Friends J & S had a lovely end-of-summer barbecue yesterday afternoon. Meh was working, so Zachary and I went together after his second nap of the day. He was a bit fussy when we arrived -- still waking up, a bit overwhelmed by all of the people, and as I found out later, busy, um, producing something at the time. So we headed past the amazing spread, out on their back elevated deck, and then down the stairs to their excellent now completed backyard. After a bit of clinginess, Zachary was happy to get down and run around like a madman. First he spent a bunch of time running around on the paved area directly under the deck, glancing back at me, smiling, stomping his feet, and collecting and brought daddy each of the many pine cones that he found.
Then it was free range Zachary time. When he reached one particular tree, he touched it and then craned his head way back to smile up at the top of it. And when he found the wooden fence, he started leaning up against it in a super-cute way. A few other guests had brought their dogs; Zachary hadn't gotten to spend much time with pooches since last seeing Uncle Gus at grandma's house, and he learned that dogs make other sounds besides "ah ah":
Today's milestone: Zachary's first crying-free haircut! I took him back to the place we'd gone last time, and he was in an excellent mood beforehand. Two little girls were ahead of him, and I was nervous that mood would wear off by the time it was his turn, but he was satisfied to play with a giant basket of toys (first putting back the animal toys the girls had left out, then finding each and every car in the basket) and with a giant magnetic blackboard covered with colored letters and numbers. When we got to the haircut, he brought one die-cast car along, and I plopped him into a truck-shaped barber chair. He played with the wheel and buttons, but when the scissors started, I could see he was potentially ready to be unhappy. The stylist was way ahead of me, bringing over a giant tub of cars and trucks. The little man spent the rest of the haircut sorting through and playing with the wide variety of vehicles. There was even a Harold the Helicopter, which prompted Zachary to say one of my favorite new little man words: "ha ha". (He says this every time he sees Harold in one of his Thomas books.) Zachary was happily distracted through the whole cut, only occasionally raising a hand to try to grab the comb (succeeding once), and giggling a few times as the scissors and comb tickled the back of his neck. Such a good and cute little man, and now he's got a smart haircut in preparation for visiting bubbie, aunt I, and uncle S this weekend!
Meh has wisely decided to visually document a few of the lovely meals we've offered to Zachary -- if he isn't always going to eat all of the variety of selections we present to him, at least we'll have pictures of our efforts. Granted, every once in a while he'll surprise us and get past stage 1 below with a new cuisine:
(Frequent) Pick it up and reach as far toward us as he can, trying to get us to eat it.
Bring it toward his face, inspect it, and then put it back down.
Touch it to his lips, then put it back down.
Put it (gasp) into his mouth, then sit there frozen, evaluating the flavor, then spit it back out.
(Rarely) After #4, start vacuuming down the rest of the food item on his plate.
(Once in a blue moon) The next time we serve a food that reaches stage 5, he remembers he likes it and eats it again. Otherwise, it's back to stage 1.
Last week, plums reached stage 5 (but not 6). The other day, cucumber reached stage 4. And as seen here, our lovely heirloom tomatoes are stuck at stage 1. This is the excitement that is our dining adventures. In the meantime, we'll keep following the advice of most child nutrition books - it's our responsibility to offer him a variety of healthy foods, and it's his to actually eat them. Worst case, I help Zachary finish off particularly yummy-looking things that don't appeal to our young food critic.
Tonight we were once again reading Zachary's favorite bathtime book, Elmo's book of opposites. When I asked him the opposite of "tall", he looked at me, smiled, and said "Dada!". Cruel, but true.
We've been continuing to have a fun daddy/son weekend, though we both of course miss mommy a lot -- fear not, she returns tomorrow! Zachary occasionally looks around and says 'mama'; I've taken the opportunity to "read" to him more from our little flipbook photo album of family and friends -- he's even brought it to me a few times. I open it up and start pointing at people and asking him who they are. The first two pages are pics of us, and he pretty consistently says 'mama' (for both Meh and myself). But on other pages, he's doing a great job of starting to identify people and pick out a sound or two to say from their names: 'Papa' (papa, poppy), 'mama' (mima, Meh, and of course daddy), 'baba' (bubbie), 'uhkabah' (Uncle Brian, who got to hear him say this on the phone this evening), 'uhkajah' (Uncle Josh), and of course an energetic 'dah!' for friend J (who elicits the same initial response when Zachary sees him in person).
Zachary's vehicle organizing continues; I don't know if he's trying to arrange his inventory for the Cash for Clunkers program or what. Today he first pulled all of his cars out of his push cart and put them on the ottoman. Then he leaned over the gate around the TV and put them up on the TV stand. Then those spots weren't nearly precarious enough, so he managed to balance most of the cars on one arm of a chair, only signing for daddy to help when he ran out of room. And when we got back from an evening walk, the day wrapped up with another well-presented and thorough collection of cars on his stroller (including a nicely featured Mini Cooper on the stroller footrest - he's clearly got an eye!).
In between the car show events, we headed into the city and had lunch with friends D & S at the tourist-swarming Pike Place Market. With the beautiful weather, I'd hoped to get us a patio table here (I hadn't been in years) -- but I'd forgotten about the very stroller-unfriendly 20+ stairs down from the entrance or 30+ up from the market, and the 30 minute wait that D reported when he scouted ahead was the end of that idea. We instead chose a tasty sandwich shop with a bunch of outdoor tables, one of which had some diners with two greyhounds snoozing around them. I waded around the pooches, and the little man enjoyed his lunch while watching the dogs and listening to a street musician strumming a guitar twenty feet away. Only a ceiling fan would've kept him more entertained!
One of the fun birthday presents Zachary got was a Thomas the Train step stool, which we use at the bathroom sink after his bath. He loves to step up it, smiles at his reflection in the mirror behind the sink, and eagerly waits for his toothbrush (which he generally just tries to slurp the toothpaste off of). He hasn't quite figured out how to step back down yet, but it's a work in progress, and both he and his parents' backs are very pleased to be able to reach the sink without us having to hold him up. Anyway, he definitely thought outside of the box (stool?) at bath time tonight; when I start drawing the water for his bath, sometimes he'll excitedly run into the bathroom, check the temperature of the water, and occasionally even halfway try to climb into the tub. (Thankfully he isn't quite tall enough yet, since he's often still in his clothes at this point.) Tonight I heard a noise from the bathroom while the water was still warming up and I was getting his pajamas ready. I came in to discover he'd picked up and was moving the step stool over from the sink to the tub for an easier entrance -- what a clever little man!
It's been a whirlwind of a week; Zachary's nanny is out of town, so Wednesday I stayed home with him. And yesterday morning, Meh headed to a Balkan music and dance festival in Oregon for the weekend. Before she left, Zachary performed a short recital for us:
Now the men are home alone for four days! We'd handled it pretty well last time, though then Meh was only gone for about 3 days, and one of those days Zachary spent with his nanny.
Wednesday, the little man and I went to visit the South 47, a farm that's all of 10 minutes from our house -- I drove past it daily on my old work commute, and embarassingly had never visited, nor pondered that it would be fun for the little man and might have tasty U-Pick fruit and veg. Of course, fields with minimal tractor ditches aren't really conducive to strollers, so we were on foot. Or at least I was; Zachary wasn't interested in walking, so I carried him all around the farm, pointing out various plants and asking him what color the berries were (he correctly identified them as 'wah' and 'bv'). It was in the upper 80s, so we ducked into one of the greenhouses with picnic tables, where I finally got him to run around while gigglging by singing a silly song. Then we hopped back to the farmstand at the front of the farm to peruse their pre-picked fruit and veg. Some gigantic heirloom tomatoes, along with fresh peaches, plums, nectarines, and even the first apples of the season -- but we already have quite a stash at home, and a delivery was coming yesterday, so I resisted. As we departed, I realized we hadn't yet found the token farmyard animals that I'd predicted he would be most interested in. Looking back towards the farm as I drove off, I saw that they'd been right there by the entrance. Whoops, next time!
Since then, we've gone to the local state park, where I attempted an 'easy' hike, again with him in the stroller. "Easy" doesn't take into account tree roots along the trails, so I'm going to upgrade that route to 'moderate' when you have a stroller plus 27.8-pound toddler. On the plus side, he mightily enjoyed the swings after we emerged from the forest. We've also enjoyed the summer weather by having playtime in the yard, including tricycle (he isn't quite tall enough to self-guide via the pedals, though he's starting to use the steering wheel), pushcart, swing, and daddy/son snuggling in the hammock (which he calls 'hama'). We swung in it for a bit and he kept looking back up at me and smiling.
Today we ventured into the city for lunch (or at least an early afternoon snack) with good friends S & J, who we hadn't seen in ages. It was so nice to catch up with them, while Zachary spent much of the time playing in the restaurant's excellent gated play area with a variety of legos, cars, dinosaurs, and other fun toys. I wish more restaurants would imitate this; he had such a great time while the three adults sat at a table right next to the play area keeping an eye on him. A few times he whined and craned his neck when he couldn't see me for a few minutes, then smiled and went back to his activities when I waved at him. Whether at a restaurant or in the hammock, it's a good feeling to have him check up on you and make sure you're nearby!
Another milestone: Zachary has made the transition to 2% milk. For those keeping score, this isn't actually a huge leap from whole milk, which I learned along the way is about 3.6% milkfat. But still, perhaps a slightly less fatty cup of milk will mean slightly more interest in trying new and different foods?
Today I got to take Zachary to his swimming class all by myself; I hadn't attended in ages, and last time I'd been an observer. The little man was excited and happy from the moment we got out of the car, and knew exactly where we were. Changing was a minor challenge, as I got him into his swim diaper and then noticed a puddle start to form around his legs. Meh mentioned afterwards that the pre-swim pee is is a common tradition for him. I cleaned it all up, but he still managed to soak my shirt pretty well -- and we thought he was the one for whom we needed to carry a change of clothing? :)
He definitely knows what he's doing much more than I did; the class songs would start and he'd be smiling, excited, and splashy, and when there was an expected dip, he was halfway into it before I knew to dunk him. There were songs, fun toys, some back floating, life vest practice, playing on a little underwater platform, and sliding down a slide. I can't speak for Zachary, but I was ready for a nap afterwards!
Zachary continues to be fairly organized with at least certain toys; a few days ago, he managed to place all of his cars, trucks, train cars, and other wheeled objects up on the counter top in a continuous row, even continuing it around a corner to the wall. And today when mommy asked if he wanted to go for a walk, he ran over to his stroller, but Meh was surprised that, as she got her shoes on, he didn't impatiently whine for her to hurry up. When she got to the stroller, she discovered the reason: the little man had been carefully removing the full complement of cars he had placed in it, moving them one by one over to the bench.
More speech advances: last night I read him that same Elmo bathtub book, and when I asked him the opposite of 'Stop', he said 'Gooo'. And when I asked the opposite of day, he said 'nah'. And then today, Meh reported that with Sesame Street on the television (and Zachary at least appearing to not really pay attention to it), he ran into the kitchen and happily told her 'bih bih' when Big Bird came on. Go, little man, gooo!
New vocabulary has been coming almost daily for the little man. Zachary imitates more and more animal sounds (though my favorite remains his attempts to 'guess' when he doesn't know what the animal sounds like - the most random syllables come out of his mouth!), and still requests milk with the word "mih". He's also now starting to identify colors: blue is "bvv", and yellow and red are both "wah".
But perhaps the most surprising development is his ability to verbally identify a certain red Muppet, which he started doing yesterday when we read a book about said muppet. Zachary is rarely interested enough to watch the live action version, so it's all the more surprising that this character has become his first multi-syllable, non-repeated-syllable word - and the first non-familial name to boot. During bathtime, he gave a repeat performance:
Zachary's second birthday has come and gone, which means it's time for his two-year check-up! We called yesterday to schedule it (at the time of his 18-month appointment they said they didn't schedule that far ahead?), and they had an opening this afternoon. I missed out due to work, but Meh reported that he had a good appointment, and was even actually happy -- at least until the otoscope went into his ear, at which time the waterworks started.
But regardless, Meh's side of the gene pool seems to be holding sway (at least for the time being), with the little man at close to average weight and height:
Yup, at two years, we are now officially at the end of tracking ounces! They're also apparently at the end of needing strictly accurate weighings, as he wore all of his clothes for the measurements.
While Meh and I were enjoying Olympia, Zachary was having a blast with mima and papa. They had a return trip to Carkeek Park, where a train whizzed by just as they arrived, to much big Zachary smiling. They also visited the local Children's Museum and enjoyed a few meals out together. Again, I'm pretty sure mima and papa were having as much fun as Zachary!
They thankfully documented their experience with fun photos; Meh and I had spent much of our trip speculating about the fun times they must be having, and what the little man would have made of the B&B, state capitol, and other places we explored. I'm not sure what the symbolism or subconscious indicators are here, but both grandma's and mima and papa's cameras appear to have every picture they've ever taken still on the camera's memory card. On the plus side, this meant that yesterday morning we were able to pull down photos from our last visit to Florida from after our camera got washed; those pics are now featured with the rest of the collection here.
We were all sad to see mima and papa leave yesterday morning, and are looking forward to their next visit (or our next visit to their warmer climate!).
Zachary and his grandparents were getting on so well that Meh and I were able to go take a quick 2-day mommy and daddy getaway vacation to our state's capitol -- or rather to an incredibly cozy bed and breakfast just outside of the city. Huge thanks to friend I, whose own stay there last month led to the recommendation!
I'd forgotten just how close Olympia is; the drive down was under 90 minutes. We started our trip by actually passing the city and driving to visit a very special sanctuary for wolves, many of whom are endangered, and most of whom were raised in captivity (zoos, private owners, etc.) and reside here because they can't be released to the wild. Fear not, only about 75% of the other tour participants were raving Twilight fans -- I heard a few speculative mumbles about Jacob Black candidates among the wolves we saw, and one tour participant was even wearing a shirt whose back listed all of the vampires in the book series, like some kind of literary band tour. But I suppose the fandom can be only a positive for a non-profit like Wolf Haven, and this sanctuary goes even further, with "howl-in" evening events on summer weekends. The guide was silly and she clearly loves working with the wolves. The wolves (and a pair of coyotes) themselves were lounging (quite a few up on the roofs of their dens), strolling, stretching, and in one case actually howling a bit at us -- he was apparently a recent addition who had been rescued from poor conditions and was still a bit wary of a pack of human tourists:
From there we headed to the B & B, which was tucked away appropriately enough on the edge of a cove. The grounds were wonderful, with lovely views of the sound, multiple flower gardens, a fruit and veg garden that the proprietors pick from for creating their breakfasts, a large forward-positioned deck overlooking the Puget Sound, a forested path down to the cove and beach (with kayaks available for aquatic exploring -- we ran out of time to take advantage of them), and an amazing and perfectly situated house in the middle.
The house was incredible, with ample space for relaxation -- multiple sitting rooms, a library/study with floor to ceiling bookshelves (and yes, a rolling ladder on rails), the dining room, a living room, and a sunroom/solarium (where yesterday afternoon Meh and I had an epic Uno duel while sipping cocoa). We later learned the house itself had been substantially rebuilt after the Nisqually earthquake (the epicenter was literally a mile away), which had allowed the owners to invest in all kinds of fascinating details like floors made from locally grown renewable wood and transforming the house from brick into more of a wooden Tudor-style house. Which brings us to the suites, which were even cozier and more relaxing, fully furnished with indoor and covered outdoor seating areas, giant jetted tubs, large fireplaces, and a tremendously calming vibe. We took afternoon naps each day, spent a lot of time just lounging and reading, and really got to relax. We also took advantage of the time to enjoy twotasty dinners out, and even got to go take in a movie (in IMAX 3D no less, though it was only used for the coming attractions and the first 10 minutes of the film, which seemed a gimmicky way to bump up the ticket price; the film itself was great though!).
On our full day away, we also explored Olympia, with a small cute downtown and an enormous and impressive state Capitol building, featuring a *lot* of marble, all Tiffany lamps, and what the tour guide (whose tour we stumbled into) called the fourth largest dome in the world, with the largest chandelier Tiffany ever made suspended from it. I would not have wanted to be under that chandelier during the 2001 earthquake! The state senate and house are on recess, so the building itself was pretty quiet -- no thanks to me; when we went into the Capitol reception room, the guide wanted someone to play their piano to demonstrate how it resonates in the space. Meh volunteered me, so I sheepishly plunked out a few chords. The room also featured a fun 42-state flag used for the state's inaugural parade but never adopted by the US, who jumped straight from 38 to 43. After the tour, we even found Olympia's very own cute little tea house, which is in the central atrium of a tiny unassuming commercial building. The owner was so friendly and cordial, the tea lovely, and the foods were scrumptious!
The whole trip was wonderful and magical. As if to punctuate it, before heading to dinner on our last evening, we took a walk down to the cove and then along the Puget Sound beach. Suddenly, Meh spotted a young fawn beyond a fallen log. He walked right toward us and stopped about 10 feet away, looking at us for several minutes before turning and literally prancing away. We ended up having to take off our shoes and socks and wade through the inlet to the cove on the way back; the tide was coming in, and we didn't realize quite how quickly the small creek would become unjumpable -- for us, at least; that fawn would've had no problem, I'm sure.
It's Zachary's second birthday! Wow, how the time flies - still can't get over it already being two years since we first met him. In honor of his favorite toy, Meh made the party Lego-themed, with cupcakes topped with blueberry butter cream frosting topped with lego fondant that she had hand-made, rectangle by rectangle and dot by dot. (The dots involved pushing a piping tip onto a sheet of fondant, then popping the small circle out with a toothpick, brushing it with water, and placing it on a rectangle. For. Every. Single. Dot.) The five kids who attended got cute little pails with chocolate Lego men (not sure where Meh found the mold; mima and she made red and yellow men), along with stickers, crackers/cookies, and of course some actual (well, generic-brand) Legos.
Unfortunately, the little man himself was a bit under the weather today; he was ready for his morning nap fairly early, didn't sleep well or long through said nap, and was getting progressively fussier and splotchier as the day wore on. Meh put him down for his afternoon nap fairly early, in the hope that he'd feel better by party time. Meh took a nap herself after all of the morning preparations. She woke up about the time that we needed to leave, and the little man was still asleep. So papa and I packed up the car, drove over to the grocery store for ice and ice cream, and headed onward to the park for his party.
Luckily most of his guests arrived fashionably late, and many of the kids were entertained by the 'happy second birthday' balloons or just headed for the ginormous playground (which claims to be the largest in the state). The birthday boy himself arrived flanked by mommy and mima about an hour after the scheduled start time, feeling very refreshed by his nearly 3 hour nap, and ready to play with his guests. He (and everybody else) had a great time -- happily exploring, swinging, and then sitting in the middle of his pile of presents on a picnic table. He couldn't quite express interest in opening them, though once a flurry of trucks and trains started to appear (our neighbor's four-year-old daughter assisted with the actual present opening), he was definitely excited to play with them.
One of his favorites, which had him in stitches both at the park and later this evening, was a little car that revs its engine, actually peels out for about 5 feet, and then stops and giggles. Zachary pretty much follows suit. I myself was particularly pleased with one of those marble rolling Rube Goldberg type toys, which according to the box is designed (I'm not making this up) to "develop early engineering sense". The most Seattle toy award goes to a cute recycling truck, itself made of recycled milk cartons, with separate little slots for paper, plastic, and aluminum. Oh, and the box itself (also made of recycled materials) is printed with icons for the three recycling types, so you can cut it up and use it with the recycling truck. Brilliant!
The birthday cupcake itself went something like last year, with the little man pushing it away without much interest. But that's okay, we all enjoyed plenty of cupcakes for him, and he had a wonderful time at his party -- happy second birthday, little man!
Mima and papa are very appreciative of good food and always take us to wonderful restaurants when we visit, so we made reservations to take them to the incredible Herbfarm last night. (The last time Meh and I had been there was more than two years ago, for our last real date before Zachary was born.) This time the menu theme was 'Basil Banquet', with all different kinds of basil featured in every one of the nine courses (including a cinnamon basil ice cream for dessert). It was fun to be back for a second time; as before, the owner took us on a tour of the herb gardens beforehand, explaining and passing around herbs for us to taste, smell, and/or look at. And when we were seated, the sous chef and sommelier round-robined through the nine courses and the wines that would be paired with them. Somehow they manage to always be elegant without being ostentatious: the sous chef described a dessert, and then added that the flavor it most reminded him of was lime Skittles.
The food was exquisite (equally impressive was how they flawlessly dealt with each of our dietary restrictions), and it was a wonderful evening with a classical guitarist strumming in the corner. At around the halfway point we simply had to get up and walk around a bit, and went back out to visit the restaurant's two "recyclers", truffle-hunting pigs-in-training Basil and Borage (significantly bigger after two years!), armed with a little pail of food to feed them.
A brief story about mima and papa's experiences with Zachary so far: on the day they arrived, Meh and they took him to a toy store (in part because it had a picture of Thomas in the window). A little girl in the store accidentally dropped a ball she'd been playing with, Zachary picked it up and brought it back to her - such gallantry already! They even had their first time alone with him today, when both Meh and I were working -- he slept through most of the morning, then they took him to one of his favorite (as in lots of overhead fans) restaurants for lunch before picking up Meh after work. It was just a few hours, but I came home to find everyone pretty exhausted; the little man certainly takes a lot out of you!
Tomorrow is Zachary's second birthday - suffice it to say that Meh has some pretty amazing treats planned for the occasion. It's unbelievable that he's already going to be two; time really is advancing in fast motion!
Just in time for mima and papa's visit, Zachary has started saying 'papa'! We can only hope the word 'mima' follows close behind. Regardless of if he can say their names, he was extremely happy to meet up with both of them for lunch today. He'd been napping around their flight's arrival time, so Meh and he joined us at the restaurant, and he was super smiley and giggly, and clearly pleased to see his grandparents. (I'm pretty sure the chandeliers above us ranked a close second, as he kept tipping his head backwards to watch them.) I had to head back to work, but I arrived home to more fun family playtime.
Mima and papa brought Zachary a "Thomas the Train" set, complete with cranking bridge and magnetic crane, and he's been enjoying pushing the train cars around. The train set is even the same rail gauge as Zachary's Ikea tracks, so we'll have to be sure to build some sprawling and complex paths around the house at some point.
Friends N & S (and their boys J & R) are still visiting from the UK, and this afternoon Zachary and I met up with them and some other friends at the very fun Carkeek Park on the Puget Sound. I'd never been before, and we'll definitely have to go back - there's an actual playground that we didn't even get to check out in our rush to explore the beach. Zachary got his fill of all of his favorites: rocks, driftwood to climb onto and over, sandy beaches, the chilly waters of the sound (he *loved* having his feet in it, and liked it even more when I'd pick him up and drop him back down into the water; needless to say we both go a bit wet by the end), a fairly low flyby of what we think was the new double-decker Airbus, and yes, even a passing enormously long freight train. Of course the train garnered the biggest smiles, though thankfully no attempts to chase it this time; from the moment we heard the whistle in the distance, I knew I was going to have to get him in for a close view from the bridge and stairs that go over the tracks and down to the beach. This video is only a pale rendition of his full excitement:
The view was pretty extraordinary, so I'd be a bit bummed if those tracks don't take passengers anymore. Apparently before we'd arrived, S reported that a truck with some kind of adapter thing had been driving down the railroad tracks - seeing a truck or two was about the only thing missing from Zachary's ideal afternoon!
Particularly with the continuing heat (though thankfully we've backed down a bit from the crazy 105 degrees from earlier this week), we've been focusing on Zachary getting his liquids. Related to the drinking came a breakthrough earlier this week - he signed for milk (as he often does; I think he'd try to subsist on milk alone if we let him), and when Meh asked him if he wanted milk, he said "mih!". It's been repeated more and more consistently since then.
Yesterday, Zachary and I had lunch with friends J & S at their house. With the increasing heat (and his newfound skill verbally communicating a desire for milk), he's been an even more selective eater (though I did watch him eat three kernels of corn the other day), and requests milk more often. Thankfully today he seemed more comfortable, and both ate more and drink more juice ("juice" generally meaning water with a splash of juice). After lunch, we played outside under J & S's deck, which Zachary decided was the perfect place for spinning. He's really goofy-looking when he spins around, because he locks his eyes opposite the direction of the spin for some reason, which I'd think likely makes him even dizzier. He did encourage J to spin along with him, and then laughed and watched.
Beyond 'milk', other sounds are starting to come into the mix as well - "dada" occasionally relating to me (though typically when I ask him who I am, I'm still "mama"), more "yeah" and "go", and my new favorite would have to be the seemingly random syllables he'll throw at an animal when he doesn't know what sound it's supposed to make. One of our favorite games lately is for him to complete my sentence - I'll say "uhhhb...", and then he'll happily reply "baka-waka". The extended "wah-baka-waka" remains one of his favorites, and he even developed a joke around it yesterday:
Meh surprised me last month with tickets to see a new musical previewing in Seattle before it heads for Broadway. The show was last night, and we had such a fun date night! We started with dinner at a tasty tapas place we'd never been to, and lucked out when we discovered that their valet parking was both free and time-unlimited. Then we strolled the few blocks over to the theater, where they had costumed flight attendants out front handing out bags of peanuts - silly!
Before the musical began, the artistic director (who of course has a blog) came out and explained what a preview entails, that the show is constantly being tweaked in response to audience feedback, and that they really appreciated our participation in the process. And then for only the third time, the show was presented! The music was fun and there were some great numbers; a few minor glitches were covered brilliantly by the actors (one almost cracked himself up when a pratfall off the stage almost became a real one). The cast was fabulous as well; Aaron Tveit (playing Frank, DiCaprio's character in the movie) had some showstoppers, and Tony-winning Norbert Leo Butz was hilarious as the obsessive FBI agent Hanratty. The audience loved it, and there was even an 'in' moment where Hanratty did a film noire bit and said "It was hot. Practically August hot," with a knowing look to the audience.
Curiously, I haven't been able to find any reviews of the show online; I'm not sure if the local papers are holding off on the moving target that a preview must be, or if a gag order is part of the preview process. But it runs for another week here, and then is off to Broadway. I recommend everyone check it out!
It's hot. Really hot. Driving home with the little man, my car's external temperature gauge measured 98 degrees today, and while it's generally pretty inaccurate, I saw similar numbers on the news and weather-related websites. My work even put out an e-mail advisory to turn off extra computers, unplug refrigerators, and still be prepared for buildings unable to sustain normal working temperatures. And this is just the start; tomorrow we may hit triple digits - yikes!
Readers in much of the rest of the country are probably flashing a big 'W' our direction, but you've got to understand that these temperatures are uncommon enough here that most homes don't have air conditioning. Thankfully we invested in portable units for both bedrooms, but the downstairs thermostat is still reading 86 at 9 pm, and Zachary's unit was working hard to hold at 78 earlier today (ours is meagerly struggling at 83; I hope it isn't about to break or something). At least it isn't too humid, but this is still pretty darn yucky.
All of this severe weather means two things: maximizing time indoors, and finding water activities when outside. Today we did both -- first we met visiting London friends N & S (and their sons J and R) at the excellent and never-before-explored Seattle Center Children's Museum. The place is enormous, and like other 'museums', boasted a wide array of vehicles, arts and crafts areas, and play areas. Meh's favorite was the grocery store, which had a dizzying array of canned and boxed goods, scanners, and about thirty kids pushing miniature shopping carts around. I liked the giant central 'forest' path/cave, which Zachary ran through several times before climbing into the camping tent at the center of the path area. Zachary also spent quite a bit of time behind the wheel of a livery-appropriate King County bus, as well as sitting in the back seat waiting for it to 'gooo!'.
We then walked outside to the giant Seattle Center fountain, which was on in full force; J had a wonderful time running around in it, and there were even a few synchronized musical numbers launching spray hundreds of feet up into the air, just to come crashing back down on the happily screaming kids. Finally, we all headed to the air conditioned confines of a new kaiten sushi place and enjoyed a lovely lunch together. It was so good to catch up, and it sounds like they're extending their visit to further enjoy Seattle - hope we get to see them again in the coming days!
When we got back this afternoon, it was water, shade, and indoor play with a fan going full blast. Here's how Zachary prefers to keep cool:
(not pictured: servants waving fans while feeding him grapes)
Meh and several of her friends are having a girls' weekend up in Victoria, so Zachary and I have been having our very own guys weekend here. Today was action-packed, with a grocery trip (which he talked and sang/screeched through), a walk to the park, a bit of play time at said park (with a chatty 5-year-old who was trying to get him to play with her, or at least move out of the way rather than trying to climb the slide she was sliding down), backyard playtime (where he helped me water mommy's flowers and herb garden -- of course it rained a few minutes after we finished), indoor reading time, and music listening/dancing time with friend J (who joined us for dinner while his wife S is also on the trip). A very full day for the little man, and he seemed to have fun - though every once in a while he'd look at me and say "mama", as if wondering where she was (Meh is convinced that he just thinks both she and I are named "mama").
We both do miss mommy very much, though we thankfully did get to video chat with her this morning from her hotel room. Well, Zachary mostly ran around rather than chatting, but did smile and wave when he sat down for his snack. Sounds like Meh's having a great time, but we're still looking forward to all being back together tomorrow evening!
Zachary had a new word yesterday! He's been signing "more" for multiple purposes (variably meaning: yes, maybe, help, switch to the next piece of music, clapping, go, itsy bitsy spider, and a few other things we can't quite decipher). Meh figured it might be time to try to help him start to differentiate a bit. So while he was in his favorite backyard swing, whenever it would come to rest, Meh started saying "go" and simultaneously signing 'go' to see if he could indicate that, rather than just 'more'. He skipped right past the sign, instead saying "go!". He did it several times during the swinging session, and repeated it for me later in the evening, when I asked if he'd had fun on the swing. And he said once more for me today when we went for a walk and I asked him if he wanted to play or keep strolling when we got to the park.
It's a girl! Congratulations to friends M and K on their new baby N!
One of Zachary's favorite (perhaps obsessively so) toys is the little magnetic toy radio attached to the fridge, with several "channels" of music, and multiple songs per channel. (Incidentally, I've seen this same radio at virtually every home I've visited - I think this might be "the" toy, moreso than legos, books, blocks, or anything Elmo-related.) After breakfast, the radio is often his first stop. And when he's got way too much energy, he'll run over to the radio, push the button to start the next song, run back to us to read perhaps a half page of his book, then run back over to select the next song before the previous one ends. It's like toddler "musical chairs" or something.
Anyway, he's had it playing the 'alphabet' station for quite some time (where he laughs and smiles when I announce the song name by rote, imitating the toy's announcer-like voice), and I was about ready for any kind of change from those same four songs, so I flipped the switch to the 'numbers' station. He ran back over, gave me a hard look, and flipped the channel back to the alphabet, before dashing back for more reading time with mommy!
Here you can hear and see the radio in the background while he quickly cycles through Mike Mulligan to get to his favorite page:
I think at the very end of the video he's turning to go feed the Fridge DJ another quarter...
Friends J & S had a lovely end-of-summer barbecue yesterday afternoon. Meh was working, so Zachary and I went together after his second nap of the day. He was a bit fussy when we arrived -- still waking up, a bit overwhelmed by all of the people, and as I found out later, busy, um, producing something at the time. So we headed past the amazing spread, out on their back elevated deck, and then down the stairs to their excellent now completed backyard. After a bit of clinginess, Zachary was happy to get down and run around like a madman. First he spent a bunch of time running around on the paved area directly under the deck, glancing back at me, smiling, stomping his feet, and collecting and brought daddy each of the many pine cones that he found. 
Then it was free range Zachary time. When he reached one particular tree, he touched it and then craned his head way back to smile up at the top of it. And when he found the wooden fence, he started leaning up against it in a super-cute way. A few other guests had brought their dogs; Zachary hadn't gotten to spend much time with pooches since last seeing Uncle Gus at grandma's house, and he learned that dogs make other sounds besides "ah ah":
Today's milestone: Zachary's first crying-free haircut! I took him back to the place we'd gone last time, and he was in an excellent mood beforehand. Two little girls were ahead of him, and I was nervous that mood would wear off by the time it was his turn, but he was satisfied to play with a giant basket of toys (first putting back the animal toys the girls had left out, then finding each and every car in the basket) and with a giant magnetic blackboard covered with colored letters and numbers. When we got to the haircut, he brought one die-cast car along, and I plopped him into a truck-shaped barber chair. He played with the wheel and buttons, but when the scissors started, I could see he was potentially ready to be unhappy. The stylist was way ahead of me, bringing over a giant tub of cars and trucks. The little man spent the rest of the haircut sorting through and playing with the wide variety of vehicles. There was even a Harold the Helicopter, which prompted Zachary to say one of my favorite new little man words: "ha ha". (He says this every time he sees Harold in one of his Thomas books.) Zachary was happily distracted through the whole cut, only occasionally raising a hand to try to grab the comb (succeeding once), and giggling a few times as the scissors and comb tickled the back of his neck. Such a good and cute little man, and now he's got a smart haircut in preparation for visiting bubbie, aunt I, and uncle S this weekend!
