with Meh's good friend's parents in their wonderful home. Not only did they generously offer us their guest house, which was quiet, secluded, and nicely darkened when the lights were switched off (all of which led to better Zachary sleeping time), but they also gave us breakfast and let us introduce Zachary to their animals this morning. Yes, they own a pair of goats, chickens (whose eggs we had soft boiled as part of breakfast), two donkeys, and a very special bull named Willis.

Zachary seemed to reserve the same look of monkey-like curiosity for each of them, but it was certainly a lot of fun for us to visit with them. Willis in particular is like a giant multi-thousand-pound dog in the way that he likes to be pet and licks whatever part of your face/hands/arms he can get close to (even if he has to wedge his head sideways through the slats in his pen to do it).

After breakfast and animal visiting, we packed up, said goodbye and thank yous for their generous hospitality, then headed through Malibu Canyon (passing some impressive damage from those large fires during the fall, and miraculously so much greenery so soon afterwards) and on out to PCH to drive along the coast back down towards the airport. Everything was great with the drive and dropping off of the car, until we hit LAX itself, where I noticed disastrous looking lines spilling out onto the outdoor skycap areas for one terminal (thankfully not ours). Things ended up being nearly as nasty at our own terminal. While the line we got into to check our bags spiralled back on itself about 5 times, the initial entrance to the line was at around the middle of it - so the line ended up being significantly longer than it looked when we joined it. Check-in was being handled in a pretty ludicrous manner - one giant queue of people for 35+ check-in kiosks, with an agent yelling at people which kiosk numbers were free, and most of the kiosks ending up sitting vacant for minutes at a time. (The guy yelling which kiosks were free appeared to go take a break when we got halfway through the line.) And this was the line for people with electronic tickets who had already checked in! There's simply got to be a better way.

Anyway, after standing through that queue, we had the security line to contend with - nearly as long, and again with seven lines splitting out of one without much rhyme or reason. Meh was told to remove Zachary from the Bjorn to take him through security, so there was more juggling of bags and baby, and I walked through with him. And at the gate, there was no place to sit because of a bunch of folks sprawled out sleeping on 4 or 5 seats. Now I understand needing rest in the middle of a long long haul connection, but we'd been in lines for the better part of 90 minutes, so it was slightly frustrating. On the plus side, I was called up to the ticket counter as they started boarding the plane -- they'd bumped Meh and me (and of course the seatless Zachary) up to the economy plus section, so at least we had a bit of room on the flight back. Zachary was again stunning throughout the whole ordeal, keeping his cool so much better than daddy was! He was also totally cracking up on the flight itself, much to our delight.

Game day

We've had a phenomenal rest of our trip to southern California! (Note to self: Meh says I completely overused the word 'lovely' in the last post, so I won't use it at all in this one. Well, except in this note.) Zachary did wonderfully, other than having trouble sleeping in a strange place, which one might expect I suppose. But even with this issue, when we moved from hotel to generously offered guest house for this last night, he seems to be doing much much better.

Saturday was a jam-packed day for the little man. After another somewhat sleepless night (perhaps a bit better than the first night?) was compensated somewhat by a very tasty breakfast at our inn, we checked out and headed out for our first meet-and-greet of the day. This was very exciting -- several months ago I'd mentioned that we'd discovered the existence of another young Zachary Selfon living on the east coast. Since then, my research has turned up a rather large family tree, with more than 130 of us around the country and world. An aunt of the other Zachary lives in LA, and we were finally able to get together and meet up for, er, second breakfast (one can never have too many breakfasts!) in Venice. It was so nice to finally get to meet newly discovered family (based on my best guess, a fourth cousin once removed and her husband), and we all had a really nice time sitting at a cafe and chatting.

On the way to our lunch, since we had a little extra time to kill, we decided to hit Surfas, a giant commercial kitchen supply store that was on the way. (I had at first thought the name was just a smooth and stylish commentary on the fact that food preparation requires surfaces. But no, it's actually the founder's name.) Zachary of course chose the opportunity to dirty a diaper, so we had to retreat to the car for a diaper change, and then Meh was mortified when we snuck back to the store with dirty diaper in hand looking for a garbage can. Thankfully, there was an inconspicuous one outside. Anyway, the store itself was a phenomenal collection of anything you could want for a restaurant or for pastry decorating (the latter being one of Meh's favorites). We saw tons of specially shaped pastry bag tips; cutlery/plates/measuring utensils of all sizes and materials; food coloring, nonpareils [those tiny decorative sugar balls], and glitter of all colors of the spectrum (Meh had to get some edible sparkly purple glitter and pink nonpareils); and even baby-shower themed decorettes [fancy sprinkles] with duckies and rattles (Meh got some excellent dinosaur-shaped ones).

Then it was on to lunch (hm, third meal of the day already?) with a bunch of friends, generously hosted by our friend E. We spent a nice relaxing afternoon catching up, chatting, and enjoying tasty food. After a brief visit back to friends T, S, M, and M's house, we headed onward to friend J's birthday party/game night - a fun evening of Cranium, Trivial Pursuit, and Boulderdash, with organized teams, a big scoreboard, and everything! Zachary was again very happy the whole time - Meh reported he was just looking around and smiling during her Trivial Pursuit game (yes, Meh and I were split into separate teams, likely so she could kick my butt, though we never ended up duelling). During my Cranium game, he was getting very tired, so any celebratory noises startled him into crying and I had to run out to a quiet room to soothe him back down. We bailed soon after round two, with Meh's team in the hunt at 1-1 and my team already likely out of contention at 0-2.

For our last stop of the evening, we headed to the beautiful home of Meh's elementary school friend's parents. We'd originally intended to stay with the friend herself, but she and her two sons had unfortunately gotten ill over the past few days and didn't want Zachary exposed to anything, so to the guest house we went! Zachary thankfully fell asleep quite quickly, we'll see how he fares this round...

Haunted Mansion

Nope, no trips to Disneyland this time around; just a friendly little ghost we know who isn't named Casper...

Zachary "the Jetsetter" began his fourth trip (flight #9) yesterday as we flew down the coast to the City of Angels (which in my experience is more and more frequently also the city of permanent gridlock and outrageously bad driving) to visit our many Los Angeles friends, most of whom had not yet met him. Surprise, surprise, the flight was late to our gate and thus late departing, with no reason given. Ah, the glamour of travel! Zachary was again great on the plane, despite it being a rather cozy 2+2 seats across little commuter jet. In between snacking and occasionally napping, he kept flirting with the flight attendants, the woman sitting across from us, another woman sitting behind us, etc. Oh, and towards the end of the flight, he made a really poopy diaper with a strong bouquet, when it was too late to change him before landing.

Once we disembarked, got everything in order, and got Zachary aired out, we headed to our cozy hotel to check in. Zachary had some lovely playtime before we headed back into the city to attend a yummy take-out kosher deli dinner at the home of friends T and S and their daughters M and R. Several other friends joined us and we had a lovely time catching up and introducing Zachary, though he refused to go to sleep at his appointed bedtime in their darkened guest room. We eventually said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel, where he was grunty most of the night despite the portable noise generator (aka my laptop), and eventually ended up in bed with us.

Today we were pretty much 'free' during the day, so I was determined to find something cozy for us to pass the time doing. On our last trip (when we were about 2 1/2 people), I'd attempted to find a nice park or estate with gardens, and we ended up at a somewhat smallish and sad one in Hollywood, with an impressive but totally fenced off and closed-to-the-public estate. This time I'd remembered the lovely Graystone Mansion I'd visited back in college (friend J reminded me what it was called), so we set off for the Hills of Beverlee to find it. After passing increasingly impressive private homes, then mansions, then estates, then principalities, and finally a few small self-contained countries, we arrived at the park entrance. It certainly didn't disappoint, with amazing manicured lawns, pools, and a beautiful mansion (unfortunately the interior was closed due to filming), and we had a really nice visit.

There were only two challenges: First, some misinforming park rangers -- yes indeed, Graystone Park has rangers, which is a little weird to see in a pretty urban park, but why not in Beverly Hills? Anyway, Zachary was asleep in his car seat, and I immediately remembered that there were quite a few stairs to deal with. The ranger insisted there was a paved sloping road we could use. He didn't mention that road was still scattered with varied sets of stairs, so after lugging the stroller containing Zachary (no longer asleep of course) down a few sets of stairs, we gave up and pitched the stroller back into the car. Which brings us to challenge number two -- somehow we'd forgotten about this bright glowing thing up in the sky that was the likely cause of the splendidly warm weather. This thing (let's call it "the sun") doesn't really have much impact this time of year in Seattle, so we'd naturally forgotten to bring a hat for Zachary. Our strategy to keep him from getting too much exposure? Draping the bebe-au-lait over him whenever it got too sunny. My attempts to do this made him look like a very stylishly patterned ghost, and I joked that he was haunting the mansion. Meh had better success draping it over him as more of a sun shade, and we completed our tour with Zachary's most lavishly served snack (and diaper change) yet, right next to some pretty fountains with butterflies fluttering about. On the way out, we stopped by a few artistic designed gardens, one of which had a pond with an enormous number of turtles sunning themselves while fish swam around; Zachary was fascinated by both.

Had lunch at an excellent new-ish kosher steakhouse (gotta take advantage of these dining options while I can!) before heading to a mall for some good pseudo-indoor time and casual shopping. We then met up with friends C and R for a lovely dinner in the always baby-friendly Cheesecake Factory before heading back to the hotel for an 'early' evening (~7:30 pm), including the return of hotel naked baffy time!

A Grand Day Out

(Cue the Wallace and Gromit music?)

Today was our greatest father-son challenge yet, with a full day of activities to occupy our time -- we were out of the house from 9 am until nearly 6 pm. Other than almost leaving his bag at a restaurant, I think we managed to do pretty well and have a nice day out.

At 9:30 am, we went to that 'Gigglers' class I'd attended with him for the first time a few weeks earlier. Again, I was the sole daddy (Meh indicates she hadn't seen many in past classes), which was again only slightly awkward, particularly when the day's conversation started with the often negative aspects of how the relationship had changed with the women's partners since their babies had come onto the scene. One of the moms told me that her husband had just been waiting for another guy to attend and hang out with (are we going to go discuss football or something?), so she was pleased to hear that I should be at class all month. Anyway, we had a nice time and Zachary of course took his first of many naps during the class.

Then, as we had a little extra time before mommy's lunch break, we decided to squeeze in a snack for Zachary. But Korby was also running low on dogfood, so to kill two birds with, well, maybe one and a half stones, we drove over to the pet store a mile away from the class, then sat in the lot and had a bottle (insert joke about open containers in a vehicle) before going in to pick up food. The pet store people were very nice; while I was able to lug the 35 lb. bag of food to the register, they had someone bring it out the to car for us.

Next it was on to mommy for lunch. Incidentally, Zachary has become the master of falling asleep in the car 5 minutes before we arrive somewhere. I feel really bad waking him up, though whether it's via picking him up or trying to take the whole car seat, he's a light enough sleeper that he often wakes up in the transition. Of course, later in the day he would prove me wrong... Anyway, he was very happy and kicky to see mommy and her fellow librarians!

And lastly, the two of us went and visited friend/coworker D and his young daughter S for a playdate. She's a month or so younger than Zachary, but again the differences in these young babies are tremendous. She grabs her feet with her hands; I've never seen Zachary show any interest. She rolls over in one direction; Zachary doesn't do either direction yet, since that twice occurring object-induced front-to-back roll. The playdate began rather undramatically; Zachary was conked out from the ride over, and disproved my previous concern by staying asleep in the car seat as I brought it inside. Next the four of us went out for a belated lunch (at 3 pm). As we were walking, S conked out in her stroller just before Zachary woke up hollering to be out of the bloody thing. I got him out and got the stroller resituated -- a women opened her second story window, leaned out, and asked if she could help with anything for the baby. Only in Capitol Hill!

So we had a nice fatherly lunch -- now two hours into the playdate, the babies hadn't actually seen each other awake. We headed back to D's house, where Zachary had a snack, and finally the two were awake at the same time. S actually showed some socializing interest, but Zachary seemed mostly interested in putting his hands in his mouth. The one near interaction was when she waved her hands in front of his face and he almost put one in his mouth. It's particularly interesting since he's so smiley and flirty with grownups (particularly of the female persuasion). But go figure, I guess he goes for the older women or something.

Anyway, we tried out a few fun and decidedly low-tech toys from a class D, R, and baby S had taken -- sleigh bells and shakers (Zachary looked at them but wasn't really interested in holding them); pieces of colored shiny metallic ribbon that both babies were entranced by; the placement and slight rolling of the baby positioned tummy-down on a ball (Zachary didn't care for this); and lastly, a fun little two-grownup-requiring square of fabric with the baby placed in the middle and the four corners lifted into the air to provide a swinging hammock. Zachary really enjoyed the back and forth, and was smiley and even a bit giggly. After a fun afternoon (well, at least for the dads!), we headed home in time for rush hour traffic, and got home at around 5:30 pm - just enough time for a little dancing before naked baffy time and sleep. A nice full day for a young boy!

Zack in the Hat

(Hey, Scoot, proud of the title?)

When I was pregnant with Zachary, I got used to strangers feeling that they could say just about anything to me, regardless of whether it was their business or not. Questions about everything from the baby's sex, due date, and my food cravings, to comments on the same (including frequent unwanted sex predictions) were a daily occurence. However, I expected these probes into my personal business to lessen once Zachary arrived. I was so wrong. People felt they could ask me anything and everything about my pregnant body, and they think it's just as acceptable to make comments on how I raise my child.

The best example of this so far (though I have no doubt that it will continue through Zachary's childhood and probably beyond) has been the frequent comments on whether or not my baby is wearing a hat. The first time this happened, I was walking into Target with Zachary in the bjorn, and a woman exiting walked past me and muttered under her breath, "(gasp!) No hat!" I couldn't believe I had actually heard it, but I had. Another time, I was taking the elevator up to my car after our new parents' support group, when an older gentleman commented on the chilly day. "A stocking cap would be good on a day like today, wouldn't it?" he said looking at Zachary's bare head. I wanted to tell him where he could go shove his stocking cap, but I am not that type of person.

The truth is, I shouldn't care what other people think, but I do. I found myself questioning whether maybe Zachary should be wearing a hat, and now I find myself putting one on him whenever we leave the house, to head off the comments (no pun intended).

But then a couple days ago, someone saw him indoors in his fleece, and the comment was, "Yeah, you're a little warm in that jacket, huh?" Grrr.

Zachary and the Sea of Z's

One of the ongoing great mysteries of young babyhood is sleep - how it works, why it often doesn't, and how to get more of it (for both baby and parents). Granted, I can't really complain, since Zachary has been effectively getting up 1-2 times per night (generally at 3 am and then 5 or 5:30 am) for the last month or more at this point. (Another effect of sleeplessness: short term memory loss. What were his sleep patterns like previously, and when did they change? I honestly don't remember. I have a vague recollection of him being up every 2-3 hours. I'm convinced all of this selective memory is part of our genetic make up, to make sure we forget enough of the tough parts to ensure families don't all stop at one child.) And I really shouldn't complain because, when he's waken himself up, Meh nearly universally manages the soothing back to sleep.

Anyway, two nights ago (or was it three nights ago? You see?!?), Zachary miraculously managed to keep himself asleep all night. Yes, 12 hours of snoozing goodness, from 7 pm to 7 am. Meh actually woke up a few times herself, a little concerned at this turn of events, and had to go check on him to make sure he was indeed still just blissfully asleep. Last night he had reverted though, and actually was squeaky even earlier in the night on a few occasions.

So what changed? What did we do differently? And how can we repeat it? In some ways I feel like a baseball player, developing a series of superstitions in an attempt to recapture that elusive no-hitter. Fear not, we're not avoiding sidewalk cracks (challenging with a bjorn or stroller in front of you), keeping strange talismans, or refusing to change clothes until Zachary repeats his feat (quite the opposite with the frequency that he spits up), but there are still plenty of little things to tweak: the timing of the bath, the number and quality of daytime naps and feedings, the nighttime soothing routine, the amount of time we let him settle himself to sleep before going in, etc. It really is a bit of a laboratory experiment, but if it can be done once, it can be repeated. We hope!

In like a... turtle?

(No lions here, except of course in Zachary's Laurie Berkner tunes.)

Happy new year to everyone! So New Years Day rolled around, which happens to be my birthday. I had no idea what was planned for the day, which of course made me immediately suspicious that there might be a surprise party in the making. Meh had taken dramatic steps to hide the whole thing from me, but I think the whole absence of some kind of event, even something low-key like our night-before's festivities, made me guess that something was up. Well, that and accidentally walking in on Meh working on the invitation last week. (Honestly, I just saw a list of names in a text document - I wouldn't have thought twice if she hadn't practically pushed me out of our office!)

Still, I didn't know what or when things would be happening -- though when my mom took Zachary and me out to look for a new watch (for me) and Meh said to be back by a specific time, I had a feeling... The mall was thankfully mellowed out from the holiday craziness, though the trip itself was a pretty dismal failure. (When you explain what you're looking for, what kind of store shows you a watch with a $2980 price tag?!? Then other stores laughed us out of the door when I mentioned the price range we were looking for. Jeez, who buys these things?) Side note - we got halfway through the mall when Zachary's grandma noticed he had one sock-free foot. We figured all hope was lost of its recovery, but I retraced our steps back the way we came in, and sure enough, the tiny piece of white cloth was sitting on the ground (next to a jewelry display that I guarantee housed pieces costing less than that blasted watch). This makes me two-for-two on recovering lost Zachary clothing items; I rescued a dropped shoe from the Target parking lot a few weeks ago. Of course, now that I've pointed it out, I'm sure he'll lose an unrecoverable piece of clothing the next time I take him out.

So we drove back from the mall. Scanning the street outside of our house, I didn't see an obscene number of cars, so I wondered if we were maybe doing something later in the evening. Zachary was of course sound asleep in his car seat, as he often is during/after car rides. I pulled into the garage and carried him inside, still in the car seat. It was then that I noticed the balloons, and a few seconds later, a group of friends standing around the corner yelled "SURPRISE!" Zachary's eyes flew open - his first surprise party. I thought he might cry, but he just looked around wide-eyed and took it all in.

The party was wonderful - Meh had made it Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-themed, complete with magnificent turtle cupcakes (served on a tray Zachary's grandma had brought as a Chanukah gift for Meh), a yummy cake, and TMNT napkins, plates, and balloons. Rounded out with snacks, drinks, tasty appetizers, and dips, it was a wonderful surprise -- and a great opportunity to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in weeks (or in the case of a few friends from our new years eve party, perhaps sixteen hours). Hooray for Meh for planning such a wonderful and tasty party!

Out like a lamb

A very happy new year to everyone! 2007 ended in style last night, with us all conking out by around 9:30 pm (Zachary by 6:30 pm, after another audience-attended 'naked baffy time') - we're party animals to the end. I was particularly impressed that my brother and aunt Jen flew back into NY at 9 pm and were still planning to attempt to make it to a friend's party. (In the end, sounds like they just went out and watched the fireworks at their local park.)

As I was joking to friends at our low-key gathering, we were certainly able to hit the major highlights - the ball dropping in New York (live thanks to CNN - tape delay is totally lame), tasty food, and good friends. Plus 9 pm is the start of my birthday in my 'native' time zone, so we were able to start the birthday festivities before falling asleep. Friends M and A had brought their 3-year-old daughter J, who was certainly the life of the party; I think she managed to simultaneously exhaust all of the many adults in attendance with dancing, playing, and surprisingly precocious conversation! We made a few attempts to put on a video that might entertain her, but both Faerie Tale Theatre and the Muppet Movie appeared to scare her as soon as the singing stopped and they moved into plot. The newer Fantasia fared a bit better, though an ethical debate erupted about whether it was right for a policeman to stop a hungry man from taking an apple that had rolled off the fruit stand and onto the ground. Ah well, it was a wonderful evening, and we were so thankful to have so many friends and family with us (grandma in particular has kept Zachary enthralled throughout her visit!) over the past week, and last night in particular to welcome in the new year (or at least come within a few hours of doing so).

Cake for Breakfast

We had a lovely Shabbat dinner last night with Grandma, Brian, Jen, and M and K. I had to work all day, so everyone got together to make a wonderful meal, including excellent salmon by Uncle Brian, yummy green beans and salad by M and K, and of course Scoot's amazing challah. We also ordered one of my favorite cakes from Hoffman's Bakery in Kirkland: the Princess Torte. I know, it's named after me! It's also quite delicious and the flavor friend J used as inspiration for our wedding cake (well, one of the flavors, anyway). And, I did indeed have some for breakfast this morning. K took some photos, which we can only hope will show up on M and K's blog soon! That is, if we are cool enough to make the cut.

Zachary is having a great visit with Grandma and Brian and Jen. Grandma has a knack for getting Zachary to scream with laughter (much like Uncle Josh) by making silly faces and noises! He was a bit angry during nap time today, and when I peeked in at him, he was arching his back so much that I thought he would roll over onto his tummy...but he didn't. His new favorite place to nap is in the center of Mommy and Daddy's bed (after a snack, of course). He leaves a tiny Zachary-shaped imprint which makes us happy come our own bedtime.